In the spring of 1954, the news that Little League Baseball was coming to Hopkinton spread quickly among all the boys between the ages of 8 and 12 in town.
There were many questions: Where can I register, where will we play our games, is 12 too old?
The answers: We registered shortly after the message, we didn’t have a field yet and I was eligible to play – even though about half of the boys in my class were too old.
Tryouts were held on the old ball field where the new high school was to be built starting that summer. Home plate for that field was located roughly where the shower in the boys’ locker room is today, with the third base line running parallel to the street, which is still there, and left field in front of the white building, which is still there.
At the tryout we were a mixed bunch. One good thing, however, was that there were lots of new balls and rackets.
The league consisted of four major league teams – the Tigers, Giants, Braves and Red Sox – and four minor league teams – I don’t remember their names.
The major league teams wore full uniforms, while the minor league teams wore T-shirts.
When a player from a major league team went on vacation, he turned in his uniform and a minor league player was called up to take his place. The season was divided into two halves, with the winner of each half playing one game to determine the champion for that year.
Our field was built by a group of our fathers who gathered in front of the new high school building. The old tennis court was next to Hayden Rowe and the field was built west of that. If you hit a ball far enough to the left, it would land in Terry’s cow pasture. The whole field was surrounded by a “snow” fence made of wooden slats and wire. There was even a pitcher’s mound, but no dugouts – just benches.
I will introduce a team, the Tigers – because I was part of it. Our manager was Paul “Skipper” Phipps, assisted by Max Carey and Mr. Schneider.
We had a secret weapon: our pitcher, Doug Walker. He threw really fast and was just wild enough to scare any batter. I’m glad he was on our team; I didn’t like hitting against him, even in practice.
We had a great team and won both halves of the season, so there was no need for a playoff. We were the champions.
A few notes: My dad was the head umpire. He made sure there was a home plate umpire at all games. He also umpired some games. I hated it when he umpired our games. I felt like I had a lot more strikes.
We had an all-star team and played about 10 games before the night before school started, but I don’t think we won a game.
Little League was a great introduction to organized sports. Our sand court games weren’t bad, but we didn’t have that many good balls or bats.