Out of the Past
1968: A dearth of sandlot baseball! You might find this hard to believe, but it hasn’t been too long ago that there was a real dearth of sandlot baseball here in Fayette County.
A famine. A real ‘whaattttt?’ outlook. An empty feeling for the strong baseball diehards.
All through the years after World War II, through the 1950’s and into the early 60’s, there were baseball leagues going all over the area. The Big 10, the County League, the Fay-West with their multiple divisions. Or, as one observer once put it, “it seemed like every patch had its own team, and the competition was terrific.”
But not awayyyyy back there in 1968.
During this week away back then, there were only the American Legion and VFW Teener Baseball Leagues going, plus assorted Little and Pony Leagues and more softball teams than you could count.
One factor was still constant regardless of the times – the Pirates were still a flop. They had just lost their ninth in a row, 6-2 to the Cubs as Billy Williams hit a grand slam with two out in the seventh. This left the Bucs 40-46, in eighth place, 16 games back of the Cardinals.
The Fayette VFW Teener All-Stars were getting ready to begin state competition, with a best-of-3 set against Bedford County.
Clyde Fitzpatrick, manager of first place Connellsville, would manage the local Stars, with Joe Timcheck, Perryopolis, and Dick Lowe, Connellsville, as coaches.
The All-Stars roster included, from Connellsville, Ed O’Roark, Ron Conner, Dave Bigam, Bill Petko and Dennis Fitzpatrick.
Perryopolis – Curt Buttermore, Ron McCluskey, Scott Howser and Dan Kordich.
Point Marion – John Benedict and Virgil Casini.
Greensboro – Bob Clites and Rich Gashie.
Colonial – Gary Moore and Jack Stafire.
Fayette opened with a 6-3 win as Petko and Moore combined to work a 6-hit, 15-strikeout effort. Conner went 4-for-4, with two RBI, McCluskey hit a double and single, Buttermore two singles, and Gashie a double.
This was followed with a 5-4 win in eight to sweep the series with Gashie, Moore and Conner (WP) combining on the win. In the bottom of the eighth, Fitzpatrick walked, Conner singled, and McClusky walked to load the bases. Buttermore hit a roller to second, and the throw was home, but Fitzpatrick had a big jump at third and beat the force throw with the winning run.
The next opponent will be Blair County, in another best-of-three set, with the dates and times still to be announced by Commissioner Mike Kmetz of Fairchance.
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Elsewhere in area sports that week:
-Bob Locke (Redstone High grad) pitching for Hawaii, has a 6-4 record and a 2.23 earned run average through 14 games.
Bruce Dal Canton (California), has been sent down from the Pirates AAA club at Columbus, Ohio, to their AA team at York, Pa., in the Eastern League. At Columbus, Bruce worked 25 innings in 11 games, with a 3.25 ERA.
-Point Marion nipped Colonial, 7-6, in VFW Teener league play, led by John Benedict with three hits and Gary Kruper two. Greene had two for Colonial.
-Andy Adamik, Oliphant, got the biggest shot of his golfing career and the first “ace” of the year at Carmichaels Golf Club, when his 3-iron shot hit the cup on the No. 5 layout, witnessed by Bob Galida and Bill Kushner, Uniontown and John Bobby, Brownsville.
-Area players are having a fine season in the Shenandoah Valley Baseball League. Jan Withrow (Uniontown) has been moved from the infield to the outfield at Luray, while at Harrisonburg, John Radosevich (German Twp.) got the 7-5 relief win over New Market, working 5 1/3 innings, allowing one earned run and four hits. Teammate George Carlock (California State, Charleroi) singled in the clincher in a 3-2 win over Charlottesville. Vic Worry (Belle Vernon) was a member of the North Division pitching staff in the league All-Star game.
-In Legion League play, Connellsville got its 11th win in 14 games, 10-4 over Masontown, and kept its 1-game lead over Republic. Ron Marciante pitched a 4-hitter and socked a home run and single in his own behalf. Mark Foreman led the offense with a homer and two triples, and Rich Wolinski and Bob Bailor had a double and single each. Tom Pavlovich had two Masontown hits.
-OF Fred Norton and IF Rich Wolinski, of the Connellsville team, have been picked to play in the American Legion East-West game at Harrisburg. (These all-star prospects are supposed to be scouted and then picked by major league baseball scouts, but you have to wonder about their “scouting” when they passed on Bob Bailor, who would go on to play 10-years plus in the majors).
-RB Ron White (Redstone, and Brownsville after the merger) will attend Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, Ohio.
-Harold Stickel, Bound Brook, N.J., son of former Uniontown residents Mr. and Mrs. Maynard Stickel, set three high jump records and finished second in the state, his best leap being 6-3 3/8. He will attend Central Connecticut State.
-In Legion Baseball, Republic edged Point Marion, 2-1, led by Ed Gmutza with a double and two singles, and Joe Mazurek two hits. Taylor had two for PM.
Smeal doubled in two runs in the fourth to give Brownsville the lead for good, on the way to a 5-1 win over Colonial.
-The Fao Brothers of Connellsville swept honors in the final weekly race of the Connellsville Homing Pigeon Club. Gigi, from John Fao’s Loft, won the 500-mile race from Clarksville, Tenn., in 8 hours, 47 minutes, her fifth win of the year. Excelsior, from the Joe Fao Loft, was second in 8:49, and loftmate The Mudder was third in 8:50.
-Connellsville and Republic were scheduled to meet in a first place battle in the Legion League, but the game was rained out. However, two games escaped the rain. Tom Hamer (3B, 1B) and Mike Smith (2B, 1B) led Colonial to a 4-3 win over Perryopolis. Rich Rebottini had a double and two singles for Perry.
Bob Radosevich worked a 2-hitter and socked a double and two singles, as Masontown bombed Point Marion, 10-2. John Markatan, Tom Pavelovich, and Jim Dotson homered for the winners.
-Former Waynesburg College football and basketball coach Dr. Roy A. (Katy) Easterday was named “Elk of the Year” by the Lodge in Odessa, Texas, where he now resides.
-Republic split two with Colonial and stayed on the heels of Connellsville in the American Legion League title race. Lou Piccolomini and Rupenthal combined on a 4-hit 9-2 win, the former also hitting a double and single. Joe Mazurek, Congelio and Holloman also hit doubles.
Ralph Rice pitched the 6-2 win for Colonial, backed by Gary Bochna and Bernie Zuchelkowski (2B) with two hits, Bob Softcheck a home run, and D. Mariotti a double.
-Don LeJohn (California) is managing second place Tri-City in the Northwest League, a farm team of the LA Dodgers.
-And the Bucs made it 10 skids in a row, losing 2-1 to the Cubs on Ferguson Jenkins’ single in the 10th. Sound familiar?
Jim Kriek is a Herald-Standard sports correspondent.