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lows of what it is to be the police. Tonight is the high of highs — the fraternalism, the brotherhood, the sisterhood — of ev- erybody getting together, putting the job aside and just being human for a night and having a little fun,” Catanzara said.
The fun on the field started early for the Knights as Acevedo led off the bottom of the first with a rocket that the ISP third baseman couldn’t handle. CPD put two runs up in the frame to lead after an inning, but the Troopers rallied to go up 5-2 head- ing into the bottom of the third.
Two hit batters, a walk and a bloop two-run single by Tony Sanchez put the Knights
back in the game. A Todd
Shewchuk single drove in
his third and fourth runs of the game, which gave CPD a 6-5 advantage, but ISP im- mediately answered in the fourth to tie things up.
Pitchers on both sides,
apparently tired of the
emerging slugfest, put the
bats to sleep from that
point on. Knights batters struck out 11 times between the third and seventh innings. But Alex Soto’s one-man, two-out rally broke the deadlock in the sixth. After singling, Soto stole two bases and scored on an error to put CPD back in front for good.
Danny Cantu’s eighth-inning RBI single added an insurance run that provided Eddie Torres a bit more cushion to close out the 8-6 win. Torres struck out six in 5 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.
The postgame smiles among the victorious Knights were merely a continuation of the in-game fun CPD players enjoyed
from the dugout and with fans along the third baseline all night. Kids jammed to get close enough to seek out autographed baseballs and CPD Knights baseball cards — and players gladly signed those and many other items.
Acevedo offered a smile that doubled as a sigh of relief after the final out, knowing the Knights’ motivation to win was never in doubt.
“I told the guys before the game, we’re not playing for our- selves, we’re playing for our brothers and sisters who are not here. We’re playing for French. We’re playing for Yanez in the
hospital,” he stated. “That helped carry us through the ball game.”
The Knights, with a deep roster of 46 players, have only been around for three years. Their top priority is supporting the community through countless base- ball-related activities for kids, and they have worked at food pantries, donated
back-to-school supplies and supported youngsters across the city in a wide variety of ways.
“First and foremost, giving back to the communities, going back to the bare roots, going to the South Side, to the kids that don’t have the opportunities to get that one-on-one engage- ment with baseball players,” Cintron, a 14-year veteran, said. “And, to me, they get the best of our force. We’re not just base- ball players, we’re also police officers. So, all that negativity that police officers always had, now they get to see us in a different setting.”
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ SEPTEMBER 2021 55