Holy Cow…! I think it’s a wonderful thing that Scooter Rizzuto has Smoky Oval Park named after him…With the LIRR Morris Park train repair yard long gone from Atlantic Avenue, the name “Smoky Oval” simply no longer held any significance to the park…It’s a fitting tribute to an individual who many of us let into our homes while broadcasting Yankees baseball games for years and years, I grew up listening to Phil on the radio and television…I’m glad the old huckleberry from Richmond Hill High School will live on in our community in spirit…
If people in Queens have their way, one of the more peculiar names on the roster of city parks will soon be history. Smokey Oval Park, a cluster of ball fields and playgrounds in Richmond Hill, gets its name from deposits of soot and ash that passing trains used to dump on the area, according to the Parks Department. The ash heaps are long gone, but the name has lived on to baffle visitors to the neighborhood.
Now, Rory I. Lancman, the state assemblyman who represents the area, wants to change the park’s name to honor one of Richmond Hill’s most famous sons, Yankee great Phil Rizzuto. Mr. Rizzuto, who died in August, grew up in nearby Glendale but played high school baseball in Richmond Hill, which gives the neighborhood sufficient reason to honor the hall of famer. (There was some support for another former resident, Jack Kerouac, but Mr. Lancman said the beat writer could not compete with the shortstop.)
“There are certain things about Phil Rizzuto that makes it especially appropriate,” Mr. Lancman, following a news conference at the site this morning. “He embodied the spunk and decency of New Yorkers.”
Mr. Lancman is also bowing to the will of a large group of his constituents. Two of the city’s largest Sikh temples are located near the park, he said, and smoking is banned by the Sikh religion. He said delegates from the community approached him and asked to change the name.
“It sounds like a place for smoking and drinking and things like that,” said Raghbir Singh, one of the founders of one of the temples, the Makhan Shah Labana, and chairman of the 25th District’s Democratic club. “When we print up fliers, we have to say we are having an activity in nearby Smokey Park.”
Mr. Lancman said Community Board 9 has already unanimously endorsed switching the park’s name. This morning’s news conference, he said, was intended to persuade (“I don’t like to say pressure”) the Parks Department into confirming the switch.
The department responded with a statement saying that while no one has officially applied for a name change, it “would welcome the opportunity to review a proposal.”
