Three young men from the Glen Cove Junior Baseball League qualified to compete in the Team Championship round of the Fleer Major League Baseball Diamond Skills Competition at Shea Stadium on Saturday, June 12, after stellar performances at the competition's sectional rounds held in late May.

In the 11/12 age bracket, Anthony Bellock and Brian Martone qualified for the Team Championship after winning their age brackets at sections in Baldwin and Cambria Heights, Queens, and in the 13/14 age bracket the big man, Donnie Daniels, captured the All-Around Championship at Baldwin.

At Shea Stadium, the three were competing against other "top four" scorers in sectional competitions in the Major League Baseball market, which included players from all over New York State, as well as players from Connecticut and New Jersey.

Bellock, Daniels and Martone all scored very well in the competition; Bellock and Martone came in second and third places respectively, while Daniels' big hitting earned him the 13/14-year-old championship. Each participant received their plaque on the field at Shea before the start of the Mets game versus the Red Sox, and the group posed for a picture with New York Mets Coach Mookie Wilson.

Then, the wait was on to see if Daniels would qualify for the National Finals, to be held at the 1999 All-Star game in Boston.

Last week, Daniels received a phone call from Fleer that his score placed him 11th in the country and thus did not qualify him to travel to Boston. However, 11th place is quite an achievement, as there are 30 major league baseball markets in the country!

Glen Cove Mayor Tom Suozzi, the Glen Cove Dept. of Parks & Recreation and the Glen Cove Junior Baseball and Softball League congratulate all three young men on their outstanding achievement.