Jun 4, 2026 By Rob Burchianti 6 min read

The Fayette County Baseball League celebrated its 50-year anniversary in 2025 and one of the dominant teams in its early years was Leckrone, which won eight championships in a span of 15 seasons from 1977 to 1991.

Leckrone won four consecutive titles from 1984 to 1987 and that team will be inducted into the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2026 on June 19.

One of Leckrone’s top players at that time, speedy, outstanding center fielder Dennis Santella, and its general manager, Jack Gearing, spoke recently about the team’s impending induction on Hall of Fame co-founder George Von Benko’s Sports Line Talk Show on WMBS Radio.

Santella wanted to give credit to previous teams before Leckrone’s run of four championships in the 1980s.

“I wish it could’ve been the whole unit from 1975 on,” Santella said. “Very appreciative of the honor.”

Gearing, a former player and coach for Leckrone before becoming the team’s GM, noted the many talented players who played in the Fayette County Baseball League.

“When we opened up in 1975 again I can remember Alex ‘Pickhandle’ Mercosky playing for Buffington,” Gearing said. “Over the years in County League baseball there were several ballplayers, Gilbert Joseph to mention one, Danny McDowell to mention another one, and then we also know about Doug Dascenzo and Terry Mulholland making it to the majors, but there were a lot of ballplayers in that era that went down to the minors and played single-A ball but they came back.

“I have an uncle by the name of Tom Gera, he pitched for the Pirates in the minor leagues. Southwestern Pennsylvania over the years, not only baseball but other sports, had some very, very good athletes that came through that era.”

Santella noted Leckrone’s wealth of talent.

“Our team in particular, very solid,” Santella said. “There was a writer from the Trib that called us a team of minor league proportions which was a compliment to us. Every one of us did something or played somewhere. We were all pretty good at what we did.

“We faced Terry Mulholland in a championship a little earlier than ’84. We faced (former Pirates left-handed pitcher) Chris Peters later down the road. Many guys I’m going to forget that we played against and they pitched in minor league ball or major league ball.”

Santella discussed the formation of Leckrone’s team.

“In the beginning it was pretty much local people, and a lot of guys came from Greene County, Carmichaels over to us,” Santella said. “It just materialized from there. After each year I would get with Jack and (manager) Arky Shaffer, look at our roster, see what we might need for the next year, and normally we would call West Virginia University, or (former Dodgers major league scout) Dominick Christy, he had a list of players that could help or needed summer ball and we would contact two or three, or three or four of those, and we would get them normally.

“Also the Legion program, we would go to Uniontown or wherever, Masontown, look for a player and nine times out of 10 we got him.”

West Virginia University coach Steve Harrick would even use the Fayette County Baseball League as a recruiting ground.

“Fayette County was loaded with ballplayers,” Gearing said, noting players such as Billy Marovic, Lefty Radosevich and Bruce Dal Canton, who was signed out of the FCBL and pitched in the major leagues for the Pirates.

Financing a FCBL team wasn’t easy as Gearing pointed out.

“We had a little bit of help from the Leckrone Rod & Gun Club,” Gearing said. “Other than that, it was myself and Charlie Langinfield and Bernie James that started this, and did everything ourself. We put tickets off, we had some fundraisers. That’s how we basically did that.”

Leckrone played its games at Leckrone Field.

“That was the field, I can remember my dad telling me about in the Robena years they used to play ball down there, the coal teams,” Gearing said. “The old Leckrone post office right up the road and the Leckrone cutlery store.

“The biggest support we ever had over the years was Leckrone’s band. They were the greatest. They went everywhere with us. No matter where we played.”

Santella was part of all of Leckrone’s teams in the early years.

“We go back to ’77-78, we won two years, then we had about a three-or-four-year lapse, almost folded up to be honest with you,” said Santella, who noted Leckrone finished as league runner-up twice in that span. “We were pretty good those two years also, 20-some wins and under 10 losses.”

Leckrone’s run of four straight championships began in 1984 when it finished with a 37-7 record and defeated Morgantown in the final. In 1985 Leckrone was 35-10 and beat Dearth in the final. The 1986 team was 37-9 and topped Fairmont in the final. The 1987 squad’s record was a sparkling 29-4 and it again beat Fairmont in the final.

“Take nothing away from Fairmont, they had a very, very good team,” Gearing said. “They had a lot of college ball players.”

Leckrone’s record during that run of titles was a combined 138-29 for an 82.6 winning percentage.

Leckrone would go on to win back-to-back titles in 1990 and 1991, giving them six in an eight-year span.

Santella cited some of Leckrone’s top players during its run of championships.

“I don’t want to overlook anybody, but myself all four years, Rudy Pokorny, John Spak, Mark Hozak, John Apicella, Jim Burns.”

Santella and Gearing agreed that Hozak was Leckrone’s pitching ace.

“Mark was 10-0 in 1984,” Santella said. “Ed Rayburg towards the end, he did very well also. And many others, Dave Perry, Larry Kumor.”

Leckrone also got players from other areas such as Brad Bowden from Belle Vernon.

“A lot of these guys wanted to come and play for Leckrone because they knew we had a great organization, we had a good manager in Arky Shaffer and good coaches,” Gearing said. “All kids want to play on a winning team.”

“We became pretty notable and people contacted us after a while,” Santella said. “And then some of our guys coached baseball, like Mark Edenfield. They were coaches at high school levels and brought players that way. We had a very good pipeline.”

Gearing and Santella pointed out the friendly nature of the competition at that time.

“Another thing when we played, a lot of the ballplayers supported each other,” Gearing said. “If you were down a little bit batting, they gave you an uplift and that all gelled together.”

Santella agreed.

“No jealousy,” Santella said, “all camaraderie.”

To purchase tickets for the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame luncheon/social or to register for the annual golf outing, both of which will take place on June 19 at Pleasant Valley Golf Club, contact Katie Propes by phone (724-460-9231) or email (katie.propes@bldr.com).