Dear Editor: As is often the case, a small mention of someone of note shows up in a back page of a publication. In the Feb. 7 issue of The Tablet was a mention of a once well-known baseball coach being honored by the N.Y.S. Hall of Fame. His name is Joe Austin, once one of the highest regarded men in local baseball.

Anyone who lived on Long Island in the 1930s and ’40s knew of Joe Austin. He got his start at St. Monica parish, Jamaica, and became so well known that there was a baseball league named for him. I was a parishioner at St. Monica from 1924 to the early ’40s, and although I didn’t actually play ball with him, I, like everyone else there and around, knew of Joe Austin. He did a great thing for St. Monica’s, for Jamaica and for Long Island. He well deserves this recognition given him.

FRANK CUSACK

Cobble Hill