Sports In My Time
I remember playing baseball with my brothers at the Nameaug schoolyard. We used old baseballs wound with sticky black tape and discarded broken baseball bats held together with screws and nails and wound with sticky black tape. Sometimes you would go home with sticky black stuff on your hands.
The schoolyard was just dirt that was rocky and had some of the coal ash residue, from the school, in it. Most of the time there were no bases except stuff like a piece of cardboard. Near second base a good size rock stuck up about four inches at a funny angle. A ball hit onto the angled face of it would carom upward, a threat to a fielder's face and teeth.
There was an old wooden backstop with chicken wire starting about four feet up and with wings toward first an third base. The fading green backstop was painted in the Summer by Ed (Mr.) Collins or Charley (Mr.) Cuppello or Rich (Mr.) Roy. I like the memory of the faded bleached green paint
The kids that played at Nameaug were the kids that went to school there, all neighborhood kids that I knew. Rarely were eighteen kids found to field two teams. Sometimes games were played with two outfielders on a side. If ten or twelve kids showed up to play we would play one-a-cat, two-a-cat, or something else made up. One-a-cat required one batter to make it to first base and back to home without being put out. Two-a-cat had two successive batters attempting to get to first and back. Sometimes,rarely, only two bases were used, first and third.
Schoolyards, in those days, and like now, had no real upkeep. In the Summer, when the schoolyards had recreation directors, lime would be put down, in the early morning, for a batter's box and foul lines.
In the Summer a few games would be played between rival schoolyard teams.
On Warren Street, way at the end,you could make your way to a barely playable ball field. Bushes and woods were very close. Joe Virga hit a ball out into the woods and lost the ball, ending a no decision game.
Kids football games were a sometimes thing. Kids had very little equipment. I remember a football game taking place at a dilapidated tennis court complex on Colman Street. The courts area was just level dirt and remnants of rotted nets. The whole thing was surrounded with high broken and rusting chickenwire fencing.
Tom and Jack Edwards had the best football gear. I think their helmets were army tank crew helmets. They had shoulder pads, rib pads, and pants with thigh pads!
Footballs had an odd shape and were held together with shoelaces. A few football games between the Jefferson Avenue kids and the Grand Street kids were played on the Edwards' lawn in front of their house on Grand Street. Mrs. Edwards would sit in a front window and act as timer. The Jefferson Avenue kids were always suspect about the timing.
At first I was more of a watcher than a player of basketball. I saw games at the YMCA and at Ocean Beach.
I started playing basketball in my backyard. My Dad made a couple of basketball hoops and attached one on the telephone pole that held the clothesline. The other hoop he attached to a backboard mounted on the barn/garage roof. The distance between the hoops was about fourty feet. the playing surface was packed dirt that was trampled down by playing on it.
I wore a padded facemask to protect my glasses when playing basketball. The padding went across my forehead and around my cheeks. I looked out through my glasses behind a protective steel grill. It was held on by one elastic strap around the back of my head connected to the sides of the mask. Another strap went from the top of the front of the mask, above my nose,over the top of my head, connecting to the other strap. It looked weird but it did the job. I wore that mask whenever I played. Without my glasses I was blind as a bat.
My brothers, Ray and Ned, and I spent a lot of time playing basketball in the backyard. With three more kids we could have a pretty good game of 3-on-3 that would last until we were tired or until so many points had been scored. Games were played in all kinds of weather.
As I became taller I fought for the rebounds more. In games at the schoolyard I could hold my own in rebounding.
When I was in 8th grade I played on the classroom intermural team. Those games were a bit dangerous. They were played outside on a more or less regulation court with a blacktop surface. It was possible to get cut up pretty bad if you fell. You could get hurt if you accidentally ran into a backboard support. The games were fast and the kids were tough.
At Nameaug School there was a small outdoor basketball court behind the school. It was a dirt court. Early basketballs were leather, had laces, and were ruined playing outdoors. When the sun was right some of the court was shaded and drew a lot of activity. Games would be played half court or full court with unusual numbers of players. In the evenings games would be played because there was a light bulb under a large metal and porcelain shield hanging on that side of the school. The games were played in semi-darkness.
The YMCA was the best place for kids activities. It had clubs of various kinds, pool tables, table tennis, a swimming pool, a non-regulation basketball court with a banked running track above it, a weight room, a six lane bowling alley, lounge areas and rental rooms.
Jack Bernstein and Mort Weingarten were popular leaders with the kids at the Y. Jack was a good swimmer and basketball foul shooter. His brother Arnold was champ foul shooter. Mort did gymnastics. The basketball court at the Y could be set up for kick ball, badmitton or volleyball.
Kids bought appropriate uniforms, athletic supporters (always good for a laugh) and "sneaks" (probably Keds). Street clothes were put into a narrow steel vented locker. The locker key could be stuffed in your sock or worn on your wrist by its stretchy red cloth covered elastic band. If you wanted to swim you got naked, took a shower, stepped into a deep tray of liquid containing disinfectant then went into the pool area. No Running !! Don't forget your towel.
The pool and surrounding area was tiled; the place was warm and humid and filled with yells and shrieks of laughing naked boys as they dove, swam, played and cannonballed into the pool.
Now and then there would be boys basketball games in the Methodist Church gymnasium. I don't know why it was called that. It was really part of the church basement. It was the strangest court to play on. It had a very high ceiling and it was seriously non-regulation. The court was so short the the end lines ran up the walls about six feet and had a real half court line and two "accommodation" half court lines. A basketball could be thrown against the wall, below he painted line, and played on the rebound. There was only about three feet between the sideline and the wall. Heating in the Methodist gym was a sometime thing.
I recall playing in a game there that had an unpredictable outcome. The game was against Quaker Hill. Quaker Hill provided the referee ! It was the Quaker Hill coach ! Quaker Hill lost !
The Methodist gym is gone. The church was razed. It was on the site of the new courthouse on "Courthouse Square", near the library.
There were two boys basketball city leagues at Bulkeley School and boys basketball leagues at the YMCA. There was a mens basketball league at the Armory, near the Elks Club, that was later moved to Ocean Beach.
Some of my oldest friendships, other than neighborhood kids, are with those that played in the basketball leagues.
The kids basketball teams were Hodges Square kids, Nathan Hale kids, St. Mary's kids, like that.
The rivalry games that were most looked forward to were those between local high schools Bulkeley and Tech (Bulkeley School and Chapman Tech.). The highschool baseball and football games were played at Mercer Field. The basketball games were played at the Bulkeley School gym at at the YMCA.
The banked running track above the gym floor at the YMCA was used by observers. heaven help the player trapped with the ball in a corner under the track ! only a few hundred could see a game at the YMCA. Scores were 34-28, 45- 41, something like that. It was a slow, possession, tactics, set offense, style game. They were real wars.
Besides the schoolyard baseball and softball leagues there were a boys baseball league at Calkins Park and a mens baseball league at Morgan Park (now Veterans Field, to some).
I was the official scorer at Calkins Park for a couple of years, scoring the games played by boys I knew. When each game was over I wrote a synopsis of the game and handed it in, along with the box score, to the Sports Department at the Day. I inherited the scorers job from my neighbor and lifelong friend Joe Machado. I went to the games with him and learned how to score. I scored basketball games too.
I recall that Fred Ames had a curveball that broke about a foot. The Malone brothers were always fun to watch. Walt was the catcher and Jack was the pitcher. The big question was who was in charge.
Lefty Bryden was a class pitcher. I think he pitched AA ball. He pitched a few games in the Morgan League. He threw a two hitter, a one hitter, and a no hitter one year.
Some years later, when I worked in a bank with Bill Stanners I told Bill about Bryden's no hitter that I saw, spoiled only by a walk and the guy that was walked got picked off. Bill looked at me and said, "I was that guy."
There were various softball leagues in New London when I was a boy. There was a league that played at the old dump site behind Howard Street. The dump site was where the burned debris from the incinerator plant was taken. The incinerator was located where the sewage treatment plant is now.
Piles of smelly smokey debris were leveled and covered over with dirt to make a more or less level surface. This filled in a tidal area. More debris, more dirt, more leveling until the low area was filled in and a dusty dirty stony "park" of sorts could made of it. It provide a couple of dusty,stony ball fields and it was used as a festival area too.
Ballgames here meant that players were always chewing grit and they got dusty and dirty. The games were always fun to watch or play in. The players would sometimes bring wives or girlfriends to watch the game.
Dee's and Jake's, a neighborhood bar, had a softball team. The guys that played for the Ayrabs pretty much played for Dee's too. Dee, Jake Hammel and Dick Rocco were regulars. We played Sunday beer games at Riverside Park. Riverside Park has few level places. The game was followed by a cook out near the pavillion. The ball field no longer exists. It was taken in one of the Coast Guard Academy's expansions.
Sometimes softball games were played at Jennings schoolyard or at the softball field where senior housing is now near the Coast Guard Academy.
Joe Machado, John Machado, Sam Pescatello, Joe Grillo, Joe Baude, Tom Hayes and I, along with others, sometimes played on the Ayrabs, with Joe Nasser, Charlie Facas, Lou Massad, John Massad and others.
Bill Stanners, Bob Stanners, Bud Davies, Nick Degange, Bob Gilmore and I, along with others, played on the Niagras softball team. The team members were volunteers at the Niagra fire station on Bank Street. I have got to admit here that I was not a firefighter by any standard.
Bill Fritz, Frank Bongo, Bud Davies, Walt Davis, Woody Reynolds, Bill Stanners, Fred Friswell, Marshall Schofield, Horace (Monty) Montgomery and I, along with others played on the "Bankers" softball team when I worked at New London City National Bank.
We played games in Niantic under the lights. I pitched and played first base. My uncle Rocky hit a homer off me. Paul Shargus hit one of me that bounced off half way up a light tower. I did not give up many home runs. I remember the unusual ones though.
Playing under the lights in Niantic was fun but kind of dusty and buggy.
The sports I like best are basketball and softball. They are fast team related games. Funny thing, now that I think about it, I like just about anything that is fast, urgent and team related.
The best softball played in the New London area was played in Groton. The Groton Fast Pitch League at Memorial Park. The Coast Guard, Pfizer, Electric Boat and others had teams that played there. The ball was a blur as it crossed the plate.
I was "field manager" for a couple of years. I scored the games, kept the stats, arranged for umpires, and maintained the schedule of play. I also played recorded music and announced the games on a jury rigged PA system and was responsible for the bucket collection. Each game was started by "God Bless America" sung by Kate Smith recorded on a 45 rpm record. I am a sucker for that song. It always chokes me up.