Posts Tagged baseball

      Legendary baseball Coach Bill Spellman’s 1962 Lincoln High School squad won the WPIAL Championship. those pictured above were: first row, from the left, Bill Pratt, Randy Chesko, Toy Laitinen, Trippy Blythe, and John Pratt; Second row, Jim Bucac, Pat White, Bob Latino, Bob Poholsky, and Alex Herman; third row, Tom Webster, Gary Docchio, Bruce Smith, Jim Birtalan, and Ralph Bognosky; fourth row, Mike Tomeo, Bill Smeltz, Joe Listorti, Ernie Funari, and  Jim Filippone; back row, Coach Bill Spellman, manager Bill Lively, manager Bob Lordo, Charles Belonzi, and John Matrangol.

The Little League Baseball league started in 1950 with six teams, but it was the Moose Lodge sponsored team that won the very first Little League Championship.
      On the 1950 team were, first row from left to right, Jim Navolio, Bob Koach, Rocco Manzo, Ron Hughes, Mike Nocera, and Mario Morini. Second row: Ron Mazzano, Ray Foley, Bob Mallory, Joe Cioffi, and Jim Tammaro. Third row; Dick Gordon (scorekeeper), Walt Feerst, Frank Rocco, “Grundy” Volpe, Dick Friedhoff (manager), and “Skippy” Friedhoff (bat boy).

In 1953, the US Steel national newsletter, US Steel News, honored the men in Ellwood City that worked long days at US Steel and still volunteered their time in the evenings and on weekends for Ellwood City youth baseball leagues. This photograph of the team managers and umpires of National Tube made the cover of the January 1953 newsletter.

    Pictured from left to right in the first row include R.P. Friedoff, N.J. Pack (president of the Little League), J.P. Smith, Charles R. Hall, Nick Perry, and Frank Volpe. Second Row: Paul Reinheimer, Walter Feerst, Robert Mohrbacher, Erwin Campbell, and Charles Maggi Third Row: Thomas Hughes, Wayne Baird (President of the Knee-Hi League), William Frazier, Carl Meise, Merle Means, Chester Shaffer, and E.J. Corrigan.
Other men associated with the various leagues but unable to attend the photograph session included John Matrongol, Wilbert Covert, George Thornhill, Louis Oliastro, George Patterson, Albert Ruhe, and Elwain Richards.
A special thank you goes to Pudue LaCava for taking the time to send us this photogaph – Thank you.

    In 1900, Alexander Twentier of Evans City started a restaurant in a building on Lawrence Avenue between 7th & 8th Streets. Three years later, along with Lewis Marburger, he built a new building on the site and started into the hotel business. The hotel had thirty rooms and was known as the Grand Central Hotel until 1915 when it became McDowells Hotel.

The hotel garnered national prominence when Bob Boone’s book Hack was released. The first chapter of the book describes Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Hack Wilson’s life in Ellwood City. It is mentioned many times that Hack’s father was in Twentier’s. Today, the first floor of the former hotel is Big Dawgs Bar & Grille.

Originally Published January 21, 2009

      I recently attended an engagement where the speaker spoke on Ellwood City Area Athletics. Most of the presentation centered on baseball and football but the topic of basketball stirred up some conversation. It was suggested that Joedy Gardner was the most valuable basketball player in Ellwood City history. The speaker conceited that he may not have been the greatest in Ellwood’s history, though he was great, but the most valuable. He credited Gardner with changing the way the other schools around the area viewed Ellwood City Basketball.
A number of people have shared with us how good Joedy was, so if he wasn’t the greatest in Ellwood City history, who was? I guess that comes down to how old the person you are asking is.
Ellwoodians that are around the century mark remember players like Dip McDaniel, Merit Book, and Sing MacDonald as phenomenal players. Dip has been credited with getting people in Ellwood interested in basketball during his games at the Shelby clubhouse as these men played before Ellwood City even had a high school team. As a matter of fact, for the first fifty years of Ellwood’s existence, Dip was widely regarded as the greatest athlete to come out of our tube making town.
      Then that was about the time Joedy Gardner hit the scene. As mentioned above Joedy turned the tide for Ellwood from consecutive losing seasons to an actual contender. He starred at Lincoln from 1951 to 54 before playing on nationally ranked teams at West Virginia University.
      Dan Aloi is probably the other great basketball player to be mentioned in this conversation. Having ended his career in Ellwood with a number of records including single game scoring record, single season scoring record, and the career scoring record. He was also named to the National High School Boys Basketball All-American team in 1987.
However, if the conversation is about the greatest basketball player in Ellwood City history, you have to include Anne Malkowiak who graduated as the all time leading scorer in Beaver County, all time leading scorer in Lawrence county, the first boy or girl to score 2,000 points for Ellwood, and the all time leading scorer for Lincoln High School.
It is a tricky conversation to have as there are a number of reasons why it is difficult to compare these great players to each other. Not to mention whenever the conversations start to get heated, someone throws in the legendary Don Hennon whose 2,376* career points at Wampum from 1951-55 stood as the WPIAL record for 38 years (I added the asterisks because Don earned his points without the benefit of a three point line). As many of you know, the Wampum school district closed and is now part of Ellwood City and Mohawk so he might deserve to be added to this conversation. How good was Don, consider this, the 1958 he was selected for the Associated Press All-American team, along with future NBA stars Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, and Guy Roger.
      By default, if you are going to include Dr. Hennon in this conversation, I guess I feel inclined to also add Sean Miller to the mix. True he played his high school ball for his dad’s teams at Blackhawk High School, but he was born and raised in Ellwood City before moving to Blackhawk for his varsity years.
Okay, there you have it, who did I forget? I am sure you will point out great players I forgot like Joe Dougherty but I assure you it was not intentional. I am just going off of previous conversations/arguments I have had or overheard. Please feel free to correct me below or email me at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      If you stop for a second and ask yourself what was the most dominant high school sports team in Ellwood City history, what comes to mind? Perhaps it was the 1925 football team considered by many as the best football team to come from the area. Or perhaps you thought of one of the other teams from Ellwood to win the WPIAL in their sport including the 2005 Boys Cross Country team, the 1942 Football team, the 2000 Girls Track and Field team, the 2008 Girls Softball team, or a number of Baseball teams including the 1945, 1962, 1968, and the 2001 teams.
      The 2003 Baseball team won the WPIAL & the State PIAA Championship as did the 1930 Track and Field team. However, when you hear dominant, you think not just one great year, but a number of years like the Girls Cross Country teams that won the 1992 and 1993 Class AA WPIAL and PIAA Champions.
Though they never won the PIAA State Championship, one Lincoln High School sports team dominated the WPIAL year after year after year. The Boys Gymnastics team coached by the legendary Mr. Ansell produced nine consecutive W.P.I.A.L. championships, eight consecutive A.A.U. championships and despite not winning the state championship, his teams had two third place finishes at the P.I.A.A. meets and in 1951 they came in second place at the P.I.A.A. State Finals.
 
    
Having won so many WPIAL championships in a row like they did is a testimony to how good the TEAM was and their success was not the result of any one or two particular players. However, these teams did produce some phenomenal athletes. I got these pictures from various Ellwood City Yearbooks. The pictures include Joe Barbati in the middle of a flip during his thrilling floor routine, a perfect lever exhibition by F. DeNome, a giant roll on the parallel bars by F. Wallace, hand stand by Mark Jamison, a hand stand on the rings by team captain Roland Stone, and State champion rope climber Leo Minotti displaying his perfect form that he used to pull himself up the 20 foot rope in 4.0 seconds to repeat as State Champion.

    
  These men were just a small handful of the spectacular student athletes that competed for Coach Ansell. We would all enjoy hearing from any of those that competed on one of these championship teams or just remembers these teams. Please share your memories of Mr. Ansell or the Ellwood City Gymnastics Team by leaving your memories in the comments section below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

          I was talking to a young man that is in the fifth grade about what he thought about going to Hartman “Intermediate School” this year instead of North Side Elementary as he did last year. His biggest complaint was the different playgrounds. I agreed, there was a big difference, but I told him “Back in my day…”, you know, etc. etc.
I have never been on Perry’s Elementary school’s playground but have heard from former students that claim it was the largest recess area of all the schools. I will have to take their word for it as I said I have never seen it, but I have heard of the big field behind the former Wayne Elementary School that also had two playgrounds. Another school with an exceptionally large recess area was the former Walnut Ridge Elementary school as its yard was bigger than the school itself. As a kid, I remember having little league baseball practice there and we would not even come close to disturbing anyone who was playing on the playground at the time.

I was also fortunate enough to attend the old North Side Elementary school when the yard was located where the current school stands. The field behind the school was big enough to have a game of kickball going on at one end and a game of football at the other end. The flat field was big enough that when you were down at the other end, it felt like you were no longer even at school. All of a sudden you were just out playing with friends in a field.

The yard at Ewing Park Elementary School at one time had a slide and swing set, but little else except grass. Kickball and tag were the more common games played at recess. From what I have heard, another popular game at Ewing Park School was “chase the ball across the road”.

Then we get to Hartman Elementary School. Not the fancy state of the art one that stands today, but I am talking about the original one that had coat rooms, old wooden creaky floors and eight foot wooden heavy doors. That school had a unique playground to say the least. It had a very big metal swing set, metal slides, eight foot high metal monkey bars, a big metal jungle gym; all on blacktop. Ahh, just what every kid wants, to have recess in a parking lot. At least the modern school today has a grassy area, it’s only 8 foot by 8 foot, but there is grass. Today, Holy Redeemer is the only school where the children scrape knees and elbows and occasionally rip a pair of pants playing on blacktop. At least the playground equipment at Holy Redeemer is not bent and crooked from cars backing into them as was usually the case at Hartman.

We have heard from a couple of you about the playground at the former North Side School, but we would like to hear your memories. Please share your memories of recess in Ellwood below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      Fifty years later, we remember the 1951 Ellwood City Moose Lodge Little League Baseball Champions. Those pictured here in their Converse All-Stars include in the front row from left. Sam Pistachio, Jim Beatrice, Terry Macioge, Skip Friedhoff, Joey Sheeler, unknown, unknown, and Tom Butler. Second row from the left, Todd Heinz, unknown, Nick Frisk, Ron Mazzano, Ron Hughes, Jim Navolio, Bob Butler, and Jim Barry. The coaches pictured in the back row include Walter Feerst, Dick Freidhoff, and Grundy Volpe.
      If you know those that we have marked as “unknown”, please let us know so we can adjust accordingly. Also, if you remember this team or the players, we would love to here your memories. Please share in the comments section below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      I was flipping through a stack of old Ellwood City Ledgers that someone had let me borrow a couple of weeks ago and came to an article where they made a big deal about a certain Ellwood City baseball standout that was coming to the end of his career as a Wolverine and in his last days, hit a towering home run that not only cleared the fence but actually landed on the roof of the school. Of course this was in the days when the field was beside Lincoln High School, which a few of you might remember.    
      The way the article was written, it made the homerun seem to be a Babe Ruth-ian type of homerun that was typically reserved for movies like “The Natural”. Of course after reading this, I thought to myself that this would make a great History’s Mystery. The only problem I thought of at the time was that everyone would remember a spectacular homerun like this.
      I posted the question in the History’s Mystery section of Ellwood City Memories and it turns out, I had another problem. The home run was indeed a Herculean fete, but not that uncommon. I heard from a number of you including Bob Mallary who guessed Al Miller and Don Tindall who guessed Rich Potter. The article in the Ledger was about the drive off of the bat of Jesse Brown, but like I said, he was not alone. Jim Hockenberry, who grew up around the school remembers playing sandlot ball on the field a lot and also recalls that Mary Ann (Corigan) Caputo would easily hit baseballs onto the roof from home plate. Not only could she do it easily, but she did it regularly.
      If you know of anyone else that hit a drive onto the roof of the school from the old field, please share your memories below or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com

      Once upon a time Ellwood City hosted a Sunday school baseball league here in town. The 1922 league champions was the pictured Immanuel Reformed Church team. Members included seated from the left third baseman Fred Sanders, second baseman Frank “Grundy” Volpe, and batboy John Sanders. Standing from the left is local baseball legend and team manager Connie Wardman. Left fielder Mike Cirelli, Pitchers Frank Falconie and Paul McConahy, First base Erwin “Nummy” Campbell, Centerfielder Edward Krupa, Right fielder Dave Mariani, and church pastor Rev. Schaffer. Ray Daellenbach is missing from the picture to go fishing.

            Can you remember all the way back to Friday June 17th 2011. That is the day that the Riverside Panthers boys baseball team won the schools third State Title in the 2011 PIAA Class AA Baseball Playoffs. After trailing 2-1, the Panthers fought back and won the title 5-2 on shortstop Ryan Finnegan’s three run “in the park” homerun.
      Congratulations goes out to the Riverside players, coaches, and entire school for their third title in six years. The Panthers also won the PIAA Class AA titles in 2005 and 2006.

      The 1995 Lincoln Hich School Wolverine Baseball Team from Ellwood City were crowned Section 10-AAA CHAMPIONS and WPIAL Quarter Finalists.  
      Pictured above front row, from left: bat boys, Santino Riccio, Mike Sharek, Jason Hazen, Steve Kimmel, Darin Sharek, Dave Ottavio, Kyle Blazin, Joey Bartolomeo, Kevin Ricciuti and Ryan Sulia. Second row, from left: Brad Welsh, Mike Pelloni, Joe Nardone, Curt Dominelli, Rody Polojac, Eric Meyer, Justin Zona and Sam Pelloni. Third row, from left: Ronnie Morrow, John Frisk, Blake Schilling, Larry Pasquale, Tom Nulph, Mike Hall, Ron Harper, Ryan Sudano and B. J. Boyle. Fourth row, from left: Ed Casciato, Kevin Stiles, Nick DeSanzo, Craig Radvansky, Mark Gardner, B. J. Guy, Matt Barberio and Joe Battaglia. Fifth row, from left: B. J. Neghiu, Ryan Venezie, Matt Haydo, Jeff Hall, Ron Walker, Adam Wehman, Neil Blazin and Corey Best. Sixth row, from left: Head Coach Jeff Fotia, Assistant Coaches Joe Ricciuti and Bill Baker; Players Eric Slevin, Travis Loccisano and Pat Wehman; and Dave Blazin, Vic Sharek and Vince Riccio. Some people were missing when the photo was taken.