Bangor High coach Kelley heads list of Maine Baseball Hall inductees

YARMOUTH – Veazie resident Bob Kelley, who has coached the Bangor High School baseball team to eight state championships, leads a list of 10 men who will be inducted into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame in July.

Other 1999 inductees are Ralph “Chub” Clark, Steve Conley, Stanley Coulling, Bob Curry, Dave “Dusty” Drew, Ray Farnham, Frank Goodie, Ron Lemieux, and Carl “Gumbo” Wright.

A banquet and ceremony will be held on July 25 at the Holiday Inn By the Bay in Portland at 11:30 a.m.

Kelley has a 447-82 record in his 29 years coaching the Class A Rams. Under Kelley, Bangor has won 14 Eastern Maine titles and owned the state championship from 1994-97.

Clark, who is from Gardiner, was a second baseman at the University of Maine in the 1950s and played on several Fort Fairfield semi-pro teams in the New Brunswick League.

Winthrop’s Conley accumulated a 20-4 pitching record for UMaine in the 1970s, including a win in the College World Series. He led Deering High School of Portland to an 18-1 record and a state championship in 1972.

Stanley Coulling, now of Wheeling, W.Va., played for Belgrade High School and signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1941. He went on to a six-year career in the minors, eventually reaching the AAA level in the Pacific Coast League in 1949.

Curry, who is from South Portland, was a two-time All-Yankee Conference selection at UMaine and pitched for South Portland High School in the mid-1960s.

Standish’s Drew compiled a 206-143 record in 12 years as the University of Southern Maine coach. Under Drew, the Huskies of Gorham won five NAIA District 5 championships and advanced to the NAIA College World Series in 1985.

Farnham, of Bath, originated the high school playoff system during his tenure as the first full-time secretary of the Maine Principals’ Association. Farnham played baseball for then-Higgins Classical Institute in Charleston and Colby College in Waterville.

Frank Goodie, now of Sacramento, Calif., was a second baseman for Deering in the mid-1940s. He played for the University of Wyoming and played in three College World Series games in 1956.

Lemieux, of Cumberland, played high school baseball at Cheverus of Portland and went on to play at USM in the 1970s before coaching the Portland Babe Ruth All-Stars to 10 state titles and one New England championship in 11 years.

Skowhegan’s Wright pitched for Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield and Colby College in the 1940s. In 1950 he was chosen by a Brooklyn Dodger scout to manage and pitch for the Shelbourne, Nova Scotia, baseball team.

Tickets for the banquet and induction ceremony are $18 and can be obtained by calling Don Douglas at 846-3460, Dan Warren at 883-4167, or Sonny Noel at 799-4742.