From Hitter
to Hoops
Ben Gamble’s biggest home run took him to BHS’s basketball court
1970s, had guided St. Anthony to a handful of NJSIAA state championships. “I didn’t even know who he was,” Gamble said. But Hurley knew who Gamble was.
Greenville Guys Story and photos by Jim Hague
T
hough he’s enjoyed a successful career in basketball, Ben Gamble seemed destined for baseball. Gamble, recently named head boys’ basketball coach at Bayonne High School, was well on his way to becoming a baseball star. He was a standout in Jersey City’s Greenville National Little League. From age eight through 12, Gamble was one of the best players in a talent-packed roster. “I was confident in baseball,” Gamble said. “I thought it was my future.” Gamble played for the Greenville All-Star team that won the District 7 championship and went to the state championships. In one season, Gamble hit an astounding 12 home runs, including four in one game, three of which were grand slams.
30 • BLP ~ FALL | WINTER 2020/21
“People kept telling me that I had potential to be a professional baseball player,” Gamble said. In sixth grade at P.S. 38, all that changed.
Good Question “I met a guy named Pat McCarthy, and in gym class, he asked me if I played basketball,” Gamble said. He then started playing Catholic Youth Organization basketball for Our Lady of Mercy. He first attended high school at St. Mary’s of Jersey City, where the head baseball coach was the immortal Ed “The Faa” Ford, who would later become a professional baseball scout. “St. Mary’s had a great baseball program,” Gamble said “I figured I could go there and play baseball and basketball.” Meanwhile, Gamble learned who’d officiated his CYO basketball games: Legendary coach Bob Hurley who, by the late
Hurley lived in the Greenville section and had his finger on the basketball pulse of the neighborhood. Hurley stopped by the Gamble household when Ben was in eighth grade and told him about all the neighborhood kids who were going to play basketball at St. Anthony. “I knew Jarrett [King], Phil [Robinson], and Felix Rivera were all going to St. Anthony,” Gamble said. “I thought maybe I had a chance to go to college for free.” “I could see that Ben’s passion was for basketball,” Hurley said. Gamble played baseball and basketball at St. Anthony, playing on two of Hurley’s NJSIAA Parochial C state championship teams. “I was still being recruited for baseball,” Gamble said. “Coach [Mike] Sheppard wanted me at Seton Hall. St. Peter’s wanted me. But I decided to go to Walsh College in Canton, Ohio.”
