Contact PlayBall! – Alameda’s Sandlot Blog using the form below.
Pages
Archives
Recent Comments
Fready B. Wishups on Parks Mark Grochowski on All-Time Krusi Colts Rost… Jerry cannon on All-Time Godfrey Gophers … Jerry cannon on The Park Stores Brooke Collins on Headed For Home: Curt Motton… Toni Furino on Opening Day! Toni Furino on Contact Duane White on Directors Duane White on Seal the Deal Duane White on Seal the Deal COPYRIGHT
Hey Kin,
EXCELLENT blog you’ve started….how about we contact Dale Roth (former Longfellow Tiger) to create some vintage park t-shirts that will actually fit us now that we’re older and dare I say, a little heftier?
– Ed (“Spider”) Canalin
Thanks Ed! Your mug will soon be adorning this blogdom. And have no fear… vintage park shirts are already in production and will be available as the summer progresses. Lot’s of XXLs for us park rats who stopped playing ball but kept eating all the candy bars.
Kin: I remember a few park directors from Edison. Mike Wenzel, Dennis May and Going way back. Jim Simpson. I was on the 1964 Championship team. I wish I still has the plaque from it. Hey don’t forget the 5 cent sunflower seeds and the 10 cent sodas we all lived on. And returning the used bottles and getting your 2 1/2 cents for each bottle. Thanks for the memories.
Mike Stipic
Kin,
Thanks for all the kind words about my dad and the special call out to the Krusi girls. Looking forward to the music cd of the the Playball song.
Adrienne
Hi Kin,
Great idea and great job taking us down memory lane. I spent most of the day enjoying your work.
Some more Franklin Eagles
-Joe Clasby
-Tom Clasby
-Francis Clasby
Looking forward to the tshirts when they come out.
Keep up the good work!
Hey,
Just spoke with John Keltner (aka the guy I struck out 3 times in one park league game vs. Franklin Eagles) and he mentioned that you were putting this together.
Well, it just so happens that my mom recently bequeathed me no less than 5 or 6 complete copies of Playball from the summer of 1975 which I have been wanting to digitize for posterity…
I would be happy to do that and enable you to post them if you have any suggestions as to how. I only ask that dear old mom gets some sort of appropriate archivist mentioning
Kin,
I have complete issues of PlayBall from July 1, 1975 through August 21, 1975. Also a complete issue of June 29, 1976.
From the Alameda Times Star, I have cut out articles from June 24, 1974 to August 6, 1974 that are pasted in sheet protectors. Bad move then but I didn’t know any better.
Thanks for bringing back fond memories!
Gil Mora
McKinley Bear
Alameda Boys Club Clubber
Hi Gil, It’s been a long time! Hey, I saw some of the stuff on Playball. Good memories, Good times. I would like to see more stuff if you have it or where I can find it!
Rich Ramirez
Mckinley Bear
Boy’s Clubber!!
I played with the Longfellow Tigers Pee Wee division in (I Think) 73 or 74. Well I was on the cover of Playball with Mark Sato of Krusi Colts. Any chance of finding that cover page? Thanks for the memories.
John Perata
John,
Let me ask Harvey, the PlayBall! rabbit, to see what he has down in his archive below home plate at the Oakland Coliseum.
Kin,
I was park director at KRUSI, LINCOLN and FRANKLIN from 1981 to 1983. I coached baseball, basketball and flag football. Any pics of the teams floating around?
John Perata
Wow Kin, This is really great!
Tom
Hey, how do I submit a picture of me circa 1971 or 1972?
Rittler Wildcat awards, picture ran in the Alameda Times Star.
Jeff, Send your image to playball94501@gmail.com. Thanks!
Sweet site!
Tim Harrison
Flanklin Eagles park rat from 1973-85
Dear Kin,
What a blast from the past! Spent some of the greatest days of my life on the gopher-hole ridden field out at Godfrey park as a proud Godfrey gopher (1966-74).
As with some of the other parks we would occassionally have to field more than 1 team per age group. The b-team was the Godfrey Rodents. I do recall the day when we would find out if we made the Gopher or the Rodent team and WHAT COLOR our shirts would be for that particular season.
I remember using real baseballs when we were older (Little Coast) but what type of baseballs were used for the younger aged leagues (PeeWee-Midgets)…were they called “brick-hard” baseballs? Whatever they were called, if you used them on the cement, you always wanted to field the ball on the 1st hop because the second or third bounce would almost be “super-ball” like.
I played with some super baseball players (Martin Dickenson, John Belmares, Rusty Quintana, John Sturman and many more). A kid who played on the b-team a couple different seasons, Steve Garrett, was signed by the Boston Red Sox and pitched in their minor league season for a few years before a broken pitching hand derailed his career. Much more to share but out of room.
This is awesome. Thanks Kin.
Is this a league where you can sign up and play baseball with no tryouts? If it is I would love to join and just have some fun playing ball.
Thanks,
Cody
Hi Cody,
Unfortunately, the days of the old ARPD youth baseball leagues are over. Budget cuts and the proliferation of other organized baseball leagues in the City of Alameda ended what was one of the great youth programs of all time. The good news is that you can always gather a group of your friends and head to the park to play pick-up baseball just like we did many years ago. Maybe you’ll run into one of the old park rats who will gladly show you how to play some of the shorthanded games like “second base and over” or “man-on”.
Being a Boys Club little league player from 1970 through 1973 I have a bunch of names to submit for the Boys Club roster. Unfortunately, there isn’t a link to click on to add names. Can we remedy that? Or am I the first to give you names?
Boys Club ARPD teams consisted mainly of Haight School kids (conveniently located right next to the Boys Club). Like Mastick and Edison, we didn’t have grass or a “park”. We ended up playing on the blacktop of Haight School, where argueably the best “man on” courtyard in Alameda was located. Our “home field” for park league play was Krusi Park. There were however, kids on our teams from other schools, and kids that played for Boys Club often played for other parks also throughout their childhood.
Should I give the names to you here in email? I’ll name a few here of the more better known players just to start: Marc Trujillo, Kevin Merritt, Billy Speier, Rusty and Ricky Bailey, Delbert and Donny Laviolette, Jonas Simon, Darryl Thomas. I have more, how do you want ‘em?
Thanks,
Jim Taxiera
Hey Jim, Great job on the Recog. of the Alameda Boy’s Club I know a Ton of Names also ( Myself ,Mark Phar,Norman Fink,Paul Fink,Andy Garcia,Bill Boesch, and Much More !!
Hey Rich. Yeah, I wrote Kin regarding this last week and gave him about 75 Clubber names. He said to expect a Boys Club entry soon. So stay tuned…
My sister-in-law, Denise Ratto, showed me this page. I was a park director at Longfellow, Woodstock, and finally at Krusi Park; 1982-1984.
I was a Godfrey Gopher park rat. I remember Sandy Bertero and Sherri were my park directors growing up. Brad Rankin was my Bantam little league coach when we won the championship. I also have a program from that same year that is signed by the San Francisco Giant, Chris Spier.
John Perata…..needle not only did I strike you out in little league, but smoked you in the Pool….lol!
GREAT JOB, Kin, thanks for doing this. My brother-in-law, Jeff Branchaud is going to sent me some digital copies of ARPD memorabilia to share with you.
Thanks,
Denise
Love the site. Would be great to add the Boys Club Rattlers to the list. Billy “Dead Eye” Bosch,
Mark Lasartemay, The Esparzas, I can come up with a ton of names.
Also – how about a section on Players of the week?
Great work – Dave McCarver
Franklin Eagle / Boys Club Rattler
Hi Denise,
I was a Gopher from ’61 to ’71. I have agreed to be the Gopher rep. I think we could use more publicity so I went ahead and sent an email to Ray Ratto at the Chron. I should have asked you first. I have not seen one word about him and I don’t know Ray since 40 years ago. It would be nice to see him there. What do you think?
Hi Scott,
Ray no longer works for the Chron. He’s now with Comcast Sports. I am not sure if he will be in town, but I will let him know about the reunion.
Hi Kin,
Are shirts still available? If so I’d like to order 1 xl and 1 large. Do you need a check now or can i get them at the reunion on the 31st. I am moving and disconnected my printer. Thanks, Denise
Denise,
I will include your order for COD at the Reunion. Thanks!
Kin
hey,
thank you very much for putting the reunion together, i had a great time. was great to see my fellow rec. leaders and the kids now adults who played for me and even remembered me. some even remembered my car.
brought back memories of a fun time in my life
i had great time. thank you all very much.
Paul
I just found about this website. What a great thing! I’d very much like my name to be added to the list of Franklin Eagles. After all, I won an All-Star Shortstop Award for the Pee-Wee’s in 1964. I remember it well because I was sick in bed and could not attend the awards dinner. You don’t know how bummed out I was!
My dad and brother went and received my award. Man was I depressed about that. Anyway, I played for Franklin I believe through 1968. Bob Howard was one of my coaches. Great guy. I remember he married another park director named Sidney. I doubt that’s how you spell her name. She was a cute blonde girl. I remember thinking he was very lucky, or maybe I should rephrase that to say “fortunate”.
Another name you can add is Eddy Schmidtz. I can’t recall if the “d” is in his name or not.
I remember the purple shirts and then the gray ones with green lettering. I took playing baseball very seriously. I’d lay out my pressed jersey and Willie Mays McGreggor glove the night before a game. I distincly recall one night when I was watching Andy Griffith (not reruns!) as I performed the ritual. And the blue warm up jacket from Alameda Sporting Goods was a must. And we all asked each other how many stitches we had in our caps. Eight stitch was tops. And rubber spikes.
One memory I have is that after a game at Franklin Park, my bat was missing. I usually had my own bat. Well it was gone. My dad finally tracked it down. He found one of the Spier kids in the process of painting it black in their garage across the street. No, it wasn’t Chris. I think he was a Giant by then. He could afford his own bats!
Anyway, I’m proud to be an Eagle and wish to be noted as such. Thanks.
David Perata
Iowa
I should add something to the above message.
When my dad went to the Spier’s garage and found my bat, I cannot say for certain who was the culprit. Naturally I harbor no ill feelings now and so if whoever did it is reading this we can have a good laugh about it now.
I have pictures of 65′ Rittler Wildcat midget team.Also I have a trophy of 63′ pee wee team too.How can I upload pics to this site?
how do i put old photos from the 70′s I have on the site?
To all of my ARPD family and friends, with a special shout-out to the Longfellow Park alumni…..MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here’s to a 2011 filled with hitting for the cycle, hitting a 2 out single to drive in the winning run, tossing a no-no against your heated rival, and of course-taking two and then going to right!!
Franklin Park was my neighborhood park. It was my favorite childhood place. I remember the first time I ever played softball. I was playing at the park and Sharon La Croix (never met her before that moment) came up to me and asked if I like softball. I had never played but my brother and Dad played catch with me at home. Apparently, the team didn’t have enough players to make an official game so they were combing the park for possibles. I said “sure I like softball.”
The rest is history. I played thru high school.
Sue Ratto and Pam Duffy were our pals too.
A shout out to Sandi Souza! She was the best!