February 2015 OLD TIMERS NEWSLETTER

8/9/2019 February 2015 OLD TIMERS NEWSLETTER

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The Changing of the Guard

Outgoing President John LeTourneau took the time tothank each and every one of his Board of Directors ina heartfelt thanks for the support and assistance given

him in his term of office. John is no stranger to local politicshaving served on the Parks andRecreation Commission duringhis tenure with the City. Butdespite a hard nose approach tocity government John showed agreat deal of compassion to theAssociation he served so well in2014 and was very appreciativeof all the good comments andfeedback he received. DuringJohns tenure he was responsible

for reaching out to members andtheir requests to have lunches inconjunction with the long stand-ing dinner meetings. He recog-nized that many of the membersare no longer able to drive at

night and was a strong advocate for holding lunch meetings.Because of his compassion for needy members the Board ofDirectors approved at least two luncheon meetings for thisyear.And, as John was retiring in comes the new President LenGrilli, who upon taking the gavel candidly stated, I was

quoted in the newsletter that I plan to make cosmetic changesthis year in how the Association is perceived, he noted.

And that doesnt necessarily mean Im going to be wearing

lipstick every other month. President Grilli said he wouldlike to create more scholarships for the Ardizoia/Grider fundthat provides scholarship money towards the student athletes

college tuition. He also wants to bring the group together andcater to those members who have physical problems and can-not attend night meetings. And he added, Just because I

have a military background we are not going military al-though somewell timedpush-upsmight do thetrick.

The newly in-

coming offi-cers andBoard of di-rectors weresworn in andvowed to work

for the betterment of the Association and its members.Pictured below from left to right are the Board and Officers:Con Maloney, Rich Murphy, Bob Fife, Len Grilli, JohnMcCarthy, Ray McDonald, Cliff Righetti, Joe Marino, Vince

Belli, Rich Ford, Ken Mooney, Bill De Mattei, Dave Longa,Nick Poppin and Gary Bader.Board Meeting Notes

Treasurer Ken Mooney reported that the Association hasdone very well with investments made the past year and ouraccount is solvent and going into the new year as financiallyfit as its ever been. Membership chairman Gary Baderstated that as of this meeting there were 143 paid membersmeaning that we are about half filled to our capacity. Laterduring dinner he collected another 49 dues checks so at thispoint we are well above the number we want to be at thistime. And, he noted that more than $3,000 has been pledgedtowards the scholarship fund which is an amazing gesture bythe membership.Golf Chairman Rich Ford indicated that the awards dinnerwas very well attended and several awards were passed outto winners of the golf outings plus honorary plaques given todeserving recipients. Next year the award presentation willbe at a luncheon rather than an evening dinner. The new sea-son will begin this year with the first outing on Monday April13 at the Alameda Golf Course. Apparently Rich is not aGiants fan as thats Opening Day at AT&T Park. Bob Fife

sponsor chairman indicated that letters have gone out to mer-chants who support the newsletter through their grateful con-tributions. Without these fine donations of sponsorship wewould be hard pressed to get the newsletter out on a timelybasis. A very appreciated thanks to all that help us out.

Kris Kimballs long awaited Old Timers website is up andrunning and anyone can get on it by logging into San Fran-cisco Baseball Old Timers and use the password ofSFBOT.net to gain access. So far its looking good although

there is much to be done yet. One of the things needed ispictures of any member in a sports situation. We just want toborrow your picture and then put it on the site and get it backto you. Just think of it as a lasting memory for your legacyand if that doesnt work just send along a picture and well

think of something.The baseball tickets for the Ardizoia/Grider scholarship pres-entation at AT&T Park will be held on Wednesday June 3 at aday game against the Pittsburgh Pirates and will go on sale at

the next meeting in February. Bader got us very good seatsthat will cost $35 each. We filled last year and will probablydo the same this year. Last year was the game that Lincecumthrew the no-hitter against the Padres so you never can tellwhat will happen at the ole ball game.

Crab FeedChairman Bill Jones says that the Crab feed

February 2015

74th President Grilli Promises Changes in Protocol

Crab Feed and Golf Dinner Immerce Successes

John LeTourneau73rd President


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filled to more than 200 and was better than ex-pected . Next month there is a good chance forus to have a special guest speaker and that willbe a former Giants pitcher from the late 80s

early 90s. We cant give out his name at the

moment because of his commitments but if hes

available it will be a fun night full of questionsand answers.

Several Honored at Golf Dinner

The annual golf dinner attracted a largecrowd of people who came out to honor

the golfers this year. The winner of the BillOBrien

Award for theoutstandingplayer went toPaul Navarrowho had agreat year inwinning theClub Champi-onship. Theother awardswent to JimHodges for

being closest-to-theHole from the group thatplays the forward tees. Jim hit a shot 39 to

claim the title. And Paul Varni was Closest-to-the-Hole for those that play the back tees bymaking a Hole-In-One, so it doesnt get closer

than that. Andfinally Leo Marti-nez was given theGene GaviglioAwards that goesto the golfer whoshows the true

sportsmanship ofthe game. In thepast it has gone toErnie Golding,June Caviglio,

and Joan Strazzullo for the help they gave tothe club.Lunch Meetings Coming Up this SummerIn an attempt to meet the needs of all membersthe July and August monthly meetings will belunches at the Irish Cultural Center. The Julymeeting is the annual Joe Sprinz meetingwhereby children and grandchildren of mem-bers are encouraged to turn out in honor of thegreat Joe Sprinz. Last year we had a fair turnout

with about 20 kids showing up. Chairman KenMooney did a great job in securing gifts fromthe Giants for this affair. The August meetingalso moved to the daytime and has been knownas City Hall Recognition, whereby chairmanLeo Martinez has gotten speakers from the po-lice and fire departments. The thing here is thatwe will have a better chance to get some of thehigh ranking officials to attend a luncheonrather than a dinner.

Next year will mark the 75th Anniver-sary of the establishment of the OldTimers Baseball Association making it

one of the longest ongoing sports associationsin the country. Only the Yakima/Tacoma OldTimers are ahead of us in longevity as theystarted in 1937 and continue with annual func-tions such as we do through the year. Prepara-tions for our 75th function have already begunwith the dates to be held the latter part of

March of next year 2016. Chairman JohnMcCarthy has already recruited JohnWard, Kris Kimball and Ernie Golding tobe part of a task force to make this eventas successful as the 70th presentation. Itappears that the luncheon will be held at

the Irish Cultural Center utilizing theentire banquet area on the second floor.There will be an audio visual presenta-tion along with several guest speakers .John needs more people to help roundout the committee so any one with any

interest in helping with this event should con-tact him. One of the items we will be lookingto have on display will be any memorabilia andartifacts from days gone by such has uniforms,baseball equipment scrapbooks, pictures or anyother items of interest depicting the days from1941 to the 1990s when baseball was still

being played by our members and others. Weare going to try to enlist the San Francisco Gi-ants for their historical assistance since comingto San Francisco in 1958. But in the meantimeanyone who like to help out with the committee

Board of DirectorsPresident

Len GrilliVice President

John McCarthy

Treasurer

Ken Mooney

SecretaryRich Murphy

Membership

Gary BaderSergeant-at-ArmsJoe MarinoDirectors

Frank Brady-Nick PoppinCliff Righetti-Joe MarinoDave Longa-Rich FordBob Hagler-Vince BelliBill DeMattei-Bob Fife

Best wishes to the OldTimers for 2015

Rich BlackburnArt Citron - Nick CannuliMel Canevaro - Brian KearneyDon Dennehy - Al McCarthyDan Jacobsmeyer

Paul Navarro Club Champion

Clockwise Gene Hodges, PaulVarni and Leo Martinez


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is asked to call John at 209-470-1103 and volunteer your timefor this celebration.

Pieretti Group Notes

It appears that after much searching for places to have themonthly lunches chairman Dave Longa has settled on two

restaurants that he will rotate the group. They are Nicks

Rockaway Beach in Pacifica and Dominics Oyster point in

South San Francisco. These two locations have been on thecalendar for years and have proven to be the most popular and

easily accessible to those that

attend the lunches each month.The February luncheon will beheld at Dominic's on Wednes-day February 18 and Marchwill be at Nicks in Pacifica on

Wednesday March 18. Thehonoree this month was LouLandini, Jr. Coordinator DaveLonga has a trip planned toReno on March 3-5 on thetrain. The cost of the trip is$289 per person and includes atwo night stay at the El Dorado

Hotel in Reno plus the train ride. If anyone is interested con-

tact Dave at 650-244-9741. The closing deadline was Janu-ary 23 but Dave still has some spots where he can take a fewmore people.The SOB lunch group that meet the first Wednesday of eachmonth mete at the Sizzler last month but ran into a problem asanother group had also schedule to use the banquet facilities.So Longa and friends are now looking to secure another po-tential site so they can gather on that first Wednesday. Moreto follow.

Bullpen Chatter

In 1927 Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig set out a barnstormingtour around the country following their sweep in the

World Series over the Pittsburgh Pirates and that Yankeeteam was being hailed as the greatest team of all time. Andwho can really argue with the line-up they had plus the Bam-bino was just coming off the season he hit the incredible 60home runs. In those days Major League stars often put to-gether All-Star teams and traveled the southern part of thecountry playing exhibition games to make additional moneyin the off season. However the venture that Ruth and Gehrigput together known as the Bustin Babes and Larrupin Lous

was more than just a tour as it was a well planned out affair

that traveled all across the Western States and spent consider-able time in California. Jane Leavy, author of the best sell-ing book :The Last Boy Mickey Mantle and the End ofAmerican Childhood. got in touch with us looking for anyinformation about the tour that brought Ruth and Gehrig toCalifornia. During my trip to Forgotten Fields I took four

years ago I found some

information about BabeRuth going to Dunsmuirand playing a game upthere in 1924 and again in1926. The old ball parkstill stands and this plaqueis on the entrance to the

field.Dunsmir as youall know is lo-cated was up inShasta Countytowards Red-

ding and nowHwy 5 goesright throughthe town. The

ball park I discovered on my trip still stands and you can al-most feel the ghosts of the Babe and some of those playersthere. This plaque was dedicated in 1986 and there were anumber of SF Old Timers invited to participate in the ceremo-nies. Among them were Dutch Anderson, Rugger Ard-

izoia, Dan Benedetti, Pete Dalto, Art Dikas, Andy Dur-

Thanks Old Timers

Your Monthly NewsletterIs a great Read.

Anonymous Donor

Best Wishes

To All

San Francisco Old Timers

The Grider Family

Lou Landini,Jr Honoree


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Alumni Of

Balboa RiordanGeorge Petty Clyde KrusinskiRon Taylor Sacred HeartBud Williams Brian KearneyFrank Williams Tom Taylor

manich, Tony Gomez, Joe Orengo, Mike Poppin, Dino

Restelli and Harry Rosenberg,plus a host of there playersof the day. Only Ardizoia, Dalton and Poppin are still with usas a remembrance of that day. Ruth was treated so well thathe made a return trip there two years later. Ms. Leavy is go-ing to do a book about that barnstorming trip that Ruth andGehrig took in 1927 because it might have been the first timean agent for a player put together such a venture. Anywayshe is looking for people who have any information like anewspaper account of the games played in California. Appar-

ently there was a game (s) played in San Francisco but it isdoubtful that anyone would still be alive to recall them. Ipersonally know I've seen pictures of Ruth and Gehrig inthose uniforms and am searching through my files to findthem. Im sure some of you might have a recollection and if

you do please get in touch with me. Ms. Leavy will be in theBay Area meeting with Marlene VogelsongLefty ODoulSABR Chapter president and Mark McRae,a PCL historianto assist Leavy in her search for information. So if anyoneout there has any pictures or information please bring it forth

as it will be useful in the creation of thisbook.Two new members were sworn in at theJanuary meeting and they were RoldanVigil and Jim Jarvis. This is the sec-ond time around for Roldan as he was along-time friend of Art Dikas whopassed away a few years ago butdropped out for several years only tocome back at age 88 to renew oldfriendships. Jim is the son of the lateGeorge Jarvis and attended publicschools in San Francisco, and playedbaseball at Riordan High School andlater at SF State college. .Some of our members are on the mendand need some cheering up. Included

on that list are Hal Fox, foot surgery,Mike Bagdon eye operation and Cla-rence Grider health issues. It would benice to send along a card to the guys.Making a come-back and coming offthe 15-day disabled lists are Frank

Williams and Joe Smith. Its great to see both of these fel-

lows getting better after serious illnesses. Back to scholar-ship donations for a moment...at least three members makecontributions of between $200 and $500 to the programwhich is far more than just a generous contribution.

Old Timer History...Funston Playground

Funston Playground in the Marina District has been oneof the best baseball diamonds for the past 60 years but

on Sunday May 6, 1962 the diamond on the far end of thepark was dedicated to Edward P. Garrigan, The Little Gi-ants as he was known. Mr. Garrigan held down the position

of Recording-Secretary of the Northern California BaseballManagers Association for 26 years. Eddie dedicated his life

to the game he loved bestthe GreatNational Pastimethe game of base-

ball. He was born on Telegraph Hill in1884 and passed away in 1961 a yearbefore the diamond was named in hishonor. Ironically, the San FranciscoOld Timers baseball team was defeatingthe Stockton Old Timers 9 to 1 in anight game in the Port city, when Eddiepassed away. The Old Timers did notlearn of Garrigans death until returning

to San Francisco the next day. The lossof the beloved figure saddened each andevery member of the San Francisco OldTimers Baseball Association. Among

some of the things that Eddie did in his lifetime was to work

for the San Francisco Call Bulletin where he wrote a semi-probaseball column for years and worked at the paper for 46years. He retired in 1958 and never had a bad word to sayabout any bush league player and always promoted youthbaseball activities. He served as a scout for the New YorkGiants during the days when the late Mickey Shader wasaffiliated with the club. During his playing days, the hustlinglittle Garrigan was a stellar second baseman and played alongside of another great player Francisco Ping Bodie, whowent on to play with the Seals, Yankees and Chicago WhiteSox. On that day in 1962 some 53 years ago two games wereplayed the first at 11 am was between the SF Old TimersLefthanders vs the SF Old Timers Righthanders' and the fea-

ture game at 2 pm was the two powerful teams of the day,Gino Benedetti vs Sabellas's. teams. I had the opportunity toplay for Sabellas's in that game along with future Old Timers

Ernie Evans, Tom Tarantino, Mario and Joe Monterosso,

Jim McGill, Rich Medaglia, Don Lowpensky and others.Marino Pieretti was the starting pitcher for Bennett's. Manycity dignitaries and veteran players were on hand to lendsplendor to the ceremonies for Garrigan who had a legion offriends in life and was long remembered for his dedication tohis beloved bushers.

Roldan Vigil

Jim Jarvis


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Joe Smith Passes

On Thursday January 22 Joe Smith lost his bat-tle with cancer and passed away at the age of84. Joe was a member of the Old Timers formany years and was a good guy. Before he hadhealth issues he was a regular on the golf courseplaying in all the Old Timer events and a coupleof times during the week at Sharpe Park. Hewas a decent ball player in his day and told thestory of how he played on a service team that

included several major league players duringWWII while in the Pacific. Joe was diagnosedwith cancer last summer and when I found outhe had the same as mine I gave him a I Will

Survive shirt that he wore to his chemo treat-

ments. He did survive and will be greatlymissed by the Old Timers at the dinner meet-ings and by his family.

From Leo Martinez:A poem written by Michael Kumar that hewrote more than a year ago and was read atGeorge Jarvis's funeral.

I am from center field,

From the rich green grass and warm brown dirtmeet.I am from the place where champions are made,and legends are born.I am from the drive to succeed and the fear offailure.I am from where players made footsteps toodeep to fill,From the same turf legends and DiMaggio andMantle, and where The Say Hey Kid made hisfamous catch.I am from the roar of the fans and the chatter ofmy teammates.

Im from the place where I feel comfortable,and I am determined to stay here.Im from the place where left meets right and I

am ready. I am home.

Thank You!

Thanks to Rich Ford, Ken Mooney and the SFOld Timers golf committee for another success-ful awards dinner at Nicks Rockaway Restau-

rant. It came as a surprise that I was the recipi-ent of the Gene Gaviglio Annual Award. Dueto my surprise, I was remiss/forgetful in recog-nizing the gentleman whose name is on this

award, Gen Gaviglio.Gene performed in many capacities as a mem-ber of the SF Baseball Old Timers. For open-ers, he was one of four monthly bartenderswhen we gathered at the Verdi Club, sat on theBoard of Directors for years and was a past

president, a holder of the Ultimate Old Timersjacket and for many years our golf chairman.Gene had many qualifications and qualities up-permost being that he was a gentleman and al-ways a person of class.I am proud, thankful that Gene, Mrs. Gaviglio(Joan) where/are endearing friends. I will al-ways cherish the honor I received at the 2014golf awards dinner.In Appreciation , Keep Swingin

Leo MartinezP.S.Congratulations to Paul Navarro for beingClub Champion.

And... before leaving golf let me add the follow-ing. When Paul Varni made his Hole-In-Onelast year in March we scrambled around to findone when the last one was made. Someone saidit was Willie Franco over 20 years ago but thathas been cleared up by Bob Andreini. In 2003

at the Franklin Canyon event I made an ace onthe 189 yard, 6th hole. exclaimed a proud An-

dreini. Bernie Wyman gave me a plaque at the

golf dinner.

Baseball in the War Years

Gary Bedingfieldis a writer who authored thebook Baseballs Dead of World War II andwrites a newsletter about former players whogave their lives in various wars. He lives inEngland and has always had a fascination withbaseball and military history. His newsletterhas a distribution of about 1,000 and reachesbaseball enthusiasts all over the world who haveeither signed up or corresponded with him atsome time. We are going to include his news-letter in our new website. His website is

www.baseballinwartime.com. In his latest hefeatured Ernie Raimondi,brother of OaklandOaks catcher back in PCL days Billy Rai-

mondi. Ernie was a promisingyoung prospect when he signedwith the Seals as a third base-man in 1936. He hit .263 in hisrookie season and the follow-ing year he was with Tacoma.Appendicitis limited his play-ing time in 1939 and he wasreleased by the Seals in 1940only to be picked by the Oaks

where he played alongside of his brother. Ernieentered the military service with the Army inJune of 1944. Within six months he was inFrance with the 44th Infantry Division and waskilled in action in January 1945 only a fewmonths before the war came to an end.

Vince Tudoni - Jim McCoyLeo Martinez - Bill DeMatieJim OConnor

Skip McKinneyGeorge Schnapp

Congratulations to the S.F. Old

Timers Baseball Association

The Marino Pieretti Group

In memory of Frank Strazzullo,

Dante Santora and Bob Tobener


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Pictures Needed for Website

We need action pictures such as theone shown below for the website.

Please let us borrow some of your base-ball pictures to be included. If you bringor send them Ill make a copy and then

get it back to you. It should be interest-ing and lots of enjoyment to have asmany pictures included as possible.Weve already had a few to put up but

need more. In this picture below itsfrom a1954 game as a Lincoln playerscores a run against Washington at BigRec.

Giants Trophy on Display

The Giants announced that they are put-ting their 2014 World Series trophy on atour for fans to see. The organization isworking in partnership with the JuniorGiants Leagues throughout NorthernCalifornia in the months of February andMarch. You will be allowed to take one

photo per person. Or fans will have theopportunity to have a professional pic-ture taken by a photographer for a fee ofcourse. The local schedule for Februaryis: Feb. 2, San Mateo Elks Lodge, 4 to 6pm; Feb. 3, Municipal Stadium in SanJose 4 to 6 pm; Feb. 7, AT&T Park allday; and Feb. 9, Santa Clara City Hall 4to 6 pm. The tour has traveled from SanFrancisco to Medford, Oregon and allthe way down to San Luis Obispo, theentire Central Valley and up to Reno.

Crab Feed a Smashing SuccessHats off to chairman Bill Jonesfor anoutstanding job on the annual Crab Feed.Not only did more than 200 people showup but the night was a complete successand the Association made more money

off the raffle selling more than $835 intickets more than anytime before. Therewere eight $50 prizes and one for $100that Ernie Golding and wife Barbarawon. Other raffle prizes included giftcertificate and salami rolls from the

Molinari Company in NorthBeach. The cooks this year werethe fabulous Tom Taylor, JimHodges, Rich Ford and TonyRodriguez.

Early Irish Story

A Doctor in Dublin wanted to getoff work and go fishing, so heapproached his assistant.McCarthy, I am going fishing

tomorrow and dont want to close

the clinic. I want you to take care of theclinic and all of me patients. Yes, sir!

answers McCarthy. The doctor goesfishing and returns the following day andasks: So, McCarthy, how was your

day?

McCarthy told him that he took care ofthree patients. The first one had a head-

ache so I gave him Paracetamol.Bravo, McCarthy lad, and the second

one? asks the doctor. The second one

had indigestion and I gave him Gavis-con, so I did, sir, said McCarthy.

Bravo, bravo! You're good at this what

about the tird one? asks the doctor.Sir, I was sitting here and suddenly the

door flies open and a young, gorgeouswoman burst in, so she does. Like a boltoutta the blue, she tears off her clothes,taking off everything including her braand her panties and lies on the table

spreading her legs and shouts: HELPME for the love of St. Patrick! For fiveyears I have not seen any man!

Tunderin lard Jesus, McCarthy, what

did you do? asks the doctor.

I put drops in her eyes.

Newsletter Editor: John McCarthyTo provide information call or email.

Cell Phone 209-470-1103Or

Email: [email protected]

250 Montgomery StreetSuite 200San Francisco, CA 94104415-543-8500\1-800443-2227

FormerlyHolt & Collins

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February 2015 OLD TIMERS NEWSLETTER