Mayor Bill de Blasio and Sen. Chuck Schumer announced Monday that construction on the $5.5 million Joseph A. Verdino Jr. baseball field will begin after being on hold for the last year.  NY1's Lisa Voyticki reports.  

Five-year old Joseph is named after his uncle, Joseph Verdino Junior.  

In two years, he will be old enough to play in the South Shore Little League, with spectators watching from the Joseph A. Verdino Jr. Grandstand. 

"We show him pictures all the time," said Robin Verdino, mother of Joseph Verdino, Jr. 

Joseph Jr. died in 2007 at ten years old.  The passionate little leaguer died in his sleep after battling viral encephalitis, a virus that causes brain inflammation.  

His parents started the Joseph Anthony Verdino Junior Field of Dreams Foundation that same year.

The mission was to build a state-of- the-art baseball stadium for the South Shore Little League.

On Monday, a decade later, that dream came true.

"Now we get to do something in his name and announce the Joseph A Verdino, Jr. Grandstand will be open this next spring," said Mayor Bill de Blasio, outside the fenced in field in Tottenville.

The grandstand will seat 275 people, and include a press box and recessed dugouts for home and away players.  

The Little League stopped using the field last year to make way for a new one, but permit problems held up construction.

Last month, parents complained to U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer when he attended the Little League's Opening Day ceremony, and he called the Mayor.

 "I said you've got to bring agency heads together, knock heads, and get this done" said Schumer.

Nearly 700 kids make up the little league.  With the new field, they'll be able to practice more, expand the program, and even host tournaments.

"Baseball is not an easy sport and the kids need that help," John Iorio, President of the South Shore Little League.  "When you don't have an extra field to practice or play games on it's very hard."

And who better to serve as an example of hard work,  than a young boy who loved baseball so much, his parents say his glove never left his side.

"Not having my son with me is very very difficult i carry him with me every day but to know he'll be remembered by everyone in the sport that he loved so much and his name will be here," said Robin Verdino.  "He loved South Shore Little League, it's an honor."

A field of dreams that will become reality by this time next year.​