Mike Filippone Sets Marathon Batting World Record

At 4 a.m., he knew.

There was no chance he was giving up.

Mike Filippone took his last cut of the bat at 8 a.m. Sunday morning at Phelps Lane Park and with it earned himself a place in the record books: the Guinness Book of World Records to be exact.

The 52-year-old president of the North Babylon Youth League made it 15 and a half hours at the plate during his first attempt to set a world record for marathon baseball batting in 2009. Last year, he took cuts for 19 hours before calling it quits.

“I was just an overweight smoker that came out and just thought he could run right through it,” Filippone said of the first two attempts at the record.

Onlookers at Phelps Lane Park said the third time’s a charm. But it wasn’t luck that finally got Filippone to the 24-hour mark on Sunday morning.

Filippone, a former third baseman at Lindenhurst High School, quit smoking 10 months ago. He lost 25 pounds and trained three times a week at a Copiague gym.

“At first he started off a little sluggish,” said Frank Ceparano, Filippone’s trainer at CKO Kickboxing, of the latest record attempt, which began at 8 a.m. Saturday. “But as he went on and on, his stamina got better, his breathing got better and he was able to last.”

Filippone said his confidence grew around midnight as he counted down the hours until sunrise.

“I knew that would really help, just being light out,” he said.

As the crowd swelled to more than 100 and it became clear that Filippone, as tired as he looked, was going to reach the 24-hour threshold Guinness requires for endurance feats, Linda Gambardella, with tears in her eyes, took the mound at 7:59 a.m. to throw the final pitches.

Gambardella's husband and Filippone's friend and fellow baseball coach, Dan Gambardella, of North Babylon, was killed by a drunken driver on the Wantagh State Parkway while on his way to work in 2011. All monies raised this weekend, estimated at more than $7,000, are going to the Dan Gambardella Memorial Fund.

“It means a lot and it’s on Father’s Day,” Gambardella said of Filippone setting the record and honoring her husband, who left behind two children, including son Danny, who embraced Filippone on the mound with his mother moments after the final pitch. 

Filippone’s own father died last year.

“We wanted to make it mean something,” Filippone, a father of four himself, said of going for the record on Father’s Day.

As part of the fundraising efforts, community members had the chance to pitch a bucket of balls to Filippone for $20.

Nick Von Ohlen pitched to Filippone from 4 a.m.-7 a.m. Sunday. The 17-year-old pitcher for the North Babylon High School baseball team said he came out to help Filippone accomplish his goal.

“I had no doubt he was going to do it,” said Von Ohlen, a family friend of the Filippones and the son of former major league pitcher Dave Von Ohlen. “I knew he was going to be there 100 percent. He wasn’t going to give up at all. I could tell he was dedicated.”

When it was all over, Filippone said he felt great besides an aching back. A pair of EMTs took his blood pressure and taped up his bloodied and blistered hands. 

Filippone sat back in a chair and asked for a beer. A man ran to his car and brought back a cold Bud Light Platinum. Filippone lifted the bottle to the crowd, smiled and then took a well-deserved swig. 

Awake for more than a day, Filippone’s sense of humor was still firmly intact. Asked what he had planned for the rest of Sunday, he joked, “It’s Father’s Day so I have to cook, clean and do some laundry.”