The Lehigh Valley Yankee Fan Club recently held its annual Christmas party, with the featured guests being members of the Yankees team from the Miracle League of Northampton County.
Santa made an appearance and gave the kids gifts, but as Chuck Frantz, president of the fan club, said, the true gifts were the smiles on the faces of the Miracle League players.
The Yankee Fan Club will be celebrating its 24th birthday in March, just in time for the 2026 baseball season. In addition to supporting the team in the Bronx with trips to home and road games and Yankee-oriented guests at the monthly meetings, the fan club has forged numerous relationships with community organizations and charities. None of those relationships is stronger than the one between the fan club and its Miracle League team.
The Miracle League began in 1997 with its national headquarters located in Conyers, Georgia. Since then, fields have been built across the country with the idea of allowing those with physical and intellectual disabilities to play baseball. Since most baseball fields were not built for kids in wheelchairs, walkers, and crutches in mind, the Miracle League has a special flat surface that allows the children to play the game just like any other kid.
The Christmas party is just an extension of the camaraderie, unity and joy that is created during the games.
“There’s no doubt about it that one of the best things we do is to give them presents every year, and it’s heartwarming to see the expressions on their faces and their family’s faces,” Frantz said. “We come together as one big family and celebrate. They look forward to it. We had a bigger venue this year, the Tri-Boro Sportsmen Club in Northampton, because we’re getting bigger.”
Frantz has been sponsoring a team in the Miracle League for a couple of decades, first at the Miracle League of the Lehigh Valley and since 2012 at the Northampton County facility.
“I love doing it and try to coach them like a big-league team,” he said. “We get in a huddle before the game and say ‘1, 2, 3, go!’ We have seasons in the spring and fall, and the players are with us all year long. Both seasons are about six weeks long. We have children playing who are about five years old, and then we have some young adults still playing into their 20s. It’s just a lot of fun. They always say they’re coming back, and I kid with them and say, ‘Well, you’re not under contract.’ We have fun with them, and you get so close to the kids and their families. You get to see them grow up and go from kids to young adults.”
Frantz said that in volunteering his time to be with the kids, the payback is the happiness the children get from playing a sport and giving it their best shot.
“That’s what it’s all about … seeing them try their best,” Frantz said. “And when we give them presents, it’s the same thing. They’re giving back to us, and they don’t even know it. I get a kick out of it. One year, one of the parents came up to me and thanked me with tears in her eyes. She thanked me and said that the gift we gave her child may have been the only gift the child would receive that Christmas. That sent chills through me. So, we’ve kept doing it for many years now.”
Frantz said he treats his Yankees’ Miracle League team the same as his own family, and his own family, including wife, Mary, and daughter, Shelly, feel the same way.
“We try to take them down to Yankee Stadium for a game each season, at least the ones who really love baseball and can go,” he said. “It makes you feel good to give back and be around them.”
One of the team’s coaches is John Lahutsky, who is an amazing story in his own right. In fact, his story has been told in a book and a documentary, and in other outlets.
Lahutsky was born in Russia in 1990, afflicted with cerebral palsy. He was abandoned by his mother and placed in the state child-care system and in an orphanage called Baby House 10. Later, he was confined to a mental asylum, but was adopted by Lehigh Valley resident Paula Lahutsky. Since being brought to the United States, he has flourished in becoming an honors student at Freedom, an Eagle scout with the Boys Scouts of America, and a Penn State-Lehigh Valley graduate.
Through Frantz and the Yankee Fan Club, Lahutsky has been honored by the Yankees more than once.
“John has become a great friend of the Fan Club and our family,” Frantz said. “He is another great inspiration to so many, and one of the reasons why we do the things to help others that we do.”
Did you know?
District 11 had an officiating crew work one of the PIAA football championship games at Cumberland Valley recently. The crew featuring Craig Mosser as referee, Mike Atiyeh as line judge, Mike Anglestein as head linesman, Lee Williams as line judge, George Gaiser as back judge, Josh Cesare as field judge and Jason Hartranft as side judge worked the 2A title game between Farrell and Southern Columbia.
Hall of Fame weekend
At least three schools are holding hall of fame ceremonies this weekend.
Before its boys basketball game against Wilson on Friday night, Southern Lehigh is inducting into its hall of fame 1978 graduate and former softball star Laura Trexler; 2008 graduate and soccer, basketball and tennis standout Joe Wagner; longtime tennis coach Andraea Drabenstott; and the 1988 field hockey team that finished second in the state.
Between games of an Allen-Dieruff girls-boys doubleheader, Dieruff will induct Ron Berta, Buddy Maxwell and Rich Sniscak into its athletic hall of fame.
Also at 2 p.m. Saturday in conjunction with its game against Whitehall, Allentown Central Catholic will induct former boys basketball coach Ron Hassler, former football standouts David Horton (2003), Jared Pitts (2011) and Matt Cohen (2006), former wrestling standout Michael Rogers (2013), and super fan Kevin Procopio into its Rockne Wall of Fame.
