Boston Padres manager Ed Neal cannot remember how Foxborough’s Mike Ross ended up with his team nearly 10 years ago. But after all this time, he is happy Ross stuck around.
Ross was among the Padres’ leading hitters as he helped the team earn its first Boston Park League championship last month. The outfielder hit .376 this season and came up with several game-changing hits.
“Anytime he’s at the plate, you always know something special is going to happen,” Neal said. Read more
https://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/Mike-Ross-boston-padres.jpg344500adminhttps://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/logo-300x63.pngadmin2007-09-20 15:29:312013-12-22 13:22:05Ross Still Feared After A Decade In Park League
Though he last wore a Harvard University baseball uniform in the spring of 1999, Hal Carey still holds school records for career hits and stolen bases. The Needham native is still playing the game he loves, and playing it well, in the nation’s oldest continuous amateur baseball league.
Carey, head baseball coach at his high school alma mater, Catholic Memorial in West Roxbury, recently completed his 11th season in the Boston Park League as shortstop for the Stockyard Club, the runner-up in the league championship series last week to the Boston Padres.
A league all-star who batted .308 as one of the team’s elders at age 30, Carey played for the Park League’s All Dorchester Sports League team for three seasons while attending Harvard and the past eight years for the Walsh and Stockyard clubs. Read more
https://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/Hal-Carey.jpg423609adminhttps://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/logo-300x63.pngadmin2007-08-30 16:52:402013-12-22 09:27:07For The Love Of The Game
It was a playoff game between Reading and Tewksbury and the schedule-maker assigned two guys named Driscoll as the umpires. The base umpire, Joe Driscoll, seemingly had been around baseball forever, a veteran arbiter whom everybody trusted.
The plate umpire was Joe’s son, Todd. He was young, inexperienced. There were fears he’d make a bad call and blow the game. Read more
https://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Untitled-1.jpg240350adminhttps://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/logo-300x63.pngadmin2007-04-16 22:09:362013-12-22 09:27:14More to Driscoll’s Life Than Umpiring
Tall, lanky left-hander Zak Smotherman throws a sharply curving breaking ball that would fool even the most skilled of hitters. The pitch stuns the right-handed batter, as the umpire bellows out the verdict for the handful of fans.
The batter, clearly upset, wipes the sweat off of his face with the sleeve of his Mass. Envelope jersey. He eyes Smotherman, of the Irish Village team, waiting patiently on the mound.
This is not a professional baseball game, but a hard-nosed match at Roslindale’s Fallon Field in what may be one of the best-kept secrets in the City of Boston.
The Boston Park League, which has for years combined some of Boston’s most talented baseball prospects with former stars whose glory had faded, is in its 76th year. Although it seems, at times, forgotten, the league endures, despite setbacks in attendance, facility maintenance, funding, and a reduced pool of top-notch players. Read more
https://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2005/08/park-league1.jpg550800adminhttps://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/logo-300x63.pngadmin2005-08-07 15:41:332013-12-22 09:27:21A Faded Glory, But A Glory Of Summer Nonetheless
The rules of etiquette in amateur baseball are quite clear in the matter of players losing their cool. You throw your helmet, you’re gone. You throw your bat, you’re gone. No discussion, no debates, no appeals.
But even very good umpires do not have eyes in the back of their heads. So let’s say a game is being played at, oh, Somerville’s Trum Field, and let’s say some Yawkey League hothead tries to turn his helmet into the Delta Shuttle after popping out to short, and let’s say that, at that precise moment, the plate umpire happens to be admiring the design of the Somerville Public Works Building, which is located out beyond the left field fence.
Under these circumstances, this is what happens: Nothing. The hothead gobbles up his helmet and returns to the bench, the next hitter steps up to the dish, the game continues.
Life goes on.
And so it is that we introduce Walter Bentson, a longtime umpire on the New England amateur baseball scene who has carved out a richly-deserved reputation as a hardball arbiter with that rare blend of keen eye, solid judgment and refreshing temperament. Read more
https://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/True-Blue-pix.jpg285286adminhttps://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/logo-300x63.pngadmin2005-06-12 22:22:002013-12-22 09:27:32True Blue
Earl Metzler, principal of Sterling Middle School in Quincy, is the winningest pitcher of the Boston Park League. Pitching for Chathams Rowe, he notched his 100th victory.
https://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/earl-metzier.jpg344500adminhttps://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/logo-300x63.pngadmin2003-08-12 23:43:542013-12-22 09:27:40Metzler Educating Boston’s Park League
The Boston Park League ripe with all kinds of baseball players – and stories. Read more
https://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/07/park-league4.jpg400400adminhttps://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/logo-300x63.pngadmin2001-07-15 00:32:472013-12-22 09:27:54Anybody’s Game
Mike Ranieri is in the midst of his longest waiting game ever.
This time, the slugging baseball player isn’t stepping out of the batter’s box and playing games with an opposing pitcher.
His wait is for a ring on the telephone at his Braintree home or a knock on the door. You see, Ranieri is on the outside looking in. He is waiting for a call from Major League Baseball.
Four nights a week he puts on a uniform and plays center field for the All-Dorchester Sports League baseball team in the Boston Park League. And he keeps his ears and eyes open. Read more
https://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/logo-300x63.png00adminhttps://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/logo-300x63.pngadmin1996-07-14 17:04:352013-12-22 09:28:09Ballplayer Awaits Call To The Pros; Braintree Slugger, A Star At Trinity, Is Being Scouted
Forty years have passed, but they are still in a League of Their Own. The sight of women on the grass at Fenway Park seems as foreign today as it did when they wore skirts and high socks in the 1950s.
But one can see why the popularity of the all-female Colorado Silver Bullets is growing as they criss-cross America and Canada, making a statement that is much stronger than the movie of the same name. Their 6-0 loss to the Boston Park League All-Stars yesterday was not unexpected. What was surprising was that 5,200 went home convinced they’d been a part of history. Read more
After 65 years of continuous existence, the Boston Park League has been many things to many people. The only thing that it remains for all those who have played and the present players, is family.
https://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/1993/07/jim-mello-park-league.jpg423609adminhttps://bostonparkleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/logo-300x63.pngadmin1993-08-01 06:26:382013-12-26 08:20:53The Boston Park League
