Most students only know Assistant Network Manager Joe Marateo as a friendly face in the tech office. But this summer, Marateo stepped away from his baseball-adorned desk at WHS and onto one of the most iconic diamonds in the world: Yankee Stadium.

On Aug. 9, four umpires — dubbed “well-known Jersey guys” by YES Network Commentator Jack Curry — took the field to officiate the revival of the Yankees’ annual Old-Timers Day tradition. Standing among them was one of Westfield’s finest: our very own Joe Marateo.
Marateo was already honored as the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s 2025 Umpire of the Year, but he was still stunned when the Yankees called.

“At first I thought it was a prank,” he said. “But it was real. Next thing I knew, I was on the field calling outs and shaking hands with Joe Torre.”

Yankees Old-Timers days are a tradition dating back to the 1940s, when the first Hall-of-Famers returned to their uniforms after retirement.

This year’s game, the first since 2019, commemorated the 25th anniversary of the team’s 2000 World Series championship. The star-studded roster featured legendary Hall-of-Famers like Mariano Rivera and Joe Torre. For a lifelong Yankees fan like Marateo, it was the pinnacle of his umpiring career.

“I’ve always been a huge baseball fan,” he explained. “Walking onto that field — the same dirt my childhood heroes played on — was something I’ll take with me the rest of my life.”

“The event was top-notch. The grounds crew gave us high-fives, the players cheered us on,” he said. “It was such a surreal, ‘pinch-me’ moment.”

Marateo is back to being surrounded by cables and cords at WHS instead of pinstripes and Hall-of-Famers.

But when you see him in the halls, you should remember: Your tech manager once called balls and strikes for Yankee legends.