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City’s Veteran Players Still Live For Their Day In The Park

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He had just spent the day teaching physical education and then throwing 300 batting practice pitches to his Holliston High School team that was two days away from winning its state Division 2 championship game. He arrived at Casey Town Field in Dorchester from Framingham just a few minutes before Mass. Envelope was to play the Larkin Club in the Boston Park League.

So the best that tired, 43-year-old Harvey Krupnick could do in a game against Larkin recently was to single, triple, homer, lay down a crucial sacrifice bunt and knock in three runs in his team’s 5-4 victory.

“They used to tell me I was a bit too slow when I was younger,” laughed the wiry Krupnick, who runs a batting school in his backyard. “Now they tell me, ‘hey, you’re pretty fast for an old guy.’ ”

Krupnick who started in the Park League in 1968, was carrying a lifetime .370 average with 551 hits in 1,497 at-bats through the month of June. But he’s obviously getting better with age, because this season he was off to a 30 for 56 start (.535 for 16 games) at the plate and playing a smooth first base as well.

But Krupnick isn’t the oldest active player in the 10-team Park League — that distinction belongs to television station owner, political analyst and talk show host Avi Nelson, who says that at age 45, “you learn to make some changes in the way you bat and throw to compensate for the loss of quickness.” Read more

Boston Goes Bush League; City’s Fields Suffering From Neglect And Overuse

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The baseball skips off the dusty, uneven infield and nearly decapitates the shortstop. It takes another crazy hop in the outfield, forcing the left fielder to perform acrobatics in order to hold the runner to a single.

Such is life on this early June night at Fallon Field in Roslindale, home field of the Triple D’s club in the Senior Boston Park League.

“If anyone wonders why we’re losing ballplayers to the Inter-City League or the South Shore League, all they have to do is look at the shape of our fields in Boston,” says Walt Mortimer, former Park League star and now an umpire and league secretary.

Losing players may be one thing, but losing teeth is another: Two years ago, Triple D’s third baseman Brian O’Leary took a bad hop grounder in the face at Fallon, knocking out two teeth. Three years ago, Jim Gill of the Towne Club was hit by a line drive in the throat at the same park as he sat on his unprotected team bench. Read more

Bias Case Settled In Park League; Team Now Will Be Allowed To Compete

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The Boston Park Baseball League opens its 58th season Tuesday after resolving allegations that the organization is guilty of racial bias.

After pressure was applied by Mayor Flynn’s administration, the senior amateur league voted to accept the primarily minority Padres. A condition of acceptance was that Padre manager Ed Neal apologize for making his charges of bias.

Neal had accused the league of denying his Padres a spot in the 1987 alignment because of bias. He noted that it had been traditional for the winner of the junior league — in this case, the Padres — to move up to the senior league, with the senior league’s last-place team being demoted to the junior league.

However, Park League president John Landry said Neal was present at the announcement of the league’s decision in March 1986 and did not dispute it. Read more

Battling Mosquitoes, Hyde Park Sweeps Park League Clincher

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The mosquitoes proved to be the toughest adversaries for Hyde Park Sports in its sweep to the Park League championship last night.

The insects were unrelenting, but the Triple D’s had no such power, losing the final game, 10-4, at Fallon Field in Roslindale.

“I’ve been in the Park League for nine years,” said Hyde Park manager Terry O’Malley, “and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

What O’Malley had just witnessed was the completion of a four-game sweep. Read more

Loading Up: Umpire Joe Driscoll

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Former Boston Park League Umpire in Chief from 1999 through 2006, umpired in the league for more than 30 years, and was featured on the cover of Referee Magazine in July of 1985. Read more

A Whall-To-Wall Encounter; From Park League To Fenway Park, Big Green To Green Monster

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The Jolly Green Giant will meet the Green Monster today. It’s not a Godzilla movie, just a 6-foot-6, .576 hitter from Dartmouth debuting in Fenway Park.

“I’ve always had a dream of playing in Fenway,” said Tim Whall, 23, of Roslindale. “Dreams of sliding in the dirt, of touching the Monster.”

Whall is a part-time lifeguard, a one-time high school math teacher, a full-time job-seeker and a spare-time first baseman in the Park League.

He picked the right time to hit .576, because his Park League All- Stars will play the US Olympic team tonight at 5. Read more

New Era Begins For Park League; Mortimer Directs The Show

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Back in the late 1950s, he was a spindly kid playing first base for Boston English High and for various Park League clubs at night. Today, after many years in both sandlot and organized ball, Walt Mortimer is the new executive director of the Park League.

“Some of the happiest days of my life were spent playing in this league,” Mortimer said. “Along with a lot of other interested alumni,’ I’m trying to help in any way I can to keep it going.”

Mortimer acknowledged that the league has had some rough sledding in recent years, particularly since the onset of Prop. 2 1/2 . “But with a lot of dedicated people pitching in, we have kept going, and I feel that this year I can say the outlook is better than it has been for some time.”

Mortimer said that the league will have nine solid entries, the same number as last year, with the season’s opener pitting defending champion Mass. Envelope against the Dick Conley Club on Monday, May 21, at 7 p.m., at Caseytown Field in Dorchester. Read more

Mass Envelope Rebounds, 10-6

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Mass Envelope did just about everything it could last night to lose the opening game of the Park League championship baseball series.

It walked 12 Conley batters. It committed four errors. It threw infield ground balls into left field.

Mass Envelope, the defending Park League champion, should have lost. It didn’t. Read more

Park League Gets A Commissioner: Hal Kallenberg

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For Hal Kallenberg of West Roxbury, there will be more responsibilities this summer than last, but otherwise his lifestyle will be about the same – he’ll be attending a Park League baseball game, or two, just about every night.

The difference is that Kallenberg – ex-player, ex-umpire, ardent fan – has been named “commissioner” of the Park League.

It’s the first time that the league, at age 54 the oldest sandlot league in the country, has established such an office. It is part of a continuing effort by current and former Park League participants to keep the league operative. Read more

Baby’s Window Shatters As Mass. Envelope Wins It

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There were two outs last night in the seventh inning of the seventh game of this long Park League championship series. The league sponsor pushed his way into the crowd behind home plate to pick up the trophies from the scorekeeper for the quick postgame presentation.

A woman pushed her way through the crowd to the scorer’s table.

“I live in that green apartment building over there,” she said. She was very upset. “Someone hit a ball through my window. There’s a baby in the room, glass everywhere . . .”

“Report it to City Hall,” the scorekeeper told him, and that was that. This was a baseball game! Read more