Today, we still have coaches in the program who coached him, and now, we have some of his former 12U teammates coaching in the program.  All we ever need to hear is “Blaine”… you immediately think of him… and his smile… his unforgettable smile.

 

Rob Rooney

 

When his coaches weren't looking, Blaine Molaro would take his teammates' Gatorade and mix it into a concoction he called "Blainorade."  During pitching drills, when the other players were making a throwing motion with a towel, Blaine would recoil his with a snap. After games when the pizzas arrived, the 12-year-old with the constant smile could down a whole pie. "He was one of those kids who would drive you nuts, but then you'd turn around and start laughing," said Tom Wivinis, who coached Blaine in his last baseball game last week. "He just had a great personality."

 

The Downers Grove youth was killed and his father injured June 16 in a two-vehicle collision. The driver of the other vehicle was charged with drunken driving and reckless homicide.

 

Friends gathered Monday night to commemorate Blaine's life at the Downers Grove ballfield where the boy often played. Players in his league have stitched a patch with his name and number, 33, on their uniforms and put pins on their hats.

 

At a short ceremony between two games Monday, a plaque was placed on the backstop of one of the fields. It reads, "Laugh, smile, play on," the message his mother gave Blaine's friends after he died.  "He was a wonderful kid," said Blaine's great-aunt Barbara Uniek of Oak Park. "He got along with everybody. He could socialize with a group of 60-year-old women as well as a group of 12-year-old kids."

 

After Blaine had played a Father's Day Longshots doubleheader in Sycamore on June 16, he and his dad, Mark, began driving home on Illinois Highway 64 in their Jeep Cherokee.  Investigators say a van swerved into their lane and struck the Molaro Jeep head-on.

 

Mark Molaro was airlifted to Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, where he remained for five days before returning home the morning of his son's wake Friday. Blaine died at the scene.

"It's a real heartbreaking thing," said Clint Hull, a prosecutor with the DeKalb County state's attorney's office.

 

Hull said he has driven past the site of the crash several times in the last week. A makeshift memorial was erected, with friends placing baseballs, stickers, a poem and a Buzz Lightyear action doll at the base of a cross.

 

Blaine had just completed 6th grade and was to enter middle school in the fall. Friends and relatives say he doted on his 3-year-old sister. He played basketball and skateboarded and loved practical jokes.

 

Baseball, his great-aunt said, was in his blood. Mark Molaro's godfather was Frank Howard, the former Los Angeles Dodger and Washington Senators slugger. Mark Molaro helped coach some of his son's teams, including the town's All-Star team, of which Blaine was a member.

 

Games were canceled for two days after the accident but resumed last week.  The memorial service Monday night gave his teammates and friends a chance to grieve.  "He always made you smile, and he always made you laugh," said Doug Roselieb, whose son, Wesley, was on Blaine's team.  Wivinis, Blaine's coach, said the team has had difficulty dealing with the loss.  "They're not going to be the same," he said. "Blaine just made a difference in their lives. They're going to remember him forever."