Whiz Kid: Bobby Barbaro

seventh grader Bobby Barbaro is certain about at least two things, he loves baseball and he hates the New York Giants.

Sitting in his living room in his family’s home on Burpee Road last week, Bobby, in his Rob Gronkowski jersey, said the Pats are going to win next Sunday, and he’s game for a game of baseball any time of year.

The 12-year-old suited up for the Brewers the past two seasons in the Swampscott Little League. The Brew Crew lost to the Phillies in the championship round in 2010, and lost to the eventual champs the Dodgers last season.

Bobby plays winter baseball at the SportsPlex facility on Route 1 in Danvers while he’s waiting for the upcoming Little League season.

“I like playing indoors and I like playing outdoors, I just want to play,” Barbaro said.

Bobby plays several infield positions, second base, third base, shortstop and he pitches; he’ll make the jump to the majors this season, his last in the little league program before moving up to the big ball fields.

“I started playing when I was five, when we lived in Nahant, my favorite memory from baseball is my first outfield hit that I got when I was seven,” Bobby said. “I hit the ball and it landed in the outfield, when I hit it all I could think of was getting a double, but it was a single.

Barbaro participated in youth basketball while the family lived in Nahant, but he stopped playing to focus on hardball and playing on the diamond.

Barbaro is a member of the Recycling Club at the Middle School, joining that club after the Dodge Ball Club’s season ended last year.

“My friend Cody Enos told me about it, and I joined, it’s fun,” Barbaro said.

“Every Thursday we go around the school with our giant recycling bins for over an hour and we collect plastic bottles, cans, paper and cardboard,” Bobby said.  

Eighth grade science teacher Bill Andrake is in charge of Barbaro and his fellow recycling enthusiasts.

“Mr. Andrake is great, I’m looking forward to having him for science next year,” Barbaro said. “He has a lot of nicknames for me like muskrat, Batman and guerilla warfare.”

Bobby’s favorite class at SMS is math, the toughest one is English, he’s a whiz with numbers but words and writing essays are a little tougher than mathematics.

The Barbaro’s moved to Swampscott from Nahant in 2008, and Bobby spent one year at the , the family lives across the street from Machon School, but Machon closed before the Barbaro’s moved to town.

Bobby lives with his mom and dad, his older brother Scott, older sister Kelly and Lilly the Boston terrier.  Scott is a junior at North Shore Tech; Kelly attends North Shore Community College, and hopes to work with animals, possibly as a veterinarian, after she graduates.

“The best thing about the Middle School is all the after school activities,” Bobby said.

In addition to the Dodge Ball club and the Recycling Club, Bobby worked on putting together working robots in the school’s Robotics Club.

“I had a lot of friends in Nahant, but I’ve made so many more living in Swampscott, like Luke Marshall and Jake McIntire,” Bobby said.

“It’s fun to participate in school activities,” Bobby said.  “The most fun I have is playing baseball, any time of year, baseball is such a fun game to play, I always want to play.”

If you have a child who deserves to be a Swampscott Patch Whiz Kid, please e-mail your nomination to scot@prologue.com.