Coaching hall of fame to induct Kelley, 5 more

A little more than a year after retiring as head coach of the Bangor High School baseball team, Bob Kelley will be welcomed into the Maine Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Kelley is among six inductees who will be honored at the MBCA’s annual hall of fame dinner and induction ceremonies in Brunswick Saturday at the Atrium Hotel.

Joining Kelley are former University of Maine baseball coach and New York Yankees player personnel director Jack Butterfield, who will be inducted posthumously; longtime Rockland High School coach Bob Morrill; Al Card, a longtime high school and American Legion umpire as well as a baseball coach and teacher at Cony High School; University of Southern Maine head baseball coach and former Deering High coach Ed Flaherty, and Ruppert Johnson of Denmark.

This is the second class of inductees, bringing the list of Hall of Fame members to 17.

Kelley won eight state championships, 15 Eastern Maine titles, and 479 games during his 32-year career at Bangor. His career loss total was only 83 games, giving him an impressive .843 career winning percentage.

Flaherty led Deering of Portland to a baseball state title before moving on to head up USM’s program, which has won two NCAA Division III World Series titles under him.

Morrill coached the Rockland Tigers for most of his 40-year career.

Johnson, who played in the Atlanta Braves organization, started a wooden bat company, R.J. Johnson, which still supplies bats to minor league and major league baseball players.

The dinner will get under way at 6 p.m. with inductions starting at 7 p.m. Both events are open to the public and admission is $14 per person.