Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Mayhem Baseball program — which started out as a single travel team for a group of Bellmore and Merrick friends — has grown into a regional youth baseball organization with more than 300 players, a 9,000-square-foot training facility and a mission to strengthen the sport in its hometown.
Brian Mann and Brendan Kalkau founded Mayhem Baseball in 2019 and expanded the organization from one 8U team to 19 baseball teams, three softball teams and players representing more than 25 communities across Long Island and New York City. Yet despite its growth, the organization's owners agreed that Bellmore remains at the center of its identity.
"We still want to keep our roots in the Bellmore and Merrick area," Mann, whose children attend John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore, said. "Beyond the organization being successful and competing outside of the local community, it's very important to us that we strengthen baseball within Merrick-Bellmore — not only for the kids who play for Mayhem Baseball, but for the kids who don't."
Mann and Kalkau said they never intended to build a large baseball organization when they first assembled a travel team for their sons and their friends.
"When me and Brian met each other, actually coaching Little League, our boys played against each other," Kalkau said. "We didn't really have much offered in our neighborhood for kids to play travel baseball, so we decided to start our first team. It was literally just for our kids and really just their friends."
Interest quickly spread, additional age groups formed, and by 2020, the organization had grown to eight teams. As more families from outside Bellmore and Merrick began attending tryouts, the founders realized the program had outgrown its original identity.
"We started seeing kids from outside our town," Kalkau said. "At that time, we were like, 'Obviously we're making a name for ourselves.' We probably had about 15 different towns represented, so calling ourselves Merrick Mayhem didn't really make sense anymore."
The organization eventually rebranded as Mayhem Baseball, reflecting a roster that now includes players from communities throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties, as well as Queens.
A major turning point came in January 2025 when Mayhem opened its training facility on Merrick Road in Bellmore after years of renting space at multiple locations.
The facility features eight batting and pitching tunnels, HitTrax technology, pitching machines and year-round instruction through Max Effort Training. In addition to serving Mayhem teams, the building is open to the public for rentals, lessons, clinics and camps.
"It's very rewarding to watch us strengthen baseball as a whole in the local community that we're a part of," Mann said.
Several local high school programs, including Kennedy, Calhoun, Mepham, Seaford, Syosset and Holy Trinity, have also used the facility for offseason and preseason training, according to the organization.
While Mayhem continues to draw many younger players from Bellmore and Merrick, its older teams have shifted toward attracting talent from across Long Island.
"Our goal has never been to simply build the best team from one town," Mann said. "We wanted to compete with organizations around Long Island and throughout the region."
That philosophy has paid dividends for Mayhem's 13U team, coached by Mann. The squad, which includes players from multiple school districts, recently improved its record to 45-7 after advancing to the semifinals of a national tournament in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
"I just want to get across how proud I am of that team," Mann said. "Watching them play against some of the best players in New England, it was probably the best game I've ever been a part of."
Looking ahead, Mayhem plans to expand to the 16U level while continuing to develop pathways for athletes interested in playing college baseball.
For Kalkau, however, the organization's greatest accomplishment isn't measured by championships or expansion.
"We went from being just a town team of friends from one Little League that wanted to play more baseball and get better," he said, "to now providing kids with a place they can call home, professional instruction and opportunities that we never imagined when we first started."
