The History of Beacon Baseball
by Jack Sine
The beginnings
In 1951 World War II was a grim and close memory, Korea was a bloody fact, and the Cold War was ramping up at a feverish pace. It was a time that was starving for some positive karma. In Beacon three men found that karma in the great American pastime—baseball.
“There were three of us at the start,” said Bob Cahill. “Me, Henry Hager, and Al Robillard. We all had baseball backgrounds and one day we got talking about Little League. That was some time in 1951 and Little League had started in 1947 so we had all read something about it. We thought it was a good idea for Beacon so we decided to hold a meeting at the Memorial Building and invited some others who had baseball backgrounds. I can’t remember all the names, but Babe Adams, Rocky Fezza, my brother Jack, and Ralph Flynn were all there. We formed a committee and applied to Williamsport and were approved by Little League. Ralph Flynn was president, Henry Hager was treasurer because he was a banker, and I was secretary. We decided on a four team league to start with—the Yankees, the Dodgers, the Red Sox, and the Indians.”
“Our first season was in 1952. We held tryouts and then selected teams. Since you could only have 15 kids on a team, we only had 60 roster spots available and something like 150 kids showed up. We made a mistake when we called all the kids together to announce who had made the teams because after the 60 names were read we had about 90 crying kids on our hands. Ralph handled it beautifully. On the spot he created the Beacon Minor Leagues and everybody had a team to play on. We had a little trouble finding managers, but we managed and everybody played.”
“We built the first ball field where it stands today. We went down the National Biscuit Plant (now Dia) and picked up forklift skids they donated and we used them to build the first fences. The city put in water for us. Then this used car dealer on Main Street was going out of business and donated the shed that served as his office. A bunch of us loaded it on a truck and took it over to the field to be our concession stand. We got an old ice chest to hold the soda. Then before every game we had to find someone with and ice machine who was willing to donate ice. That first year we had a parade with all the kids in uniform. It was a big one with bands and everything. The community was really into it.”
The league was such a success that they had to address a new question: Where were the older kids going to play?
“Little League had an older division,” said Cahill. “It was for ages 13 to 15. Back then there were no rubber cleats for baseball shoes so Little League required kids play in sneakers to avoid injury. They had the same rule for the older league. We wanted the older kids to be able to wear cleats because many of them already played junior varsity or varsity where they wore cleats. So we investigated and found that a new league called Little Bigger League had started up in Jersey for 13 to 15 years old and they were looking to expand. They let the kids wear cleats so we signed on with them. They later changed their name to Babe Ruth League. We joined them for their 13-15 program.”
Money, money, money
Money, of course, is always a problem in any not-for-profit organization, but the City was so enthusiastic about the Little League program that they were always able to raise the money they needed without charging the players or their families.
“We ran a bunch of different kinds of fund raisers that brought in a lot of money,” said Cahill. “I remember Ben Humeston ran a 26 week club twice a year that brought in a lot of money. The Babe Ruth field is named for him. Then groups like the Knights of Columbus, Kiwanis, and PBA donated a lot of money. Money was never a real problem for us. It never cost anybody a penny to play. Now they charge the kids a lot of money to play. It’s just wrong. It’s making it impossible for kids from poor families to play ball.”
Bob Cahill was more than a behind the scenes man. He also managed a Babe Ruth team for 15 years and was the manager of the 1968 team that won the state championship—the first Beacon team to go that far. He finally retired from baseball in 1970 and worked as a county legislator and the mayor of Beacon. Bob is also in the Dutchess County Sports Hall of Fame and was named an Elks Outstanding Youth Volunteer.
The middle years
John Pagliaro is Beacon’s longest serving coach.
“I started as a minor league coach in 1963,” said Pagliaro. “Carl Smith who was vice president of the league then saw me working out with my son Jimmy at tryouts and asked me to take a minor league team. “I was working at Ford then and got back to town around four o’clock, so I had plenty of time, so I said yes. Then a year later there was an opening on the Orioles Little League team and I moved up.”
And he has some great memories.
“In 1966 James made all stars and the team went all the way to the state tournament in Albany,” said Pagliaro. “We left home at four and got to the field just in time to see James catch a ball in left field and throw the runner on third out at the plate by about 10 feet. That made the whole trip worthwhile.”
“Another good memory involved a kid on that team named Carl Travis. This kid could hit. He had five or six homeruns in the tournament. In one of the last games the word had gotten around and the other team was going to give him an intentional walk. They threw a couple of balls, then Carl called time out and went over to talk to the coach. Nobody had any idea what they were talking about. He went back in the box and took another ball and called time out again. Carl went over to the dugout and picked a different bat and got into the batters box as close to the plate as you can get. When they threw ball four he swung at it and hit a home run to right field. We lost the championship game 4-3 and took home every trophy but the championship. That was a group of good guys.”
Pagliaro also did something that foreshadowed a Little League rules change.
“In those days Little League was run by a clique,” he said. “When I took the Orioles they made it clear that nine and 10 year olds were not to play. They had to sit on the bench and watch. This wasn’t a Little League rule. It was a Beacon rule. I felt that if you were on a team, you should play, so I played everyone on the team every game. Evidently they had the parents convinced that this was a real rule. So these guys didn’t like it and told me in no uncertain terms they didn’t like it. I ignored them and played my kids. I figure if a kid goes to practice and tries hard he deserves to play. Then I talked a guy named Bobby Rockatowski into taking the Dodgers cause there was an opening and he started playing all his kids. The parents started making some noise and pretty soon all the teams were playing all their kids. A few years later Little League made it a rule that everyone had to play three outs and get one at bat.”
His son Ron remembers those days well. He was the leadoff hitter on the team.
“Dad would drive me crazy with his substitutions,” he said. “Once we were behind by a run in the last inning with one out. There were two batters before me and what does he do? He puts in two nine-year olds! There I am in the dugout hoping one will walk or get hit by a pitch. But no, they both strike out and we lose. I know now Dad was doing the right thing, but try telling that to a 12-year old who wants to win.”
Junior baseball today
Today Junior Baseball is still thriving in Beacon. But there’s no more Little League. Tony Romanelli, the current president, explains.
“Beacon has always made Junior Baseball available to all the students in the Beacon School District even though many of them don’t live in the City of Beacon,” he said. “Many live in the town of Fishkill. It’s been that way from the beginning. We’ve always had a handshake agreement with the Town of Fishkill that the kids could chose which program to participate in and it worked fine. Then someone complained to the Little League offices in Williamsport and the decision came down that only children who lived within the boundaries of Beacon could play Little League. We thought that was unfair and contacted the offices of Babe Ruth Baseball. They told us they had no problem with our original arrangement, so we voted to make Beacon a one hundred percent Babe Ruth program. Now there is T-ball, minor leagues, 9-10 league, and 11-league that complement the Babe Ruth 13-15 League. The younger leagues used to be called Bambino leagues, but the name was recently changed to the Cal Ripkin League to honor the great Oriole shortstop.”
The 11-12 Cal Ripkin players this year won the state tournament, the first time since 1968 that a Junior Baseball team from Beacon has won a state tournament. So all would seem to be going well.
But there is one fly in the ointment that makes Bob Cahill very unhappy.
“Now the kids family has to pay a fee to play ball,” he said. “This is keeping the kids from poorer families off the baseball diamond and it’s just not right.”
“We do run fundraisers, but we need the extra income from the fees,” said Romanelli. “Everybody does it and we have the lowest fees in the valley. Ours range from 40 dollars to 80 dollars a season and that’s not bad. I will never deny a child the right to play ball. We’ll find him a way to get on a team. I’ll reach into my own pocket if necessary.”
Depending on the number of families who can’t afford it, that could get very expensive.
But the good news is that during the spring and early summer the sound of ball hitting leather continues to resound on the diamonds and the karma at Memorial Field is very good, indeed.
My Dad, Rocky was mentioned by Bob Cahill in the first part of the article and just wanted to add some of my memories from the early years. I was just a little guy (5 or 6) when my Dad first got involved. I just remember him bringing me to the field and I watched the bigger kids play and I wanted to do that too. I think my Dad was a coach for Babe Adams at first, but then took over as manager for the Giants (I recall the first four teams as the Yankees, Dodgers, Giants and Indians. Since I wasn't old enough to play (8 years old), my Dad let be be the bat boy for the team. I eventually was old enough to play and my Dad "drafted me" to play on his team. I only played one year for my Dad, since he took a job at Texaco(I wasn't to happy about that) and had to work nights. I played until 1960 and I guess that had to be the best, since we, the Giants, finally beat Mr. Adams and his Yankees for the championship. Since I didn't think I was as good as some of the other guys, I decided not to try out for Babe Ruth and missed the opportunity to play for a few more years. I remember the parades and knocking on doors with coffee cans in our hands to collect money for the bats and balls we needed each year, but most important is the memories of the kids I played ball with and the fun we had. My son, Matt, also played Little League and Babe Ruth and now my grandson, Trevor, is playing. The Beacon baseball program has come a long way and I wish it continued success.
Posted by: Jerry Fezza | September 15, 2006 at 01:54 PM