LL tourneys spark fond memories

All this Little League and Senior League baseball action triggers a lot of memories for this old coach.

I wasn’t much of a baseball player, but truth be known, it is the one sport I’ve followed the closest since the late 1950s.

I grew up behind the diamond on Washington Street in Brewer, and following an extended stay at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in 1961 – I was in fifth grade at the time – I began my slow, but steady recovery on that little field.

I struck up quite a routine of sprinting the base paths, tossing balls in the air, throwing them up high and trying desperately to hit one out of the well-manicured park just like my more athletic friends did during their regular season.

You see, poor health turned me into a kid who set his sights early in life on coaching.

It was those games in the late 1950s and the early 1960s, which molded me into the profession I served for 34 years.

Neighborhood pickup contests included some pretty serious future stars such as Ricky Franks, Peanut Tardiff, and Billy Gallant, to name a few.

In fact, the 1959 Brewer Little League All-Star team, comprised of players who were a few years older than we were, advanced all the way to the New England championship game in Manchester, N.H., losing a heartbreaking contest to a Barre, Vt., squad in the New England finals. That’s right. Next stop would’ve been the Little League World Series.

Names off that roster have been equally prominent in professional circles. Jerry Goss, longtime principal of Brewer High School, Ronnie Bailey, a successful dentist, and Mike Hatch, a recently retired high school teacher and coach from Central High School in Corinth, top a list of prominent men, who cut their competitive teeth – sorry, Dr. Bailey, no pun intended – on the base paths of sundry fields in the Brewer area.

The spirit of volunteerism is no greater than it is in youth sports where hundreds of adults give of themselves each spring and summer to mold their charges into young men. A tip of the wool cap is in order for them, too, today.

How I loved all this Little League stuff.

It was a great thrill for me to round up some of the aforementioned “kids” and play ball in my backyard. Little did I know it at the time, but a coaching career was spawned in all those sandlot games.

My mother was a real trooper back then, for it was not unusual for me to save my pennies and purchase a bunch of cheap baseball hats, then ask her to sew felt letters on them for our “team.”

We were something right out of the “Our Gang” series, but I’m guessing those makeshift caps were the very first ones we wore before our pre-Little League days in farm league.

I remember when that 1959 Little League All-Star team made its mark in the community, for the championship rounds were broadcast on local radio, and the tough final loss saw the whole area backing the team.

I was always envious of those boys wearing their snappy wool suits and riding their bikes by my house.

I ached when I saw those guys, but I was bound and determined to turn my affection for all those games into a coaching career, even then.

30-Second Time Out

Another tip of the hat here today to the staff and crew at the Mansfield Complex in Bangor, who hosted the Senior League World Series.

I was especially impressed with the yeoman-like service turned in by WZON, AM 620 radio of Bangor, which broadcast all those games live and on the internet. That, in and of itself, is quite a chore.

We are indeed fortunate in an area of our size to have such a plethora of sports coverage.

The Sports Zone has grown by leaps and bounds. Those of us who follow everything from high school sports to professional baseball rely heavily on this very solid product.

BDN columnist Ron Brown, a retired high school basketball coach, can be reached at bdnsports@bangordailynews.net