By Tim Parry

This is a controversy?

You drive down Riverside Lane in the Riverside section of Greenwich, and you hope to get a look at the infamous Wiffle Ball field that was built by a bunch of local kids.

Blink, and you’ll miss it. The Wiffle Ball field is nestled behind a home being built at 96, and an angry neighbor at 100. From the road, you can’t hear much activity. And you can barely see the Wiffle Ball field, which is accessed by a small strip of land behind 96 and 100.

But it didn’t stop me from dropping by after work today.

The kids on the field stopped when they saw me walk up.

“Press,” I said. “Where you from?” one asked me matter-of-factly, since just about every media outlet imaginable had stopped by.

“Eyewitness News was here today,” said another kid, not even fazed by the media attention to the little piece of town-owned land in Greenwich.

It’s a makeshift stadium, to say the least. The kids playing told me they cleared out the brush, built the walls, and have taken ownership. They say the neighbors claim they are drinking and doing drugs at the field, but there’s no evidence of that. At least at 7 p.m. on July 14.

Just kids wanting to go out and play. Just like their parents did to pass their summers away.

There’s evidence that the kids are picking up after themselves. The “K” board is propped up by a 32-gallon garbage can, and the trash is removed nightly.

And the neighbor at 100 must know that. The kids say he keeps looking out, he even calls the cops a few times a day. While I was there, he was having a security camera installed - one that points right at the field.

Maybe he’s a closet fan?

“He was all for it, he wanted to play with us when we started off,” one kid said. “His wife wasn’t a fan though. That’s probably why he doesn’t want us here.”

This is a story that has caught national attention, pretty much for the silliness. NIMBYs keeping kids off public property because they’re having some harmless fun. Sure, they should have asked for permission to build the field first, but it’s not like they’re using it as a crack den.

And they seem to have the support of random strangers, too. One woman came out with her two young kids, just to check it out before she and her family moved away from Greenwich.

Other residents stopped by just to check out the action. National media attention will do that.

The kids aren’t doing any harm. Let them play Wiffle Ball, Greenwich.

How many adults did this kind of stuff as a kid: Find a vacant lot, claim it as your turf, and play ball all day. Or, worse - like me, they just played ball in an elderly widow’s neighbor’s yard until she threatened to call the cops.

Some teens in Greenwich did just that - they recently converted a town-owned plot of land and made it their own Wiffle Ball sandlot. They built it, and the kids are coming to play.

But the Riverside Lane neighbord aren’t too thrilled. They want their field of dreams, complete with a 12-foot high Fenway-esque Green Monster in left field, taken down, and the kids to scram.

And the neighbors have the right to do that. The plot of land is not designated as a park, and it’s not not the kids’ property to build on. Back in the days of The Little Rascals, or even Fat Albert, kids could get away with building club houses on public property and get away with it.

So now we have the question: Should the kids have to rip down something that they built on someone else’s property? Well, if I added on to my house without going to Planning and Zoning, the City of Bridgeport would make me tear my work down.

And if the Town of Greenwich lets the field stand, will it spawn a town on regional Wiffle league with stadiums build on vacant lots all around? Who knows?

I can understand the neighbors being upset - you have a quiet neighborhood, and suddenly it’s swarmed with kids and cars. But these kids could be doing a lot worse things this summer, don;t you think?

Creativity and exercise has been replaced by the X-box and the Wii (OK, you get some fitness with the Wii). So I think it’s great that these kids are doing what they are doing. Nut I also think they’re learning an important civics lesson through all this: Get permission and go through the proper channels before you start a project.

And the civics lessons have begun. One of the teens involved, recent Greenwich graduate John Agostino tells me there’s a meeting Tuesday night at the Cos Cob Fire Department. The public may attend the 7 p.m. meeting.

Haven’t seen live rugby? It’s becoming much more common in Fairfield County, with several high schools now offering it as a club sport. And if there’s a match to watch this weekend, it very well could be Sunday, 1:30 p.m., at Central Middle School in Greenwich.
The Cardinals will be playing its annual season showdown with rival Xavier High School of Manhattan. For the past three years, Greenwich and Xavier have been the Northeastern United States representatives at the U.S. Rugby High School Tournament. Last year Greenwich went two for three in
Tier B and finished 13th in the nation. Xavier went undefeated in three games and finished as Tier B champs and ninth in the nation.

This year’s showdown should be a monumental collision. Both teams have players on the U.S. National team. Both teams are undefeated, even after leaving the country to get rugby lessons.

Greenwich traveled to Argentina during April vacation looking for a game and went two for two, beating the best club in Argentina along the way. Xavier went to Ireland for two weeks and defeated four clubs in two weeks.

Greenwich’s players on the National team include Paul Jarvis and Chris Rosa.

For more information on rugby, check out this local link: http://metnyrfu.org/MetUnionRugby/HighSchool/highschools.htm

And for a link to the Greenwich Rugby page: http://www.greenwichrugby.com/

With its first pick in the sixth round (187th overall) of the 2008 NFL Draft, the Minnesota Vikings have selected John Sullivan of Greenwich.

The situation is ideal for Sullivan, as the only center on Minnesota’s roster is 10th year veteran Matt Birk. The Vikings will most likely have Sullivan learn from Birk, who may soon be retiring.

More to come on this developing story, including analysis and interviews.

Starting with:

Sullivan’s post-draft conference call.

And Vikings head coach Brad Childress’s post-draft press conference.

Thirty of Fairfield County’s finest football-playing scholar-athletes were honored April 10 by the Ralph DeSantis chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame. Also honored at the dinner at Continental Manor in Norwalk were the head and assistant coaches of the year in the SWC and FCIAC, as well as two officials of the year.

Three players received $500 scholarships to be used towards their college education as well: William Bass (Bassick), Richard Holmes (Danbury), and Chris Payne (Wilton).

Wilton’s Tim Eagen was introduced as the FCIAC’s coach of the year by his mentor, Tom Fujitani, who he served under as an assistant coach for several years, and thanked his assistant coaches and the Warriors’ booster club for its efforts in helping to build a top-notch program. Ridgefield’s Kevin Callahan introduced one of his former players, New Fairfield’s Andy Buchsbaum, as the SWC’s coach of the year.

Carl Cairo (Greenwich) and John Pereira (Pomperaug) received their league’s respective assistant coach of the year awards.

The scholar-athletes honered were:

• William Bass, Bassick
• Nick Verderosa, Bethel
• Chris Green, Brien McMahon
• Kenneth Cobb, Bridgeport Central
• Steven Moss, Brookfield
• Jeffrey Farrell, Bunnell
• Greg Passineau, Canterbury
• Richard Holmes, Danbury
• George Rhein, Darien
• Matthew O’Laughlin, Fairfield Ludlowe
• Thomas Marx Jr., Fairfield Warde
• Jonathan Meyers, Greenwich
• Scott Hickling, Joel Barlow
• Victor Ciancetta, Masuk
• Chris Lemoine, New Canaan
• Patrick Cassidy, New Fairfield
• Jonathan Henion, New Milford
• Eric Puffer, Newtown
• Cyprian Oyomba, Norwalk
• Patrick Purrell, Notre Dame-Fairfield
• Stephen Barton, Pomperaug
• Tyler Strittmatter, Ridgefield
• Michael Dinihanien, St. Joseph
• Jason Zins, Staples
• Justin Shumyhora, Stratford
• John O’Leary, Trinity Catholic
• Jameson Cherilus, Trumbull
• John Midy, Westhill
• Dylan Hannum, Weston
• Chris Payne, Wilton

Also honored were a few unsung heroes of the game, the referees. Without them, of course, the games wouldn’t count in the standings. Bob Seirup, who has been working with the Fairfield County Football Association for 54 seasons, was honored as its official of the year. Bill Vasutro was the Colonial Football Association’s honoree.

I’ve been on ice skates once, as a 4th grader who had sprained his ankle twice in the prior year. Needless to say, I refused to let my father let go of me that day on a frozen Mill River in Fairfield, and that pair of Caldor skates lay useless in my parent’s basement forever.

My floor hockey career ended as a sophomore in high school when I jumped in front of Kevin Arrix, a sophomore on the New Canaan varsity, to block a shot and ended up with something like 30 stitches above my right eye. (Kevin apologizes to this day, even though I take the blame)

But you don’t have to own a stick or know how to skate to understand that FCIAC teams cannot compete at the CIAC Division I level. Read the full story