It was the “Rumble in the Bronx” at the Throggs Neck Little League fields as the NYPD Blue Chips softball teams from the 48/45 and 43 precincts dueled it out for the Softball Championship on June 28.
Sixty-four teams citywide and 637 players played in the regular season, and ten teams -two from each borough-competed in the playoffs. According to NYPD Officer Darnell Gatling, one of the co-creators of the NYPD Blue Chips program, the playoffs were very intense and competitive.
“You can see from last year to this year, the level of talent was through the roof,” Gatling said. “Throughout the city, we have so much talent.”
NYPD Blue Chips, a year-round youth mentoring program, bridges the gap between police and young people and, besides mentoring, offers an array of sports activities like baseball, basketball, soccer, and golf.
“For us looking at it, it’s giving a lot of these kids an opportunity to play,” Gatling said. “Baseball, which is, you know, pretty expensive, and city kids don’t get an opportunity to play at a high level like this. Seeing the excitement in their faces makes everything [worthwhile].”
Both teams headed into the playoffs with a stellar 6-0 record and paved the way to the championship after winning three playoff games, respectively.
At the bottom of the 7th Inning, the 48/45 Precinct was leading by 6-5. After a tying score, 43 Precinct second-baseman Jehmal Palle hit a dramatic walk-off, securing his team’s championship.
Bronx native and pitcher Janice Hernandez was awarded the coveted MVP trophy. Gatling explained that the 17-year-old, who pitched the entire game and had eight strikeouts, “showed ultimate toughness when the game got intense.”
Hernandez has been playing softball for three years and joined the NYPD Blue Chips softball team after playing on their volleyball team.
Hernandez didn’t expect to become the game’s MVP.
“I didn’t think I was gonna get it,” Hernandez said. “I was nervous, and I was messing up a lot. But my team had my back.”
Jehmal Palle has played baseball since he was seven. Palle jokingly pointed out that the MVP award should have gone to him for hitting the game-deciding walk-off.
“That trophy should have [gone] to me,” Palle, who just graduated from high school, said but wasn’t bitter about it “cuz we won.”
NYPD youth programs like Blue Chips develop a positive relationship between the police and young people, keeping them off the streets and out of gangs.
Since its inception in 2021, Blue Chips has worked with over 4,000 young people citywide. The program was the brainchild of now-retired NYPD Lt. Michael Almonte and NYPD P.O. Darnell Gatling and is managed by the NYPD Community Affairs Bureau.
Gatling now runs the program with his partner NYPD P.O. Bryant with the support of countless police officers who dedicate their free time to coaching and mentoring young people between 12 and 17.
Gatling said he receives emails from teachers and parents praising the positive effect the program has had on their children.
He explained that some of the basketball teams are also going to be coached by probation officers.
“Because I truly believe it takes a village,” Gatling said. “We all have the same mindset. So we’re gonna work with probation, working with sanitation. We’re just trying to give these kids different outlets and options.”
Gatling said the program’s most significant achievement is to get kids away from their usual environment. One youngster told Gatling that he realized if he was around a certain group of kids, “trouble finds him.”
“I told him, ‘Let’s change the circle you’re in, and let’s see if trouble still finds you,'” Gatling shared. “And it won’t when you’re playing sports; when you’re with kids who are like-minded, who want to get better, and who want to go to college, and it’s infectious.”
Young people interested in signing up with Blue Chips can contact bluechips@nypd.org or head over to their local precinct.
