New York, June 1, 2022— Peter T. King, the former New York Congressman who represented the South Shore Long Island district for almost 30 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, has been named to the advisory board of Save the Game™ www.savethegameus.com, the grass roots effort designed to align with Major League Baseball to encourage youth participation in baseball and “Grow the Game.” 

King will be joined on the advisory board by five additional charter members: youth sports authority, Rick Wolff, the host of the “Sports Edge” on WFAN Radio, a publisher, and former minor league player and college coach; Mike Port, the former Major League executive with the Red Sox, Angels and Padres, and former MLB director of umpires; Queens native and Suffolk Sports Hall of Famer Fred Cambria, a former big league pitcher and instructor; the longtime Chicago Cubs scout, Brooklyn native and NYS Baseball Hall of Famer Billy Blitzer; and girls softball coach and Trumbull Little League (CT.) executive board member Jeff Dobrydney, a senior vice president at JSG Commodities in Norwalk.

King, the respected elected official and former Chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security,  is a New York native, and an ardent New York Mets fan since the team’s inception. 

The announcement was made today by Save The Game™ founders – former college baseball standouts and New York natives Kevin Gallagher and Pat Geoghegan and former MLB infielder, nine-year veteran Jeff Frey.

“Baseball is part of the very fabric of our country, so anything I can do to enhance the game is important to me,” said King. “Save The Game™ is a significant grass roots effort to encourage young boys and girls to play, and move baseball back to the faster pace of a bygone era, which I greatly enjoyed throughout my youth.”

About Save the Game

SAVE THE GAME ™ is a grass roots initiative to invigorate Major League Baseball and increase youth participation in the game; the initiative was launched in January by author Kevin Gallagher (Pace University) and Pat Geoghegan (Mercy College). Gallagher’s book, “Teach Your Kid to Hit … So they Don’t Quit,” was the genesis of the “Save the Game” ™ movement. The hope is that the initiative will ensure the revitalization of the game toward a healthy business future. The nine-year veteran

p. 2, Peter King named to Save the Game Advisory Board

former big leaguer Jeff Frye (Rangers, Red Sox, Rockies, Blue Jays) has helped to spearhead the effort from the outset.

The initiative started with a one million signature petition-for-change effort to gain momentum toward a National movement, while grabbing the attention of MLB executives on a league and team level.  Visit www.savethegameus.com for more information and to sign the petition.

Simply stated, Gallagher, Frye and Geoghegan contend that MLB has lost its entertainment value because of its reliance on the power swing and little action between home runs. America’s youth is not engaged with MLB because the game has become too slow for this generation. Without the next generation’s involvement, MLB’s customer base will be diminished and baseball could lose its relevance and becomes a niche sport.

SAVE THE GAME ™ group wants to align with MLB on issues it has raised and problems already recognized in a grassroots effort to Grow the Game.

Some of the focuses of SAVE THE GAME ™ include:

·       Give a Voice to the American baseball fan.

·       increasing youth participation in baseball with instruction from the book, and aligning with MLB to partner on the message.

·       reaching out to the RBI Foundations of each team (Revive Baseball in Inner Cities) to provide support and tools to help kids play the game

·       developing an app for parents which will provide a process to teaching kids, so they enjoy the game

·       Creating new fans.

The hope is to revive baseball by bringing it back to its quicker pace of bygone years. The strategy, beginning with a player’s swing in youth baseball, includes: contact hitting and keeping the ball in play instead of swinging for the fences to increase action, thus making the game more entertaining; and by engaging younger fans and instructing younger players on the art of the game from Little League to High School to College.

Gallagher gives this example of the current “All or Nothing” approach: “There are only 2.46 home runs hit per game. In a three-hour game, you’re only getting a home run every hour. In between home runs is what is killing baseball. There is no action. We have to restore the game to the way it was historically played.”