PlayBall! – Alameda’s Sandlot Blog is the living story of a simpler time when kids in Alameda spent their summers at the park and played baseball for the sheer love of the game. The PlayBall! blog chronicles the players, park directors, fields, uniforms, and personal memories from the summer days spent participating in the Alameda Recreation & Park Department (ARPD) youth baseball program.
When I produced PlayBall! – Alameda’s Sandlot Saga back in 2003, I had the opportunity to hear first-hand what a lasting impact the ARPD programs had on so many people. To this day, grown men and women who, like me, were “park rats” back in the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s happily engage in conversation about those times of their life.
I’ve coached my own kids in various sports for a lot of years, and as great as many of these programs are, none come close to offering the same type of complete experience that the ARPD fostered. You can’t turn back the clock, but I wish our children had the opportunity to enjoy playing in what many recreation professionals still consider a model program. It’s a big part of why growing up in Alameda, California was so much fun.
Now it’s time to sit back, relax and take a trip back in time to a summer day many years ago when all you had to worry about was being a kid and having fun at your neighborhood park!
Enjoy PlayBall! – Alameda’s Sandlot Blog and please contribute to your local recreation programs. Keeps kids off the streets and down at the park!
Kin Robles – Editor (Franklin Eagles)
Me at the hot corner in 1967
Is that me at 2nd base when you were at 3rd?
Tony
It could be you. The resolution isn’t very good but I do remember you playing 2nd base. From the looks of it, we covered so much ground that Terry Thelen didn’t bother using a shortstop. I also remember one of the Murphys was the pitcher and always left freshly picked “boogers” on the ball.
Dennis “Doc” Reichert was on the team, too. He lived right across the street on San Jose Ave.
Wasn’t me!
It was definitely Matt. Two of my sons are currently grinding through another year of Little League baseball in Alameda — one more week to go (unless the older one’s team makes it to the June tournament). Often while I am bundled up against the Candlestick-like weather at Rittler, I dream fondly of the park-based sports that ARPD offered; all of which seemed to leave the weekends free for goofing off.
Kin,
Great job. If your house was anything like ours “way back then”, a typical Saturday morning conversation with your mom went like this:
Kid: “Mom, I’m going to the park.”
Mom: “Be back when the street lights come on.”
What a very cool site. Many a bedtime story to my two young boys has included Franklin Park as the place when, fill in the blank happened.
I grew up playing at the park in the early 80′s and every day Bill (permanent pitcher) with Bazooka gum would throw pitches from sun up to sun down. My brother Jason and good friends like Mike Baca, Greg Riesling, Andre Channell, and on and on and on, would play ball all day long.
What a treasure of memories and great ballplayers. Thank you for putting this together.
I, too, was a Franklin Eagle (or Philly as we were known back in the day). Also a McKinley Bear, a Krusi Colt. My kids were Edison Indians (Is that politically correct these days?) I coached against Terry Thelen when I was at Woodstock and just saw him and played golf on the occasion of our 50th High School reunion.
Terry and I also played on the 1957 or 58 Police League Champs sponsored by Alameda Sporting Goods. We beat Estuary who had Stargell, Mouton, andHarper. They had no pitching so we essentially outscored them and held them to a few runs to win it.
Keep up the good work on Chroncling baseball history in A Town.
Oops I did not coach against Thelen in 67 cause I was full time in Oakland parks and Rec- The rest is accurate though.
I wasn’t good enough to play baseball but I watched the two older Speiers play baseball at Franklin Park in the early 1960s. I played on a Franklin Park basketball team coached by Bob Howard that included Chris Speier, Mike Busell, Paul McBride, Mark Lightcap, Gary Dettmer and others in 1964. We won most of our games but lost to Estuary in an outdoor game at Franklin 28-22.
My family moved away from Alameda in 1964 and I didn’t return until 2008. Franklin Park is a very good memory and sometimes I shoot baskets there today.
Bob Howard taught me how to keep score and record each play when I went to Franklin Park every day. Later, when the girls got to play softball, Doris Sullivan was my first coach. No one would pitch so I volunteered. Walked twenty three…It still hurts to remember today. I gave it up before the game ended.
Wow.. there’s some memories there!
Kin,
I heard about the All-Parks Reunion on July 31st. I’m hoping to make it and represent Franklin Park. When we lived on San Jose Ave a half a block from the park, we spent day and evenings there. Does anyone remember hearing the navy bell my mom used to ring to call us home for dinner? After dinner we’d go back and play a pick up game until it was too dark to see.
I remember going over to Franklin Park after we had just moved to Alameda from San Francisco. Nobody knew me that day when I walked over to watch a game they were trying to start out on the diamond. It seemed that one of the teams were one kid short of having all nine. So, someone, I think it was Rich Sherrit asked if I would go in and play. I had never played a “real” baseball game on a “real” team. But, I do remember the very first time I got up to bat and knocked the ball out to the center field fence. From that time on, I played baseball and flag football for the Franklin Eagles and became known as “Kahuna”. Ha! Great Times!