87 Years and Counting, Sports Shop Has the Goods

October 20, 2009

FRANK’S SPORT SHOP, LOCATED AT 430 E. TREMONT AVE. NEAR PARK AVENUE, HAS BEEN A NEIGHBORHOOD INSTITUTION SINCE 1922. (Photo: Erica Soto)

FRANK’S SPORT SHOP, LOCATED AT 430 E. TREMONT AVE. NEAR PARK AVENUE, HAS BEEN A NEIGHBORHOOD INSTITUTION SINCE 1922. (Photo: Erica Soto)

Owner Moe Stein will tell you that after 87 years of business, people still come from all over to get the goods at Frank’s Sport Shop.

Upon entering, there are baseball caps, fishing rods and bows and arrows at the front, jackets and jerseys in the center, and hunting equipment in the back.  A flight of stairs near the entrance leads to the basement, which houses baseball equipment, a variety of cleats, and cargo pants, among other things.

“This ain’t typical Bronx merchandise,” says Stein, as he folded T-shirts, made phone calls, and took questions from this reporter one recent evening.

Stein has been owner of the East Tremont Avenue store for the last 40 years. He’s in his 70s but won’t give an exact age, saying the year he was born “is between me, my God, and my insurance company.” 

Stein took over the store from his father, Frank, for whom Frank’s is named.  It was during World War I that Stein the elder began trekking up to the Bronx from his home in Manhattan, to scout for suitable rental spaces.   

Shopping for paintball camouflage, transit worker Juan Martinez has visited before, and likes the variety at Frank’s. “It’s the only place you find stuff that nobody else sells,” says Martinez, who commuted from the Lower East Side.

People come from all over the tri-state area, Stein says. He remembers a customer called from Connecticut asking if it was safe enough for him to visit the store, and Moe replied: “I’ve been to your area of Connecticut and it ain’t that great.” 

MOE STEIN, OWNER OF FRANK’S SPORT SHOP (Photo: Alma Watkins)

MOE STEIN, OWNER OF FRANK’S SPORT SHOP (Photo: Alma Watkins)

Stein grew up in the neighborhood and still lives there. It used to be Italian and Jewish, he says, and that the demographics always change, but the customers are always like family.

Employees like it there too. Alfred De Leon, 47, has been a manager at the store for 22 years.  “All the accessories you need in life are here,” he says, standing among baseball bats and rows of neatly stacked pants.

De Leon gets calls from all over the world—Russia, Spain, and the Dominican Republic to name a few countries—for items that can’t be found anywhere else.

Looking around the shop, there really isn’t anything you can’t find.  Need to shoot some hoops? They’ve got basketballs.  Want to shoot some paintballs? They’ve got camouflage.  Going to shoot some deer?  They’ve got guns and ammunition. 

Majestic Athletic and Louisville Slugger are among the brands they carry, which have helped reel in the pros. Baseball stars Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano, and even boxing legend Mohammed Ali, have all have popped in to Frank’s at one time or another.

When asked how sales are during the recession, Stein would only say that they were holding up, with a “successful Internet business.”

He says he works about 65 to 70 hours a week and never thinks about retiring. “I’m not smart enough to know what to do if I stopped working,” he says. 

Stein keeps his family close – his daughter runs a screen-printing shop upstairs in the same building – and enjoys working with his staff of 25. 

“Without good people, you don’t have a business. You got nothing,” he says.

By ERICA SOTO

Ed. Note: Frank’s Sport Shop is located at 430 E. Tremont Ave. For information, call (718) 299-9628 or visit www.frankssports.com.

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