As compiled by W T Harrison Jr. – May 2024
A brief history of softball: Softball was invented in Chicago in 1897 as an indoor game. The game went by many different names in different regions but was christened “softball” in 1926 because the ball used was soft. The Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA) was founded in 1933. By 1936 the Joint Rules Committee on Softball had standardized the rules and naming throughout the United States. By the 1940s, fast pitch began to dominate the game. Slow-pitch achieved formal recognition in 1953 when it was added to the program of the ASA, and within a decade had surpassed fast pitch in popularity (www.softballhistoryusa.com/the-evolution-and-history-of-softball-in-the-united-states).
Jones Beach Softball Stadium/Diamonds – The first softball diamond was built at Jones Beach in 1935 and was used for exhibition softball games. Jones Beach had a softball team in1935 and 1936. The first Jones Beach sponsored softball league was in 1937 and because of the great interest in softball shown in 1937, and with the anticipated league expansion in 1938, seating facilities and the playing surface were much improved prior to the 1938 season (The Long Island News & The Owl 4/29/38). The stadium was badly damaged in the September 1938 hurricane. For the 1939 season it was completely renovated with an improved lighting system installed (The Long Island News & the Owl 6/9/39). A 7/12/41 Nassau Daily Review – Star article refers to a Sunday double header which was to take place at the “new diamond off the boardwalk”. The Jones Beach informational sign on the boardwalk states that a new Stadium was built in 1945. With the growth of softball in popularity from both a participant and a spectator standpoint, most likely the softball diamond was constantly being updated and improved with increased permanent constructed seating (replacing temporary seating) and was made to more closely resemble a “stadium” with these upgrades. In many news articles of the day about different softball leagues, various teams’ home games are listed as taking place at “stadiums”, including Freeport, Floral Park, Glen Cove and Cedarhurst. This most likely is just the newspapers’ way of referring to softball diamonds that had permanent seating to accommodate larger attendance capacities to watch the games. In 1950 a new electric scoreboard was installed as reference was made to Larry Neusse of Bellmore hitting the top of it with his home run blast (Newsday 8/25/50).
In 1960 a totally new diamond/stadium was built to accommodate forty or more games in one week for the 1960 ASA World Tournament which was hosted at Jones Beach. The new field, with a seating capacity reported to be 1,500, near the West Bath House, with a level clay infield and carefully sodded outfield, its floodlights, and new bleachers, was touted as one of the finest playing surfaces in the country. Also, at this time the existing playing field near the East Bath House was re-graded, a new clay infield constructed, and the lighting system overhauled (88 floodlights, Newsday 9/15/60). New comfort stations were constructed, and bleachers added to seat 10,000 persons. A press box was built high above the stadium to accommodate the newspaper, television and radio corp. (Brooklyn Record- Bay Ridge Record 9/16/60). (Other sources report the seating capacity as 8,000 (King County Chronicle 5/31/60) or 8,500). The state spent upwards of $75,000 to improve facilities, add 5,000 seats to the present stadium and build the additional (new) stadium (Newsday 7/19/60). The fences for both stadiums were set back at 250 feet from home plate to meet ASA World Tournament specifications (Newsday 8/30/60).
In 1961 another field was added to the east of the East Bath House. This field had no lights and was to be used for junior and senior soccer leagues and senior lacrosse leagues (Newsday 5/6/61
1937
A Jones Beach Softball “Village” League was organized, and its inaugural season started on Sunday May 23, 1937. It consisted of separate Nassau and Suffolk divisions with five teams each probably playing double headers every other week with single contests as the alternative. Each club was to submit a roster of up to 15 players changeable from time to time in case injuries or vacations interfered (NDR – Star 4/14/37). The season was to end on July 28th and a playoff between the Nassau and Suffolk divisions was to take place (NDR – Star 7/14/37).
Standings as of 7/14/37*:
* These were the standings reported (NDR – Star 7/15/37)
Apparently, the season consisted of each team playing each other just once for a four game schedule. Hempstead defeated Huntington in a playoff to win the 1937 Jones Beach championship (Manhasset Press 4/21/38).
1938
Jones Beach saw expansion with two leagues playing, the Nassau-Suffolk Village league and the newly formed Nassau-Suffolk Industrial League. The Industrial league consisted of twelve teams, six from each county. The Nassau – Suffolk Village league was expanded from five to eight teams each for 1938. League play started on Monday May 13th. The Industrial league played two games each Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings. The Village league played Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings with Sunday afternoon double headers starting at 2:30 (BDE 6/9/38).
Village league standings as of 8/1/38*:
* These were the standings reported as of 8/2/38 and updated for separately reported 8/2 Sayville vs W. Islip and 8/6 Huntington vs Babylon and results. It does not include results for 8/2 Lynbrook vs Hempstead and 8/4 Patchogue vs Amityville. (NDR – Star 8/2/38)
Sayville, by virtue of winning a one game playoff with Huntington, won the Suffolk division and met the Nassau division winner, Baldwin Mug Club, in a best two out of three playoff.
Game 1 – On Sunday August 14th, Sayville won game one 3 – 2 in eight innings behind the complete game effort of twirler Wilbur Miller.
Game 2 – Baldwin came back on Sunday August 21st to even the series with a 9 – 6 victory.
Game 3 – On Sunday August 28th at 1 pm, the two teams met in the deciding game to determine the Nassau – Suffolk village league Jones Beach championship. In the game three finale, Baldwin defeated Sayville 10 – 1 before an estimated crowd of 3,000 spectators (The Suffolk County News 9/2/38).
At 2:30 pm the Suffolk runner-up, Amityville, met the Nassau runner-up, Hempstead, in the final game of their best of three consolation playoff series to decide third and fourth places (The Patchogue Advance 8/26/38). I don’t know how Amityville was runner-up when Huntington was clearly the runner up to Sayville. I also could not find any reporting on the details or outcome of this consolation series.
Industrial League:
Final Industrial league standings for 1938*:
* These were the final standings reported (Farmingdale Post 9/8/38).
There were no playoffs in the industrial league. Long Island Water was declared the winner of the league with Seversky Aircraft finishing 2nd and six teams tied for third.
There was an All-star game between Nassau and Suffolk All-stars on Sunday September 11th and a contest on Sunday September 18th between the Village and Industrial All-stars, but I could find no additional reporting on the outcomes (Farmingdale Post 9/8/38).
Highlights of the 1938 Season:
In a game on July 26th between Sayville and Bay Shore, Howard Atkins of Sayville set a Jones Beach record of 18 strikeouts in a single game while allowing only three hits (The Patchogue Advance 8/5/38).
1939
From almost 100 teams which applied, 36 teams were chosen to play divided into six leagues of six teams each. Double headers were to be played each Sunday starting at 2:30 pm and weekday nights from Monday to Saturday beginning at 8:45 pm (The Long Island News & The Owl 6/9/39).
Village League:
The Village League consisted of three divisions (not the four as originally announced) of six teams each, broken out as follows:
North Nassau Section:
1st place – Oyster Bay (4-0)
2nd Place – Floral Park
South Nassau Section:
1st place – Hempstead
2nd place – Lynbrook
Suffolk Section:
1st place – Huntington
2nd place – Lindenhurst & Amityville tied
A one game playoff was held on Saturday August 5th to decide the 2nd place finisher for the Suffolk section for the Village League playoffs.
Hempstead won the Village Championship with 15 members and Managers Jack Shultz and Charlie Wilson receiving gold engraved bracelets from the Long Island State Park commission in token of their championship (NDR – Star 9/28/39). The Roosevelt Rotary club took the runner-up honors (NDR – Star 6/29/40). I believe the 1940 reporting about the Roosevelt Rotaries to be erroneous since they weren’t one of the six 1st or 2nd place ball clubs from the Village league reporting in 1939. I could not find any reporting details on the outcome of the playoff games or series.
Industrial League:
The Industrial League consisted of two Sections, A and B, each consisting of six teams. Both sections ended with three-way ties for first place. In section A, Nassau Utilities, NY Telephone and Grumman Aircraft finished in a first-place tie with identical records of three wins against two setbacks. In section B, Kirkham Engineering, King Kullen and State Laundry tied for first with identical four wins and one loss records (NDR – Star 8/3/39).
In section A, Grumman Aircraft and NY Telephone, by defeating Nassau Utilities 10 to 2 and 10 to 3 respectively, earned the right to enter the finals. In section B, Kirkham Engineering defeated State Laundry 6 to 2 but lost to King Kullen 5 to 2, while State Laundry defeated King Kullen 6 to 3. It was decided to play-off this tie by another elimination series. King Kullen won the draw. Kirkham Engineering was to play State Laundry. The winner of this game was to play King Kullen and the two losers were to then meet to determine the second finalist from section B (Farmingdale Post & Newsletter 8/10/39). State Laundry lost to both Kirkham Engineering and King Kullen (NDR – Star 8/25/39).
These sectional playoffs resulted in semi-final double header matchups. On Sunday September 3rd Grumman Aircraft (Sec. A) played King Kullen (Sec. B) at 8:45 pm and NY Telephone (Sec. A) played Kirkham Engineering (Sec. B), at 9:45 pm (NDR – Star 9/3/39). I could find no additional reporting on the outcome of the Industrial League playoffs.
1940
The “new” Jones Beach Softball League season started with 20 teams. Apparently, there would be no more Village or Industrial divisions, and the league was now open to all teams regardless of any designations. Commissioner Robert Moses threw the first ball on June 30, 1940. Preceding the opening game, the Babylon American Legion Bugle and Drum corps paraded from the parking field at Zach’s Bay to the ball diamond where they executed a drill and took part in the flag raising ceremony (NDR – Star 6/29/40). All games of seven innings in duration were to be played on weeknights (scheduled for 8:15 and 9:15 pm) while Sunday games were played in the afternoon (2:15 and 3:15 pm) (BDE 6/26/40).
Thirty-eight teams played trial and exhibition games starting on Memorial Day from which twenty teams were selected based upon outcomes to participate in 1940 Jones Beach League play.
Final Standings for 1940*:
* These were the final standings reported (Farmingdale Post 9/5/40).
T – In the American League, Hempstead tied with Lynbrook for second place, but on August 29th defeated them 9 – 8 in a one game playoff to take second place in the American League. Veteran Joe Kelly, former Chicago Cubs star, pitched for Lynbrook and was the losing pitcher. Hempstead ace, Bud Nix was hit hard by Lynbrook after getting off to an early lead, and a seventh inning rally was stopped with the tying run on third and the winning run on first when Williams struck out (Newsday 8/30/40).
Highlights of the 1940 Season:
On July 24, Tom Ganley of Mineola set a new Jones Beach record for strikes outs, 20 batters in 7 innings, allowing only a bunt single in the 6th inning. It should be noted that the pitching distance between the mound and home plate is 43 feet (BDE 7/24/40 & The Leader 9/11/41).
On the very next night, July 25, eighteen-year-old Roy Stephenson of the Grumman Yankees pitched a no hit no run game and tied Ganley’s record with 20 strikeouts (NDR – Star 7/27/40).
On July 30th the 1-3 East Islip Tigers handed the Grumman Yankees and their ace hurler Stephenson what would be their only defeat of the season, a 4 – 0 loss.
Roy Stephenson established himself as the premier hurler in the Jones Beach League throwing three no hitters in league play during the season.
The 1940 Jones Beach Little World Series:
The Jones Beach Little World Series best of seven (nine inning) games started on Tuesday August 27th. The Grumman Yankees win the inaugural Jones Beach Little Worlds Series (Long Island State Parks Championship) over the Baldwin Mug club
Game 1– On Tuesday, August 27th, Grumman defeated the Mug Club 2-0. Grumman’s Roy Stephenson struck out 20, allowing 3 hits, 11 walks with a reported 1,200 fans in attendance (BDE 8/28/40 & NDR – Star 8/28/40).
Game 2 – On Wednesday August 28th, Grumman wins 8-6 in 10 innings with 2,700 fans in attendance (BDE 8/30/40).
Game 3 – On Friday August 30th, Grumman wins Game 3.
Game 4 – Baldwin wins game 4.
Game 5 – On Monday September 2nd, Baldwin defeated Grumman 9 – 5 (Newsday 9/2/40).
Game 6 – On Sunday September 8th in the 3:30 nightcap, Grumman topped the Baldwin Mug club 9 – 4 behind the stellar twirling of Roy Stephenson. The Mugmen held a 1 – 0 advantage after four innings, but a five run fifth inning sealed the victory for Grumman. Attendance for game six was reported to be 4,000 (Farm Post 9/18/40 & Newsday 9/9/40).
In the best two out of three game consolation tournament Hempstead defeated Mineola 18 – 6 and 4 – 2 to take third place in the Jones Beach Softball League (BDE 9/4/40). On Monday September 2nd, before the Grumman – Baldwin contest, Hempstead finished out the three game consolation tourney with a 4 – 2 win over Mineola (Newsday 9/3/40).
Jones Beach All-Stars:
There was also a best of 3 game series between the National and American League All-stars as selected by the Jones Beach fans. In game one of a Sunday September 8th double header (before the Grumman – Baldwin nightcap), the Nationals won the first game 5 – 1. The Americans bested the Nationals in the second game on Sunday September 15th. On September 29th, the Nationals beat the Americans in the third and deciding game with the final score of 4 – 0. This pulled down the curtain on the 1940 Jones Beach Softball season.
Jones Beach vs Riis Park:
On September 22, 1940, a twin bill took place at Jones Beach.
The Long Island State Parks Champion Grumman Yankees lost 5 – 2 to the Watson & Gleason Ave team of the Bronx, the NYC Public Parks Champions in the first game. Roy Stephenson only allowed 3 hits but allowed three runs in the fifth and two in the sixth inning. Grumman scratched out four hits in total.
In the preliminary game, the Hempstead Giants led by ace Buddy Nix, defeated the NYC Public Parks runner-ups, Liev Ericksson Playground team of Brooklyn 5 – 3. Nix allowed only one hit over seven innings (BDE 9/20/40, 9/23/40 & NDR – Star 9/23/40 & Newsday 9/23/40).
Infield Chatter:
Lynbrook’s Joe Kelly played for the Chicago Cubs during the 1926 and 1928 seasons. Over his 97-game career, Kelly posted a .307 career batting average (70 for 228), with 19 runs, 16 doubles, three triples, one home run and 39 RBIs (Wikipedia).
Many of the top teams in the Jones Beach League played concurrently in various leagues including Rockville Centre, Glen Cove and the Metropolitan League among others. Players, especially top pitchers, played with opposing teams in other leagues and tournaments. The top league appeared to be the Metropolitan League which included the top teams from Nassau and Queens Counties. Winners of this league would qualify to move forward in regional tournaments, perhaps allowing them to qualify for the ASA World Championship tournament held each year in varied locations in the U.S.
Tom Ganley, pitching for St Joan of Arc from Jackson Heights, defeated Stephenson’s Grumman’s to take the NYC Metro (NY City and Long Island) title and advance to the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) World Championships in Detroit Michigan. St Joan of Arc finished 0 – 1, tied for 33rd place in the field of thirty-three teams (softballhistoryusa.com).
1941
The Jones Beach Softball season started again on Memorial Day, May 26th, with a series of trial and exhibition games resulting in the eventual reduced selection of only 16 men’s teams but with the addition of 4 women’s teams. League play started on Saturday, June 14, 1941. Two games were played every night in the week and Sunday afternoons.
Standings as of August 28, 1941*:
Women’s Standings as of September 1, 1941*:
* These were the standings reported through August 27th (Farmingdale Post 8/28/41). They were supplemented with the results of a subsequent Pirettes win vs the Rockettes.
The 1941 Jones Beach Little World Series:
The Floral Park Bombers defeated the Grumman Yankees in a best of five series. The Grumman Yankees were upset in the “Little World Series” when they were forced to compete in the American Softball Association (ASA) Metropolitan tournament at the same time.
Game 1 – on Thursday night, August 28th, Floral Park won 10 – 1 behind Bob Sheffield’s four hitter and is credited with the win (The Gateway 9/4/41). Grumman held Stephenson on the bench since he pitched Wednesday night and was scheduled to pitch Saturday night in the Metropolitan championships at Freeport stadium. Hall started for Grumman, was replaced by Erskine, who was replaced by Stephenson in the seventh. Floral Park got four runs in the first inning on successive singles by Jake Klein, Jerry Kney and Noel Porro after the bases had been loaded by walks. They added another four runs in the sixth inning and added two more in the seventh (The Gateway 9/4/41 & Newsday 8/29/41).
Game 2 – The Grumman Yankees won the August 29th Friday night game 12 – 10. Roy Stephenson started the game but did not pitch the entire game. He stayed in the game though and twice returned to the mound to stop Bomber rallies. He also homered in the winning cause (The Gateway 9/4/41).
Game 3 – The Bombers won the Saturday night clash 14 – 7 with Sheffield again on the hill. Jerry Sniffen added a three-run homer in the seventh for some insurance. A record crowd jammed the stands and overflowed to the dunes surrounding the Jones Beach softball diamond (The Gateway 9/4/41).
Game 4 – On Sunday with Stephenson on the mound, Grumman won 7 – 1 with Emanuel Perlmutter taking the loss for the Bombers. Grumman got four runs in the first, two in the second, and one in the seventh. Both pitchers allowed only 4 hits, but Floral Park errors decided the game (the Gateway 9/4/41).
Game 5 – On Labor Day afternoon, Monday September 1st, the Floral Park Bombers won the decisive game five by a score of 1 – 0. The winning run came in the second inning after Ralph Van Nostrand drew a walk, advanced on Bill Harrison’s single over short and crossed the plate when George Streck drove a one bagger past second base. Sheffield picked up his third win in the Championship series (The Gateway 9/4/41).
On Saturday August 30th, the Sash & Door Aces faced off against the Baldwin Mug Club in a best of three consolation series to decide third place. In game one, the Aces prevailed by a score of 3 – 0 with winning pitcher Goldstein giving up three hits while losing pitcher Hopkins gave up five. In game two, the Mug Club came back to win 9 – 8. In the Labor Day rubber match, the S & D Aces nosed out Baldwin in a close contest, winning 5 – 4 by scoring two runs in the bottom of the fifth to go ahead for good (NDR- Star 9/30/41).
In the Jones Beach Woman’s league, there was no reporting or mention of any playoff series.
Jones Beach vs Riis Park:
On Sunday September 7th, the Floral Park Bombers, Jones Beach Champions lost in eight innings to the Riis Park Champions, Big Bob’s. In the battle of runners-up, the S&D Aces scored a 6 – 4 victory over the Metro-Forest club of New York (Newsday 9/8/41).
Infield Chatter:
It was reported that the Jones Beach Softball League playing five nights a week and on Sunday afternoons drew 185,000 fans for the 1941 season (NDR- Star 9/26/41).
The Freeport Rockettes, made up of current and alumni students of Freeport High School won the ASA Metropolitan Championship tournament behind the pitching of 15-year-old Adelaide Brall and recent Ithaca College grad, Ellen Hauvor earning the right to face Tarrytown on Saturday, September 6th for a chance to compete in the National Championships. They lost 7-5 but the game was played under protest as the Tarrytown squad had 5 “ringers,” professional exhibitionists who had played for the
Pirettes and Trevocs in the Jones Beach league all summer. After learning that Tarrytown would not be able to go to Detroit, the Rockettes were unable raise the necessary $500 to make the trip in their place due to the limited time involved (The Leader 9/11/41).
On September 6th, the Grumman Yankees won the Metropolitan tournament defeating St. Joan of Arc of Jackson Heights and ace Tom Ganley by a score of 1-0. The winning run was scored with 2 outs in the bottom of the seventh on a bases loaded bunt by former Hofstra ace, Frank Reilly, to secure the win in front of 1,500 fans at the Freeport stadium (Newsday 9/8/41). The Metropolitan Softball League championship was open to any winners of established leagues to qualify for the Metropolitan crown and a chance to compete in the ASA World Championship. How Grumman gained a berth in the Met Championships was still a mystery and a sore spot for local softball managers in 1942. In 1942
Grumman would opt to play an independent schedule, consisting of double-headers every other Sunday at Freeport Stadium (Newsday 6/23/42).
The win secured Grumman one of 80 spots in the single elimination ASA “World” Championship tournament in Detroit Michigan (The article mentions 80 spots, but the results show 56 teams competed). On September 11th, they were upset by the Merrill-Usher Steel Company squad from Worchester Massachusetts in their first game by a score of 2-0 and eliminated. They tied with 24 other teams for 33rd place. The ASA tournament would switch to a double elimination format in 1942. They would also divide the country into 14 separate regions, including Canada. Locally, the new Mid-Atlantic Region would now encompass a playoff of regional champions from New York State, New Jersey State, New York City Metro, Metro Rochester-NY, Metro Buffalo-NY and Metro Newark-NJ (softballhistoryusa.com).
Although this would be the last year Grumman competed in the Jones Beach League, they would continue through the 1951 season behind the exceptional pitching of Roy Stephenson, to be the most dominant team on the eastern seaboard.
1942
“Night sports activities at Jones Beach appear to be washed up for the duration following the Army’s weekend request for a beach front blackout from Montauk Point to Staten Island so that ships at sea might not be silhouetted against the lighted shoreline and made easy targets for enemy
submarines…. that means the Jones Beach Softball league, whose games had furnished entertainment for the thousands who flocked to the beach on warm summer nights will probably have to go, too…. but all this is a small sacrifice if it results in one ship being saved, or the life of one seaman…” (Newsday 3/30/42).
A meeting was held on May 12, 1942, for all interested “boys’ and girls’ softball team representatives” to formulate a plan for the upcoming Jones Beach Softball League (Farmingdale Post 5/7/42).
Dimout orders erased all night activities at Jones Beach. Softball, basketball and surfboard water polo were to be conducted much as usual but were started earlier to be completed before dark when all lights were extinguished and the beach cleared of visitors (NDR – Star 6/2/42).
This is most likely the reason the league trimmed the men’s league from 16 to 14 teams and eliminated the women’s league to allow all games to be played in daylight hours.
Final Standings for 1942*:
* These standings were as reported for all games played as of September 2nd (NDR – Star 9/3/42). These aren’t 100% accurate as wins and losses do not equal each other for the National league.
Highlights of the 1942 Season:
On Monday June 29th the Hicksville Ironmen defeated the Bellmore Sigmas 4 – 2 in a six- and one-half inning encounter. Each team got seven hits, there were only two strikeouts, and the game took a reported forty-one minutes to complete! (Newsday 6/30/42).
The 1942 Jones Beach Little World Series:
In the best of five game series for the championship, the Liberty Cardinals defeated the Nassau Dodgers 3 games to 1 and won the 1942 Jones Beach Little World Series.
Game 1 – On Thursday night, September 3rd, the Cardinal defeated the Dodgers 11 – 4. Nick Matteo got the victory while Johnny Thuren took the loss. Frank “Bitsey” Scheible drove in eight runs with a double and a pair of three run homers for the victors. (NDR – Star 9/4/42)
Game 2 – On Friday night, Thuren came back and pitched a one hit gem, allowing only a double to Cy Nicoll in the fourth, while leading the Dodgers to a 6 – 3 win. Joe Solano took the loss, allowing only six hits, for the Cardinals. (NDR – Star 9/5/42)
Game 3 – The Cardinals won game three with an 18-hit barrage leading to the final score of 16 – 3. Hymie Pollack, Bus Treharne and Nick Matteo Led the Cardinal’s attack with three hits each (Farmingdale Post 9/17/42).
Game 4 – The Liberty Cardinals were crowned the 1942 Jones Beach Little World Series Champions beating the Dodgers 9 – 4 in a 3:30 pm contest on Sunday, September 6th. In the third inning with the scored knotted at two, Liberty unleashed a barrage of five hits off “vaunted Johnny Thuren”, including doubles by Hymie Polak and Bitsy Shibe, to send four big runs across the plate (Farmingdale Post 9/17/42).
In the consolation series on Labor Day September 7th, the Floral Park Bombers beat the S&D Aces 8 – 4 for third place honors in a single 9 inning game. There was no reporting as to why Idlewild could not compete for third place, but they may have been booked to play elsewhere or could not field a team.
Jones Beach All-Stars:
Once again, the Softball season was extended to allow for All-star games on Sunday September 13th at 2:30 pm.
It consisted of a doubleheader pitting National and American league all-stars from eight of the 14 teams vs the “Jolly Ten” of Bayside in the first game and the Allen’s All-Stars from Poughkeepsie in the nightcap. One armed Teddy Smith of Republic and Berman and Perlmutter of Hempstead were listed to share the twin bill pitching duties (NDR – Star 9/10 & 9/12/42). I could find no detailed reporting on these games but there was a headline in Newsday which stated, “Split Twin Bill” under which it was reported the “softball season came to a close here last weekend as the Jones Beach All-Stars took a twin bill” (Newsday 9/15/42).
Jones Beach vs Riis Park:
I could find no mention any post season competition between the Jones Beach champion and runner-up and their counterparts from the Riis Park League.
Infield Chatter: In an 8/4/50 Newsday article about the three Smith brothers, Teddy, Stan and Joe, it was noted that Ted lost his left arm in an accident when he was a child, but it did not prevent him from having a brilliant athletic career. “Aside from being one of the top softball hurlers on the Island, he shot in the low eighties in golf and was one of the best tackles ever to play for Hicksville High. He made the all-scholastic grid for two years”.
1943-1945
During World War 2 there was no softball due to restrictions on leisure travel and gas rationing.
1946
An organizational meeting was held on April 1st at the cafeteria on the Central Mall for managers of all interested Nassau and Suffolk County teams. Again, as in previous years, a series of playoff exhibition contests were held to quality teams for the league. Softball officially returned to Jones Beach after a three-year hiatus with the new season opening up on Saturday June 15th with an expanded 16 teams over the previous 14 in 1942.
Final Standings for 1946*:
* These standings were as reported for all games played as of August 21st (NDR – Star 8/22/46). The standings were supplemented with wins and losses from researched game results for reported games played on August 22, 23, 25, 26 (rain), 27, and 28.
The 1946 Jones Beach Little World Series:
The Roosevelt Rotaries winners of the National League beat the East Islip Alumni, top team in the American league three games to one in the best of five games Jones Beach Little World Series (BDE 9/5/46).
Game 1 – On August 30th, in a Friday night game, the Roosevelt Rotaries defeated the East Islip Alumni 16 – 3. All 16 runs were scored in the first four innings. Jim Griva got the win and Teddy Waechter took the loss.
Game 2 – On Saturday August 31st, East Islip came back to win the second game, a 6 – 5 triumph. Game 3 – Sunday afternoon, the Rotaries flipped the tables to win 6 – 5 with Jimmy Griva picking up his second win of the series while allowing only six hits.
Game 4 – On Labor Day, September 2nd, the Rotaries clinched the Little World Series title by winning game four 12 – 1 for their third victory. Ed Toner picked up the win allowing only three hits as his teammates coupled seven hits with four errors by the losers to cash in on every scoring opportunity.
In the consolation tournament to decide third place overall, the Freeport Legion defeated Huntington Saturday August 31st, 8 – 4 and again on Sunday 10 – 1. On Labor Day, in what was supposed to be the first game of the Labor Day double header and the third game of the series, Freeport was awarded the forfeit victory and third place as Huntington declined to play out the series after losing the first two games (NDR – Star 9/3/46).
Jones Beach vs Riis Park:
I could find no mention any post season competition between the Jones Beach champion and runner-up and their counterparts from the Riis Park League.
Infield Chatter:
Although I could find no mention of it, it appears from headlines in 1946 referring to teams as the “so and so 9” from the previous years’ descriptions as the “so and so 10”, and from reviewing box scores, the 1946 Jones Beach league limited the number of players on the field to nine. Previously ten position players were utilized during the 1942 and previous seasons. In 1947 the ASA, in an effort to increase offense, formally eliminated the tenth player, or short fielder (www.softballhistoryusa.com/the- evolution-and-history-of-softball-in-the-united-states).
1947
An 8:00 pm organizational meeting was held on Monday, March 24th at the cafeteria on the Central Mall for managers of all interested Nassau and Suffolk County teams. Play-off games between twenty-eight teams were held between Saturday May 24th and Sunday June 8th to determine the selection of teams for the 1947 season. League play started on Saturday, June 14, 1947, at 8:30 pm.
Final Standings for 1947*:
* These standings are for all games played as of Tuesday August 19th (NDR – Star 8/20/47). The standings were supplemented with wins and losses for results of games reported as having been played on August 22nd, 24th, 25th, 26th (rain) and 27th. As every team was scheduled to play each team in their respective league twice, there are some results missing because of weather or reporting.
The Rotaries wound up with their 11-3 record and second place after their loss to Lakeview FD was overturned on appeal for use of an unregistered player (Charles (Truck) Sullivan) by Lakeview in their matchup on Sunday August 24th.
On August 27th, the Bellmore Sigmas took first place by winning a one game playoff 3 – 2 against the Roosevelt Rotaries after finishing with identical 11 – 3 records. Both teams pushed across single runs in the seventh to force “the tilt into extra innings”. After an uneventful eighth inning, Bellmore “fashioned a big pair of markers in the ninth”. Bob Cheviot drew a walk and advanced to third when the third
baseman overthrew on Ed Zuardo’s bunt. Both runners scored on consecutive flies to left field by Stan Stahurski followed by Jerry Stahurski. The Rotaries scored one run in the bottom of the ninth when a walk forced in a run. But pitcher Orville Carmen “turned off the heat” by getting Ed Toner to foul out to the catcher and then fanning Nick Ritchie (NDR – Star 8/28/47).
Highlights of the 1947 Season:
On July 17th, one armed Ted Smith pitched a two hitter for Republic Aviation beating his brother Joe Smith and the Hicksville Loyolas 9 – 3.
On Thursday night, July 24th, Frank Jagiello of the Kluger Maroons tossed the first no hit shutout of the season behind 19 strikeouts and two walks to defeat the Hicksville Kiwanis 4-0.
The 1947 Jones Beach Little World Series:
The Kluger Maroons, winners of the National League title defeated the Bellmore Sigmas, title winners of the American League 3 games to two to win the 1947 Little World Series. It was reported that members of both teams received gold medals for finishing first in their respective divisions.
Game 1 – On Thursday, August 28th, the Kluger Maroons pounded out ten hits off Jerry Stahurski, including four extra-base blows to defeat the Sigmas by a score of 9 – 3. Mitchel field soldier, ace Frank Jagiello, gave up just five hits and earned the win. Harry Crispo had a double and triple in four at bats for the victors (Newsday 8/29/47).
Game 2 – On Friday August 29th, The Kluger Maroons triumphed in game two behind Jagiello’s no hit pitching, allowing only three walks behind nine strikeouts in a 2 – 0 victory. Orville Carmen had a no- hitter until the fifth when Harry Crispo reached on an error and Ed Solosky got the game’s first hit, a two-run homer (Newsday 8/30/47).
Game 3 – On Saturday, August 30th, the Bellmore Sigmas came back to win game three by a score of 6 – 5 (BDE 9/4/47).
Game 4 – The Bellmore Sigmas again won game four by a score of 8 – 2 (BDE 9/4/47).
Game 5 – On Labor Day, September 1st, in the decisive game five, Frank Jagiello led the Kluger Maroons to the Little World Series title by a score of 9 – 1, picking up his third win of the series (BDE 9/4/47).
In the consolation tournament game one to decide 3rd place, the Hempstead Millers defeated the Roosevelt Rotaries 4 – 1 behind the “gilt edged two hit hurling of Ed Clark”. A double by Bill Ritsch, following a walk and an error, sent two runs in to break a 1 – 1 tie in the fifth inning (NDR – Star & Newsday 8/29/47).
In the second game, the Millers won 4 – 3 in nine innings behind Ed Clark. The Rotaries loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh with no outs and the score tied 2 – 2, but “saw their hopes blasted as the Miller’s came up with a snappy triple play”. With two men on base, Bill Terjesen bunted to pitcher Ed Clark who made the put out at first, fired to home for the second out, with catcher Tom O’Sullivan riffling the ball to third completing the triple killing (NDR – Star & Newsday 8/30/47). Hempstead scored the winning run in the top of the ninth when Manny Schill singled, stole second, and scored on successive miscues by Roosevelt’s Scotty Smith and John Doht (Newsday & NDR – Star, 8/30/47).
This guaranteed the Millers’ third place overall for 1947
Jones Beach vs Riis Park:
The Kluger Maroons went on to face Paddy’s Red Rockets, Champions of the Riis Park League. On Sunday September 7th at 2:30 pm, in a one game playoff, the Red Rockets defeated the Maroons 3 – 1 in ten innings at Jones Beach to take the “Worlds Series” title. The Maroons tied the score at 1 – 1 in the bottom of the seventh by pushing across a run. In the top of the tenth, the Red Rockets tallied the two deciding runs on a walk, a single, Bill Campbell’s error and a sacrifice fly for the lead and the eventual win. Bill Whitehouse was credited for the win in one inning of relief while Frank Jagiello went the distance in the Maroons’ loss. Kluger sent the game into overtime in the last of the seventh when Bub Merrit doubled and scored on Harry Crispo’s long fly. In the opener, the Jones Beach runner-ups, the Bellmore Sigmas, defeated the Ryan’s, the Riis Park runner-ups, 14 – 6. The Sigma’s scored five times in the fourth, highlighted by Bill Vaggiano’s home run with two runners aboard (BDE 9/8/47 & Newsday 9/8/47).
1948
On Monday March 8th, some 70 men representing 26 teams attended a meeting of the Jones Beach Softball League. A plan for picking the top 16 teams to form the National and American league circuits was established. Starting soon, a schedule giving each team a chance to play will be set up to terminate on Memorial Day. League play will begin formal play on Saturday, June 12th (NDR – Star 3/10/48).
Final Standings for 1948*:
* These standings were reported as of 9/1/48. (BDE 9/1/48)
#- The Floral Park Bombers, after having competed in 1946 & 1947 in the Metropolitan Major Softball League (est. 1946) were unable to procure use of the village playground for 1948 and instead set their sights on a beach loop crown (Newsday 5/7/48).
The 1948 Jones Beach Little World Series:
The Franklin Square Royals defeated the Floral Park Bombers to win the 1948 Little World Series three games to zero.
Game 1 – On Sunday August 29th Franklin Square won by a score of 3 -0. John Melinski pitched a two hitter as did his rival Fred Burman. All three Royal runs were tallied in the second inning. A single by Carl Caputo was followed by a third base error which put Gene Hoffman aboard. Art Elbert’s fly ball was dropped by the bomber right fielder allowing two runs to score. Elbert got all the way to third on the play and scored on a sacrifice fly by Ed Regnell (NDR – Star 8/30/48).
Game 2 – On Tuesday August 31st, Franklin Square won 1 – 0 on the one hit pitching of John Melinski.
The only run of the contest was scored in the second inning. Opening with a single, Art Elbert took second on a passed ball. When Bob Hoffman was safe on a fielder’s choice, Elbert reached third and scored on an Ed Regnell fly to deep left. Melinski’s no hit bid was spoiled in the fourth inning on a Bill Harrison single while allowing only one walk and striking out four (NDR – Star 9/1/48).
Game 3 – On Thursday September 2nd the Franklin Square Royals pounded the Bombers 9 – 2 for their third straight victory to capture the Jones Beach Little World Series. Floral Park scored two runs in the top of the second to go ahead by one run. Franklin Square came right back to score three in the bottom of the stanza and sealed the victory with a five-run bottom of the third. Melinski won his third game of the series with Duke King taking the loss for the Bombers (NDR – Star 9/3/48).
In the curtain raiser on Sunday August 29th, in the consolation series to decide 3rd place, the Lakeview Fire Department took the first game over the Mineola Blue Devils 3 – 2. Lakeview’s Jim Grivas had a no hitter until the seventh when he allowed a triple to Paul Korf who scored on a Tom Long single. Long later scored on a passed ball but Lakeview held on for the win (NDR – Star 8/30/48).
On Tuesday in the second contest, the Blue Devils came back to even the series with a 5 – 2 win. Tom Long turned in a no-hit performance for the victors while fanning 13 men and issuing six passes (NDR – Star 9/1/48).
In Thursday’s deciding game three, the Mineola Blue Devils trampled the Lakeview FD by a score of 18 – 2 to take third place. The winning pitcher, Tom Long, posted a three for four hitting night while scoring four runs. Wally Barnes added a homerun in the seventh with two aboard to add insult to injury over the riddled Vamps” (NDR – Star 9/3/48).
Jones Beach vs Riis Park:
The Franklin Square Royals went on to face the Riis Park Champion Clarebrooks. On Sunday September 12th at Jones Beach, the favored Royals fell by a score of 4 – 3 in two extra innings. Pitcher Frank Bonich won his own game with his second hit of the game, a solo home run in the ninth inning. Bonich gave up seven well scattered “safeties” while fanning ten. Royal ace, Jack Melinski, gave up only five hits while striking out eleven and walking four in a losing effort.
In the preliminary game, which was limited to five innings, the Floral Park Bombers crushed the Riis Park runner-up Woodside Rollers 8 – 0. Duke King pitched three-hit ball for the Bombers (Newsday 9/13/48).
Infield Chatter:
At the conclusion of the Little World Series, awards were presented to the individual players of each
first, second and third place teams. In addition, a batting trophy was awarded to each of the league’s leading batters. In the final tabulation, Jim Garing of the Hempstead Ryans led the National League with a .412 average while Bill Bordiuk of Ranger Aircraft was on top of the American League with a .419 percentage
(NDR – Star 9/1/48)
1949
The Jones Beach Softball League held its initial meeting at the Jones Beach Cafeteria on Monday night, April 4th with 26 teams represented. Elimination games were to be played starting the final weekend of May and winding up about June 12thto decide the 16 permanent placements (NDR – Star 4/5/49).
* These standings were reported as of 8/30/49. (NDR -Star 8/31/49). It appears the National League results include the playoff wins and losses to decide the tie for second place. Also wins should equal losses for each league, so the paper’s reporting appears to be somewhat inaccurate.
The Royal A. C. beat Jack’s Sport shop on Saturday August 27th to place them in a tie with the Merrick Rangers for first place in the National League and forcing a one game playoff to determine a first-place winner. In the one game playoff on Sunday August 28th, the Royals behind ace John Melinski defeated the Merrick Ranger 1 – 0 to take the National League title. Three singles in a row off Merrick’s Orville Carmen in the fourth inning, including the winning hit by John Melinski propelled the Royals into their second consecutive Jones Beach Little World Series. Melinskly scattered only two hits while picking up the win for the Royals.
Highlights of the 1949 Season:
On Thursday August 23rd, Frank Jagiello pitched Nassau Bike to a 10 – 0 victory over the LI Nationals, while striking out 19 of 21 batters faced and walking none. He allowed only two scratch hits, a bunt and a slow roller to second (Newsday 6/24/49).
The 1949 Jones Beach Little World Series:
The Floral Park Bombers avenged their 1948 Little World Series loss by defeating the Royals A. C. three games to one to capture the 1949 Jones Beach Little World Series title.
Game 1 – On Monday night, August 29th, The Bombers defeated the Royals 2 – 1 in eight innings. In the eighth, Al Mucciolo singled but was thrown out at the plate, (Koopman to Caputo) trying to score on a double by Jerry Stahurski. Jerry took third on the play and scored easily on a single by his brother Stan Stahurski. Eric Erickson held the Royals to just three safeties, besting the Royals ace Johnny Melinski (NDR – Star 8/30/49).
Game 2 – On Tuesday night, August 30th, the Royal A. C., with ace Melinski giving up only four hits, took game two 3 – 1 to even the series at one game apiece. Melinski also drove in two runs to help his cause. In the first inning, Art Schnabel singled, and Duke King’s wild heave of Jim Koopman’s roller to the box set the stage for Melinski’s two run bingle. King allowed only three hits but took the loss for the Bombers (Newsday 9/1/49).
Game 3 – On September 1st, the Bombers came back in game three to beat the Royals. (I could not find any reporting of this game).
Game 4 – On Saturday September 3rd the Floral Park Bombers deposed the reigning champion Royals A.C. winning game four by a score of 3 – 0 in front of 2,500 fans at the Jones Beach Stadium. Eric Erikson held the hard-hitting Royals to two scattered hits while his mates scored all three runs in the sixth inning. A walk, a single by Butch Mucciolo, and a groundout which moved the runners over set the stage for Gerry Stahurski’s two-run single. Stahurski moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on the second consecutive wild pitch by Melinski. Erickson picked up his third JB LWS victory for Bombers (NDR – Star 9/6/49).
Game 5 – On September 5th, Labor Day, in game five of the series the Royal A. C. came back to win 3 – 2 against the Bombers though the outcome had no bearing on the previously decided championship.
In the consolation tournament to decide 3rd place, the Merrick Ranger of the National division took the Nassau Bike of the rival American division “into camp” 8 – 0 behind “little” Orville Carmen’s two hit shutout pitching. In game two, Nassau Bike bested the Ranger 5 – 4 to tie the series at one game apiece. Bike catcher Larry Neusse had a field day in in the encounter, accounting for nearly all his teams batting with Carmen on the short end (Newsday 9/1/49). Nassau Bike won game three, although I could find no reporting on the game. On Saturday, September 3rd, in the deciding game four, Nassau Bike defeated the Merrick Ranger 5 – 0 for third place. Morris Oliphant pitched a two hitter. Nassau Bike clinched the game with four runs in the third inning on an error, an infield single by Chet Redzocowski, a fielder’s choice, a double by Skip Donder; a couple of walks and a single by Jim Nick. Two of the runners were thrown out at the plate (NDR – Star 9/6/49).
Jones Beach vs Riis Park:
On Sunday September 11th, The Bombers faced the Riis Park champions Clairebrook Athletic Club and the Royals faced off against the Riis runner up Amityboys.
Once again, the Riis Park champion Clarebrooks prevailed in this inter-league matchup by a score of 1 – 0 over the Bombers. The Clarebrook A. C. scored their one run in the second inning. Dick Berkhauser had a no hitter until two outs in the bottom of the seventh “and almost threw the game away”. Bill Harrison reached first on a bunt single. Gerry Stahurski hit a single between short and third sending Harrison to second. Brother Stan smacked one to the same place. “Harrison however was too anxious and was thrown out at the plate trying to score, the left fielder to the catcher.”
The Royals won a hard fought 2 – 1 victory in eleven innings over the Amityboys. John Melinski beat Whitey Thuren in this battle. Both teams scored one run in the fourth inning until consecutive singles by Ed Schlott, Mike Leo Grande and Ed Regnell broke the 1- 1 tie in the bottom of the eleventh inning (NDR – Star 9/12/49).
Infield Chatter:
Jack Hay of Jack’s Sport Shop led all National League and Jones Beach League hitters with a .394 (13 for 33) average. Earl Swain, Hay’s teammate, finished second with a .367 average, followed by Oyster Bay’s Neil Smith who finished third with a .353.
Ed Hewlett of the Lakeview F.D. led all American League hitters with a .379 (11 for 29) average. Gene Cuomo of Nassau Bike finished in second with a .364 (12 for 33), followed by Bill Harrison of the Floral Park Bombers who took down the third spot with an even .350.
1950
A meeting was held on Monday April 3rd for all prospective clubs to file applications for the 1950 season. This season saw a new format, combining both eight team leagues into a single 12 team league with each team playing each other once for a total of eleven games.
One game will be played each night as well as Sunday and holidays starting at 8:45 PM. All games will be nine innings (vs the previous seven inning contests since inception) (NDR – Star 6/10/50). This also meant the end of the Jones Beach Little World Series.
Final Standings for 1950*:
* These standings were reported as of 8/30/50. (BDE 8/31/50). It was supplemented with the 8/30/50 Republic Aviation victory over Jack’s Sports to clinch 1st place for Republic as well as the 8/31/50 Floral Park Bombers’ win over the Botto Bros to clinch third place and the 8/31/50 Roosevelt victory over Acme. The 8/29/50 Royal AC vs Wright Hardware was rained out and was not rescheduled.
Deciding a champion came down to the wire as Republic, led by one armed pitcher Teddy Smith, defeated Jack’s Sport Shop 8 – 1 in the final game of the season. Based upon this revised league format, Republic Aviation was crowned the 1950 Jones Beach champions with a final 10 – 1 record with Bellmore close behind with a 9 – 2 record.
Jones Beach All-Stars:
For the first time since 1942, the Jones Beach Softball All-star “tradition” (1940 & 1942) was revived. The managers of the first and second place teams as of August 19th were selected to manage. As a result, Oskar Frowein of Republic and John McDougal of Bellmore were selected to manage.
On Sunday August 27th, the Jones Beach All-stars split an exhibition double header. They lost a two-hit, 7 – 0 shutout to the Newburgh All-Stars before coming back in the second game to defeat the South Shore All-stars 7 – 5. In game two, Joe Lowe and Al Wolfe had two hits apiece while Walt Jennings cracked a fifth inning circuit for the winners. Bordiuk and Melinski split the twirling duties with Harry Curtis behind the plate in game one while Orville Carmen picked up the win in Game two, allowing five hits with Larry Neusse behind the plate. (NDR – Star 8/28/50 & Newsday 8/28/50).
Jones Beach vs Riis Park:
On September 4th, Labor Day, starting at 2:30 pm, the Republic Aviation defeated the Riis Park Champions, Sonny’s by a score of 1 – 0. Aviation pitcher John Hooper bested George Sontag in the mound duel, tossing a five hitter while hitting a home run for the only tally of the game.
In the consolation game, Bellmore, runner up in the Jones Beach loop, conquered the Greenwoods, Riis Park runner-up 5 – 4. Two Greenwoods’ miscues cost them the game in the bottom of the seventh inning. Pitcher Orville Carmen tallied the winning run. He scattered nine hits and gave up all four runs in the second inning (BDE 9/5/50).
Infield Chatter:
Al Wolfe was the leading hitter in the Jones Beach league for 1950, averaging .431 on 22 hits in 51 trips to the plate.
1950 Top Ten Batting Leaders:
(Newsday 9/8/50)
Although I could find no mention of its effect on the Jones Beach League, the ASA Joint Rules Committee, in an effort to increase offense moved the pitching distance back three feet, from forty-three-feet, to forty-six feet for the 1950 season. The extra distance will give the batter just a little more chance to time his swing against the speed aces. The American Softball Conference used the new 46’ distance in 1949 but as one critic stated, “good pitchers looked just as good and bad pitchers just as bad” (Newsday 9/21/49). In a 7/21/62 Newsday article, George Fowler, who started playing softball with the Grumman Yankees in 1948, felt “softball really hit its peak” when the mound was moved back those three feet. “It doesn’t seem like a lot”, he said, “but it made a big difference in the game. It bothered a lot of pitchers at first, but it gave the fielders a chance to play in the game too. Before that, there was nothing but strikeouts.” Richie Surhoff, a veteran of 15 years, who started pitching with the Floral Park Bombers in 1947 agreed with Fowler. “It bothered me a lot when they moved the mound back,” he said, “but it helped the game. That was when the changeup first started to come into the picture. Before that it was just a case of how fast a pitcher could pitch. Half the batters couldn’t see the ball”
1951
A meeting was held at the cafeteria on the Central Mall on Monday April 2nd. All managers and authorized representatives of Nassau and Suffolk teams were in attendance. “Judging from the turnout, there need be no fears that the war in Korea has cut into the ranks of Beach ballplayers”.
The announcement was made at this meeting that the Roosevelt Rotaries had disbanded, and no team would be entered under that name for this season. It was also noted that Jacks Sports Shop and Nassau Bike would merge teams this season and they qualified using the Nassau Bike name (NDR – Star 4/3/51).
This season would again include twelve teams but would see a new format. The season was to be split into two parts, June 1st – July 14th and July 15th – August 31st. The top two teams of each part would meet for a championship at season end. If the same team finished first in both the first and second parts of the season, they would be declared the champions with no playoff competition. The second-place teams in each half would then meet in a playoff at season end to determine second and third places for the season. Games were to be seven innings again, down from 9 inning games in 1950.
First Half Standings*:
* These second half standings were reported after five weeks of play as of 7/5/51 (BDE 7/6/51). The reporting was off as wins did not equal losses. It was then supplemented with results for games played 7/5, 7/6, 7/7, 7/8, 7/10, 7/11, 7/12, 7/13 and 7/14 as well as subsequent overall team records as stated in Newsday articles. As wins don’t match losses, it is not entirely accurate for all teams.
Bellmore, by virtue of a Saturday July 14th double header win with victories over the Botto Brothers 2 – 1 and The Floral Park Bombers 3 – 2, tied the Royal A. C. with an identical 9 – 2 record. A one game playoff was played on Wednesday August 8th to decide the first half winner. Chick Talgo of the Bellmore Sigmas topped the Royal A.C. on a neat two hitter. The Sigmas flogged Frank Jagiello with a stinging fourteen hit attack. Talgo surrendered a run in the bottom of the first after his mates had started him off with a run to work on. Chet Yannotti walked and reached second on a passed ball. Catcher Carl Caputo singled Yannotti home. Talgo was tough after that allowing just one more hit while striking out twelve and walking seven. Bellmore made its first inning run on Bill Caggiano’s single and Skip Donder’s triple; and its third inning tally on a walk to Al Wolfe and Caggiano’s triple. Both Donder and Caggiano were thrown out at the plate trying to score (Newsday 8/9/51).
Second Half Standings*:
*These second half standings were reported as of 8/21/51 (BDE 8/22/51). The reporting was off as wins did not equal losses. It was then supplemented with results for games played 8/21 (rain), 8/22, 8/23, 8/24, 8/25 (rain), 8/27, 8/28, 8/29, 8/30, and 8/31 as well as subsequent overall team records as stated in Newsday articles. As wins don’t match losses, it is not entirely accurate for all teams.
In a battle of the undefeated, Bellmore all but clinched the second half top spot by defeating the Botto Brothers 2 – 1 on Thursday August 30th. Chick Talgo bested Bill Bordiuk of Botto. Jerry Stahurski belted a round tripper to account for the winning marker. Herman Rigsby tallied the lone Botto run on a circuit clout. The Bellmore Sigmas were declared the second half champions the next evening by remaining undefeated when they beat Carlos Jewels 6 – 1 (NDR – Star 9/1/51).
Championship and Consolation Series:
The Bellmore Sigmas, by virtue of winning both halves of the 1951 season, were declared the Jones Beach Champions for the 1951 season.
The Botto Brothers, second half runner-up, faced off against the Royal A.C., runner-up of the first half to decide second and third places for the ’51 season.
Game 1 – The first game went to Botto 2 – 0 on Sunday September 2nd, after rain washed out the scheduled Saturday playoff action. Bill Bordiuk allowed six hits and picked up the win for Botto with Frank Jagiello giving up three hits but taking the loss.
Game 2 – In a twin bill on Labor Day, Monday September 3rd, the Royals came back to knot the series at one game apiece with a first game 1 – 0, eight inning victory. Carl Caputo singled and Jagiello won his own game with a triple to right field in the bottom of the eighth to score the game’s lone run. Jim Barone fanned three and walked four in taking the loss for Botto.
Game 3 – However, in the Labor Day nightcap of the series, Bill Bordiuk stopped the Royals with a six-hit 3 – 1 victory. Botto sewed up its deciding victory and second place finish with a two run first inning with singles by Jack McCrossen, Gerry Kiesel and George Carmen and a pair of outfield flies. In fourteen innings pitched, Bordiuk fanned eleven and gave up only one base on balls.
In ceremonies following the consolation double header, Bellmore was awarded the Championship trophy for winning the 1951 Jones Beach championship.
Jones Beach vs Riis Park:
On Sunday September 9th the Bellmore Sigmas met Prudy’s Tavern, champions of the Riis Park League at Jones Beach. Prudys bested the Sigmas 3 – 0 behind the tight two hit pitching of Earl Spencer. Prudy’s scored all three runs in the top of the fourth on two hits, two errors and a fly out. Spencer had a no-hitter until the sixth when Al Wolfe, the leading hitter in the Jones Beach loop for ‘51, beat out a hit to shortstop. Catcher Larry Neusse got the other hit on a liner to left in the seventh. Bellmore was without their Westchester import, ace Chick Talgo (Mid Island Herald 9/12/51).
In the preliminary game, the Botto Brothers, the Jones Beach runner-up, defeated their counterparts in the Riis league, the Amitys 5 – 1. Botto put together five straight hits in the fifth inning for five runs and the victory. Gary Nordhal walloped a homerun after two straight singles by Jim Barone and Ralph Ferrar, and Jerry Kiesel blasted another circuit to left center after Herman Rigby’s single to cap the scoring. Bill Bordiuk, who was voted the Jones Beach League most valuable player for 1951, pitched the win for Botto and allowed just four hits (NDR – Star 9/10/51).
Jones Beach All-Stars:
Each team manager in the circuit selected his all-opponent team, and based on total votes received, the All-Stars were divided into a first unit (All-Stars) and second unit (Alternates).
On Sunday August 26th, the All-Stars clipped the Alternates 8 – 1. When number one choice, Chick Talgo was unable to appear, the resulting shortage forced Botto’s Bill Bordiuk into a double role. He started for the Stars but when his mates clubbed Alternates starter Joe Smith in the fourth, he spelled Smith on the mound. The Stars nicked Smith for a run in the third on Al Wolfe’s single, an error and a fly ball, but really jumped on him in the fourth. Jerry Keisel walked, and Jerry Stahurski tripled him home. Steve Lawrows fly brought in Stahurski. Carl Caputo singled and Jagiello was safe on an error. Wolfe’s bunt single filled the bases and Bill Harrison singled two in. After another out, walks to Ed Coleman and Kiesel plated another run and Stahurski singled (Newsday 8/27/51).
Infield Chatter:
In ceremonies following the consolation double header, Al Wolfe of Bellmore who finished the campaign with a .400 average was awarded the batting championship trophy. Bill Bordiuk, in the top ten hitters in the league along with pitching Botto to the second-place finish, was selected the league’s most valuable player (NDR – Star 9/4/51).
With Botto’s final victory at Jones Beach over their Riis Park counterpart, they finished the 1951 campaign for all leagues and tournaments with an overall record of 41 victories against 8 defeats. Seven of the latter were sustained by one run and the other was a two-run loss (Mid Island Herald 9/12/51).
1952
April 4, 1952, midnight, was the deadline to apply by mail for positions in the Jones Beach
Softball League. The league was already “swamped” with twenty-three applications for the twelve slots, once again forcing the league to hold early season playoffs to determine its makeup. The plan for the season was to play every day with nine inning games on week-day nights and seven inning double headers Saturday nights, Sunday afternoons and holidays (Newsday 4/2/52).
First Half Standings*:
*The first half standings were reported as of 7/17/52 (NDR – Star 7/18/52). They were updated to include certain team’s records referenced in news articles (Strickland +1 win, Merrick +3 losses).
The Strickland Royals came in first with a perfect record of 11 -0 and the Floral Park Bombers finished second in the first half of the 1952 season.
Second Half Standings*:
* These second half standings were reported as of 8/24/52 (NDR – Star 8/25/52). They were then supplemented with results for games played 8/25, 8/26, 8/29, and 8/30. They do not include results of games played 8/25; (514 Air vs Fred Beers, postponed), 8/27; (514 Air vs Merrick and Carlos vs Goldys), and 8/28 (514 Air vs Republic) for which no results could be found.
The Bellmore Sigmas took first place in the second half of the 1952 season with a perfect record of 10 – 0 while the Levittown A.A. finished in second place.
Championship and Consolation Series:
Game 1 – On Saturday August 30th, the Strickland Royals defeated the Bellmore Sigmas 4 – 0 behind the five-hit hurling of Rush Riley. The Royal’s banged Chick Talgo for eleven safeties including Ken Sealy’s double, the games lone extra base hit. Riley’s single drove in Sealy with the game’s second run (Newsday 9/2/52).
Game 2 – In the second game on Sunday, Bellmore, behind the near flawless hurling of Orville “Sonny” Carman hung up a 2 – 0 victory to force a game three rubber match (NDR – Star 9/2/52). Carmen gave up just four hits. Bellmore picked up a run off of George Callan in the fourth when Larry Neusse singled, reached second on an error, and scored on Stan Stahurski’s single. In the seventh, Jerry Stahurski was hit by a pitch, stole second, made third on a wild pitch and scored on another wild pitch (Newsday 9/2/52).
Game 3 – After rain washed out the September 1st Labor Day final, the game was rescheduled to the following Saturday, September 6th. On that Saturday, the Bellmore Sigmas behind an eleven-hit attack, defeated the first half winners, the Strickland Royals, by a score of 8 – 1 to claim the 1952 Jones Beach Softball crown. Chick Talgo was on the mound for the Sigmas and went the distance allowing only five scattered hits along the way. George Callan took the loss for the Royals (NDR – Star 9/8/52).
Third place was awarded to the Levittown A.A. after the first half runner-up, Floral Park, failed to field nine men for the consolation final, also on Saturday (NDR – Star 9/2/52).
Jones Beach vs Riis Park:
On Sunday September 7th, in a single seven inning contest, Bellmore bested the Riis Park champions, Vanderveer Grill, by a score of 7 – 4. Orville “Sonny” Carmen picked up the decision for the victors.
In the second game, Schiro Brothers, runner up in the Riis circuit defeated the Fred Beers Dairy 2 – 1. Al Isakson took the loss for the Beers outfit. No reason was given for why Strickland A.C. was replaced by Fred Beers for the runner-up final (NDR – Star 9/8/52).
Jones Beach All-Stars:
On Sunday September 14th, the Jones Beach All-Stars met the New York Athletic Club to close out the 1952 Jones Beach season. Led by Al Wolfe and Art Schnabel, who each clubbed two hits, the All-Stars blasted the NYAC, 10 – 3. A six run third inning won the game for the All-Stars. The bases were loaded at the start when Bill Harrison walked, Larry Neusse was safe on a fielder’s choice and Schnabel singled. Bryon Materson singled home two runs, and Roy Crocker re-loaded the bags when he got hit by a pitch. Schnabel scored on a passed ball and two more runs came across on Charlie Gilchrist’s single, Gilchrist going to second on the play. He scored when Wolfe singled.
Infield Chatter:
After the title game, trophies were presented to Al Wolfe of Bellmore, emblematic of the league batting championship (.444 average on 32 hits in 72 at bats) and Larry DeSimone of Levittown as the Most Valuable Player of the league. For Wolfe, it’s the third straight year as the loop’s batting champ (NDR – Star 9/2/52 & Newsday 9/11/52).
In March of 1952, it was announced that Grumman Aircraft Corporation would no longer be sponsoring their perennial softball champion Yankees for 1952 and forward. The Company pinned the decision on increased workload at the Bethpage plant but explained that the inter-departmental softball at Grumman would be expanded. The Yankees won the Metropolitan ASA crown for eight straight seasons. The Yankees had reigned as the Mid-Atlantic ASA Champions for the past six years. Led by the great Roy Stephenson they made seven appearances (’41 – 33rd t, ’46 – 4th, ‘47 – 5th t, ’48 – 7th t, ’49 -13th t, ’50 – 4th, and ’51 – 3rd) in the World Championship ASA tournament. Although they never managed to win a world crown, they did reach the semifinals twice, in 1946 and 1951, finishing in fourth place in 1946 and third place in 1951 in Detroit, Michigan. (NDR – Star 3/26/52 & softballhistoryusa.com).
In July 1952 it was reported that Roy Stephenson would be coming out of “semi- retirement” to lead a Grumman all-star contingent against Republic Aviation in a benefit game. (BDE 7/10/52)
He would return to dominate the Jones Beach softball league ranks in 1953.
1953
On March 24th, twenty-four teams convened at the Central Mall Cafeteria desiring to participate in the Jones Beach League. Opening sessions for league play have been set aside as starting no later than May 23rd. Elimination games will start on or about April 12th, continuing during weekends and result in twelve teams by the start of league play. They will play in a single division through a double round-robin (Newsday 3/25/53). This contrasted with previous seasons where the season was split into two halves with playoffs to follow as needed. Winners were determined for the ’53 season based upon the overall season records.
Week 10 Standings*:
* These standings were reported as of 8/14/53 (Newsday 8/15/53). The reporting is off as wins and losses do not equal each other. These standing were supplemented with results of games played on 8/15, 8/16, 8/17, 8/19, 8/20, 8/21, 8/22, 8/23, 8/24, 8/25, 8/26, 8/27, 8/28, 8/31, 9/1, 9/2, 9/3, 9/4. I
updated records for individual teams were listed in articles but for which I missed individual dates’ game results. These do not include the two September 5th playoff games.
@ – Long Island Neon was led by the now out of “semi-retirement” Roy Stephenson.
# – Post City was the new handle of the Bellmore Sigmas who won the last two titles before transferring allegiance to Massapequa (Mid Island Herald 7/2/53). They also included a player from the Fred Beers Dairy team (Newsday 3/5/53).
% – The Hempstead Ryans were formerly Nassau Bike
Championship and Consolation Series:
Due to their identical records of 19 – 3, Post City and Long Island Neon played a one game playoff to decide the 1953 Jones Beach champion. On Saturday September 5th, in the night cap of a double header, Post City defeated Long Island Neon 4 – 0 to win the 1953 Jones Beach title. Al Isaacson had no trouble with the Neon as he hurled Post City to the title while limiting the Neon to only three hits. Dick Surhoff took the loss for the Neon (Newsday 9/8/53).
In the preliminary game, Levittown A.A defeated Republic Aviation by a 4 – 3 score to take sole possession of fourth place. Levittown scored four big first inning runs, including homeruns by Joe Smith and Pat Quick, before holding on for the one run win. Botto Brothers, by virtue of their 3rd best record of 15 – 7, took third place (Newsday 9/8/53).
Tobin-Linnehan Series:
On Monday, Labor Day, September 7th, The Long Island Neon defeated Botto Brothers 2 – 0 to win the Tobin-Linnehan Series trophy. This victory cumulated a two-day playoff in which Neon blanked Levittown 4 – 0 in an opener of a doubleheader on Sunday night while Botto Brothers ripped Post City 4 – 1 in the nightcap. Neon and Botto battled it out for six scoreless innings until Neon broke the ice with their two-run winning margin in the seventh. George Jenson led off with a triple and scored the winning run when Bob Alessi flied out to right field. Dick Surhoff picked up both the wins for the Long Island Neon, allowing only four hits in each game. The trophy was donated by Doc Linnehan of Hempstead Sports Center and Murray Tobin of Tobin Furs (Newsday 9/8/53).
Jones Beach vs Riis Park:
On Sunday, September 13th, the Riis champions met the Jones Beach champions. I could find no reporting on the outcome of these games.
Jones Beach All-Stars:
On Sunday September 20th, the Jones Beach All-stars, as selected by the beach league staff, faced off against the Suffolk All-stars. I could not find any reporting on the outcome of this game.
Infield Chatter:
Botto Brothers’ Ken Sommers won the 1953 Jones Beach batting title with a .530 average (Newsday 9/8/53).
Post City was defeated by Dejur Camera in the Metropolitan ASA tournament. On September 8th Dejur was defeated by Rochester Radio in the Mid-Atlantic Regionals (Newsday 9/9/53).
Rochester finished tied for 13th in a field of twenty-two teams at the ASA World Championships in Miami Fl. (Softballhistoryusa.com).
1954
On Tuesday March 23rd, plans for the Jones Beach League were discussed at a meeting in the Central Mall Cafeteria. Tryout games were slated to be played starting April 10th and will take place Saturdays and Sundays (Newsday 3/18/54).
First Half Standings*:
*These first half standings were compiled by recreating the first half schedule based upon Newsday’s reporting of scheduled games, results and additional reported team records at various points of the first half No result could be found for the Mass. Legion vs Merrick Rangers contest. These results do not include the one game Pin Up vs Hempstead Ryans playoff game.
Due to their identical first half records, the Pinups played a one game playoff versus the Hempstead Ryans on Sunday August 22nd. Pin Up came out victorious with a 2 – 1 win. In the second inning, Pin Up’s Dick Surhoff singled off Russ Riley and advanced to third on an error and came home on an error by Ryan’s catcher, Jim Finnerty. The winners opened the gap to 2 – 0 in the fourth as Mike Canobbio beat out and infield single, moved to second two outs later, on a walk to Bobby Roelich, and came home on Vern Stevenson’s bouncing hit to center. Riley was relieved by Sonny Carmen. Hempstead fought back in the fifth frame as Roy Crocker batted in Harry Fredlund with one run, but the rally fell short.
Surfoff was the winner, with Riley taking the loss (Newsday 8/23/54).
* These second half standings were reported as of 8/19/54 (Newsday 8/20/54) and supplemented with reporting of scheduled games, results and additional reported team records at various points in the second half season.
Championship and Consolation Series:
Game 1 – On Saturday September 5th, the first half victors, Pin Up met the second half victors, Meenan Oilers in the first game of the best-of-three series to decide the championship. After both teams scored a run in the opening frame, the Oilers pulled ahead on singles by Ed Orr, George Eyering, and Henry Rigby to lead 2 – 1. Pin Up tied the game in the fourth on a Pete Van Arthos single. He then came all the way home on the first of three Meenan errors. Van Arthos, who had three hits in three trips to the plate, then doubled in the first of three runs in the sixth as the winners took the lead for good, winning 8 – 2. Dick Surhoff, while allowing seven hits, picked up the win (Newsday 9/7/54).
Game 2 – On Sunday afternoon, the Pin Up raked two Meenan hurlers for fourteen base knocks and fifteen runs, winning 15 – 0 and the 1954 Jones Beach Championship. Surhoff picked up the victory, allowing only four hits and smashed a grand slam homer in the big fifth inning (Newsday 9/7/54).
Musicaro’s, the second half season second place finisher paced by Joe Smith’s three hit shutout, easily disposed of the first half season’s second place finisher, Hempstead 4 – 0 to capture third place. Smith struck out fourteen while walking one. The winners scored all their runs in the first three innings with Stan Stahurski’s single knocking in Al Wolfe with the winning run in the top of the opening stanza (Newsday 9/7/54).
Infield Chatter:
Meenan’s Ken Sommers took the 1954 batting title with a .433 average garnered with 29 hits in 67 trips to the plate. In balloting for the season Most Valuable Player, Surhoff edged Republic’s Ollie Johnston, 33 votes to 29 (Newsday 9/7/54).
1955
An organizational meeting was held at the Central Mall Cafeteria on Tuesday March 22nd at 8pm. All team managers or representatives of Nassau or Suffolk County teams wishing to participate in league tryout were encouraged to attend. Tryouts games were scheduled to start April 9th (Newsday 3/4/55).
First Half Standings*:
*These standings were reported as of 7/6/55 (Newsday 7/7/55) and supplemented with game results for July 7th and the final day of first half play, July 8th. It also includes the Nassau Dems win over the Kings on 8/16 which was a continuation of a suspended 7/11 first half game.
@ – In January 1955, it was announced that Sal Caruso, the “Levittown pizza man”, was going to sponsor the Pin Up boys for the upcoming season (Newsday 1/20/55).
Second Half Standings*:
*These second half standings were reported as of 8/13/55 (Newsday 8/14/55). The reporting is off as wins and losses do not equal each other. These results were supplemented with game results for games played 8/14 to 8/17, 8/18 (rain), 8/19 – 8/26, 8/28 – 8/31, 9/1 and 9/2. Some records were also based on team records as reported at various points in the second half of the season.
Highlights of the 1955 Season:
On Tuesday August 30th, Ollie Johnston of the Republic Aviation struck out Sonny Stawecki of the Floral Park Bombers in the top of the seventh inning to reach 200 strikeouts for the season. Johnston now holds the single season strikeout record of 213 (1954) and the two season strikeout mark of 413 in the beach loop (Newsday 8/31/55).
Championship and Consolation Series:
The Dejur Cameramen, by virtue of winning both halves of the 1955 season were declared the Jones Beach Champions for 1955. “Bullet” Roy Stevenson won all twenty-two games and only once did he fail to go all the way!
It appears that to provide a full slate of softball games for the Saturday through Monday Labor Day weekend, and to decide second and third places for the season, a seeded playoff was established. Musicaro’s, based upon their overall season record of 18 – 4 were seeded second. Caruso’s and Republic Aviation were tied for third based upon their overall 15 – 7 season records, so Caruso’s was seeded third based upon a coin toss, with Republic being seeded as fourth (Newsday 9/6/55). The four teams tied for fifth place with overall records of 10 – 12, would have a separate play-in bracket to determine who would play in the final second and third place playoff bracket.
On Monday September 5th, Labor Day, Musicaro’s faced off against the Kings in the final playoff game to determine second and third place for the 1955 season. Musicaro’s Joe Smith’s one hitter gave
Musicaro’s a 5 -0 victory over Kings. The game was won with two outs in the first frame when Stan Stahurski singled went to second on a George Callan wild pitch and scored when brother Jerry Stahurski also singled. The winners also tallied twice in the third and added another pair in the fourth. Kings could do nothing with Smith’s pitches, but Callan robbed him of a no-hitter with a single in the third frame (Newsday 9/6/55).
Jones Beach vs Riis Park:
On Sunday September 11th, Jones Beach champion, Dejur defeated the Riis Beach champion Farragut Pool 1 – 0. Dejur won it in the fourth inning when Richie Roberti reached second base on a dropped fly ball by the right fielder and scored a moment later on a single by catcher Tom Hernan. Roy Stephenson struck out fifteen men, walked one and allowed only two singles. Dejur had previously beat Farragut in the ASA Mid-Atlantic tournament.
The second game of the double-header between Jones Beach runner up, Musicaro and Smith & Son, the Riis Beach runner –up was cancelled (Newsday 9/12/55). No reason was given for the cancellation.
Jones Beach All-Stars:
On Sunday, September 18th the Jones Beach All-stars faced off against the Suffolk All-stars in a 2:30 beach softball finale. Ollie Johnston wound up the softball season in grand fashion by pitching a no-hit game to beat the Suffolk All-stars 1 – 0. Johnston was at the top of his form. He struck out seven and walked only one. Only four men hit the ball. One reached first when Johnston threw his grounder away, two popped to the infield and two more grounded out. Al Isaksen allowed only three hits, but a wild pitch proved to be his undoing in the fifth inning.
Infield Chatter:
For the third season in a row, Ken Sommers now playing for Dejur Cameramen, won the batting title (Newsday 2/10/56).
In an August 3rd Bob Zellner Newsday column, it was mentioned that the State Park powers were considering disbanding the Jones Beach Softball League. “Back in the days when the Grumman Yankees were campaigning for the national crown, softball hit its peak. Now except for Jones Beach, local softball has well dropped down into a recreational game, with fellows just having fun and trying to drop a few pounds. In fact, slowball, which requires the pitcher to lob the ball instead of steaming it in, is quickly catching on among those who want to play purely for a workout. It would be too bad if Jones Beach did drop softball but the teams competing now aren’t helping things any. Two successive forfeits – on Thursday and Friday of last week- just make it much harder to convince anyone that softball should stay”. Although this may have been sixteen years early, the softball landscape was starting to change.
1956
A meeting was held in the Central Mall Cafeteria on March 20th at 8pm to discuss plans for the Jones Beach Softball League. All Nassau and Suffolk County clubs wishing to participate in the league tryouts were encouraged to immediately send information regarding their teams to Special Events Department, Jones Beach State Park, Wantagh, New York (Newsday 3/3/56). On March 23rd, it was announced that the league this year would be jointly sponsored by Abraham & Strauss and the Long Island State Park Commission. All try out games were to be played on Saturdays and Sundays starting April 7th. Interested Nassau and Suffolk teams should send information to the Special Events Department at Jones Beach (Newsday 3/21/56).
League play started on May 26th with double headers being played Monday through Saturday with the first game starting at 8:30. The Sunday and holiday double headers will begin at 2:30. The nightly double headers will continue through June 20th, there after single games will be played (Newsday 6/1/56).
First Half Standings*:
* These standings were reported as of 7/2/56 (Newsday 7/3/56) and supplemented with game results for July 3rd, the final day of first half play.
Dejur Camera won the first half of the season with an undefeated 11- 0 record. They now carried a 33-game winning streak in over the last season and one half.
Second Half Standings*:
* These standings were ascertained from Newsday articles. It does not include the one game playoff between Dejur and Muscaro’s to decide the second half champion.
Highlights of the 1956 Season:
On Wednesday August 15th Musicaro’s upset Dejur ending their thirty-nine-game winning streak in the Jones Beach League (1955 – 22-0, 1956 – 17-0 to date). Ollie Johnston three hit the Cameramen, fanning six, in the 2 – 0 victory. Burley Roy Stephenson struck out six and only allowed four hits. He was hindered by four Dejur infield miscues and was the loser (Newsday 8/16/56).
On Thursday August 23rd, the Nassau Democrats pounded three Gardiner pitchers for twenty-three runs, winning 23 – 3. The run total had only been topped once in the last five years when the defunct Massapequa American Legion club scored twenty-six runs back in 1954 (Newsday 8/24/56).
Championship and Consolation Series:
Dejur and Musicaro’s ended the second half of the season with identical 10 – 1 record, necessitating a one game playoff. On Wednesday September 12th, Dejur defeated Musciaro’s 3 – 0. By virtue of the triumph, the Dejur Cameramen, claimed both the first and second halves of the 1956 season and were declared the Jones Beach Champions for 1956.
Right hander Roy Stephenson allowed just two scratch singles and never had more than one runner on base at a time. He fanned nine and walked two. Dejur scored the first run in the third inning on only one hit. Tom Hernan got on via an error at second base, moved to second on Phil Condouris’s single and moved to third when Musicaro’s first sacker messed up the relay and scored on a fly by Jim Courtney.
The Cameramen wrapped things up in the sixth with a pair of tallies. Den Palmer singled and moved around on a double by Dom Golio. Golio came across on a terrific fly ball to left center by George Fowler.
The battle for second place overall for the 1956 season between the second-place finishers of the first half season, Meenan and the second half season, Musicaro’s, never happened. The game was supposed to be played on Friday September 14th. As Meenan had won the local competitions to qualify and eventually win the Mid-Atlantic Regional in Newark on September 3rd, they were scheduled to fly on September 17th from LaGuardia airport to Sacramento, California for the ASA World Championship’s opener on Tuesday September 18th. As such, Musicaro’s was declared the second-place winner for 1956 with Meenan settling for third place (Newsday 5/3/57).
Jones Beach All-Stars:
On August 22nd, the league leading Dejur Camera faced off against an all-star aggregation chosen by the leagues managers as most outstanding in their respective positons. (Greenpoint Weekly Star 8/17/56). Dejur was victorious 4 – 1. Two run innings in the second and fourth innings were enough to ensure the Cameramen of victory and allow Roy Stephenson to step down from the mound in the fifth inning in favor of Jerry Fleming. Stephenson was touched by the All-stars run in the third inning on a Skip Donder triple and a wild pitch which allowed the Meenan star to score. Pat Marrota’s double started things off for Dejur in the second inning. He came home on a single by Phil Condouris who eventually got to third on a safety by Phil Pia after George Fowler popped up to first base. Condouris came home when he beat Skip Dondor’s toss to the plate on a Tom Hernan’s grounder. Dejur’s second
two run cluster came when Coundouris singled and George Fowler slammed out a home run. Al Isaksen of Meenan, starting All-star twirler gave up all four Dejur runs before being relieved by Ollie Johnston of Musicaro’s who pitched airtight ball the rest of the way (Newsday 8/23/56).
Infield Chatter:
The Meenan Oilers picked up Richie Surhoff, late of Caruso’s for the 1956 season along with Pat Campagna and 1955 batting champion, Ken Sommers, from the Dejur Camermen. Other additions to George “Doc” Linnehan’s squad were Vern Stevenson, Pete Van Arthos, and Skip Donder from Caruso’s and Dan Kelly and Chuck Senzel, 1955 runner up to Ken Sommers for the batting crown, of Republic.
The Kings’ Chuck Dellaro took the 1956 batting title with a .450 average (Newsday 3/7/57).
In late September, Meenan Oil, the Mid-Atlantic champion, behind the pitching of Dick Surhoff would tie for fifth place in a field of twenty-two teams at the ASA World Championship Tournament in Sacramento, California. Surhoff and center fielder Pete Van Arthos were chosen to the first team All- Americans softballhitoryusa.com).
Dick Surhoff played two seasons in the NBA for the N.Y. Knicks and Milwaukee Hawks ’52 – ’54. His two sons would play in the major leagues, with “BJ” having an eighteen-year MLB career (wikipedia).
1957
A meeting was held at the Jones Beach Central Mall Cafeteria on Tuesday night March 19th with no less than sixteen applications from teams anxious to participate in the upcoming season. Leo Netter, who handles the league in addition to his many other chores, indicated he expects up to twenty-six teams are expected to enter before the April 1st deadline. This is the usual number of entries although there have been years with as many as thirty-six entries. Dejur and Musicaro were seeded into the loop based upon their 1956 first and second place finishes. Although it is up to the managers of the teams which survive the elimination to decide, it is expected this year will again be based on two halves, with the winner of the first half meeting the winner of the second in a series for the title (Newsday 3/20/57).
Final Standings for 1957*:
*These standings were reported as of 9/5/57 (Greenpoint Weekly Star 9/6/57).
# – The Royal Democrats were made up of the combined Nassau Democrats and Franklin Square Royals. @ – County Sports was made up of substitutes from the Meenan club plus a crew from the Meenan entry in the Levittown League (Newsday 5/3/57).
The Jones Beach Softball League started its season on Saturday May 25th and finished its season on Friday, August 23rd with Dejur Camera taking its third straight Jones Beach league championship. The Meenan Oilers came in second place and the Royal Democrats finished in third place. It appears that although news articles referenced first half and second half play throughout the season, the format for deciding the champions of the league changed to no playoffs with the best three overall records for the season deciding the final standings. This could possibly be because of the new Jones Beach Invitational tournament.
Jones Beach All-Stars:
On Sunday August 11th at 8:30, Dejur squared off for the second year in a row against the Jones Beach All-Stars. Roy Stephenson had one of his poorer nights but did well enough to pitch Dejur to a 3 – 2 victory. Stephenson only struck out eight, hit a batter, and walked two while giving up three hits to the All-Stars.
One of those hits was a two-run homer by Pat Pescitelli in the second and accounted for all the All-Star’s runs. Jerry Fleming starred for Dejur with three hits in three trips to the plate (Newsday 8/12/57).
Jones Beach Invitational Tournament:
It was announced that the first annual Jones Beach Invitational Tournament (single elimination) would commence on Monday August 26th. Bay Shore, Northport and Brentwood* represented Suffolk County; Thunderbirds, Log Cabin and Stephens represented the Riis Park League; and the Royal Democrats and Starlit represented the Jones Beach Softball League. The championship was played on Labor Day, Monday September 2nd. The Thunderbirds of the Riis Park League, who captured their own championship the morning before, defeated Starlit of the Jones Beach League 2 – 0 to win the inaugural invitational trophy Newsday 9/3/57).
(Separate Newsday articles listed the team as Brookhaven and Brentwood, but the losing pitcher was listed as Ken Cross who other articles named as a pitcher for Nicks of Brentwood.)
Highlights of the 1957 Season:
On Monday May 31st Joe Smith of the Meenan Oilers hurled the first perfect game of the 1957 season. Enroot to defeating the Kings 5 – 0, Smith faced the minimum 21 batters, walked none and struck out eight while his mates were combing losing pitcher Dick Mustapich for eight hits (Newsday 6/1/57).
On August 1st, Big Roy Stephenson pitched the season’s second perfect game as his Dejur Cameramen beat the Cherrywood Lounge, 8 – 0. For Stephenson, it was his fourth no-hit game of the year for Dejur and marked his tenth shutout. In addition, he has over half a dozen one-hit efforts. Only three batters hit the ball the entire game (Newsday 8/2/57).
Infield Chatter:
Before the start of the 1957 season the Meenan Oilers would lose three-star players. Pitcher and slugger, Dick Surhoff left to play for Columbus Auto Body of New Haven Connecticut after moving there for a recreation director’s post in East Haven. Shortstop Pat Campagna moved to California and played for Redwood City there, while outfielder Eddie Miron switched to the Dejur Camera team. But Meenan added batting champ Chuck Dellaro of Kings, veteran performer Bill Caggiano from Post City, and Wayne Jaeckle late of the Floral Park Bombers (Newsday 3/7/57).
During their three-year reign from 1955 – 1957 as Jones Beach champs, Dejur Camera accrued a record of 64 victories against 2 defeats! (Greenpoint Weekly Star 9/6/57).
On the season, Roy Stephenson was 16 – 1 with an earned run average of .082 for those seventeen games. He hurled 14 shutouts and 3 no-hitters (one perfect game), while allowing an average of 2.35 hits per game. Ollie Johnston of Musicaro’s was the second-best pitcher in the league with a 13 – 3 mark, an earned run average of just 2.13, nine shutouts and 4.30 hits allowed per game Newsday 8/30/57).
DeJur Camera would go on to win the Mid-Atlantic regional tournament in Rochester NY. They would finish tied for fifth place with a 2 – 2 record in a twenty-two-team field in the ASA World Tournament in Clearwater Florida. Roy Stephenson (P) was voted honorable mention All-American (softballhistoryusa.com).
1958
Tryouts for the Jones Beach Softball League started on Sunday April 6th at 11:00 AM with a triple header and continued throughout April and into early May until a full complement of 10 teams was decided upon. Teams in the prelims were fighting for eight vacancies with Dejur and Meenan already “in” off their 1957 records (Newsday 4/3/58).
First Half Standings*:
* These standings were reported as of 6/15/58 (Newsday 6/16/58) and supplemented with game results from June 17th through July 4th, the final day of first half play.
# – George Smith and Son were based in Lawrence – Cedarhurst
The Meenan Oilers and Musicaro tied for second in the first half of the season.
Second Half Standings*:
* These standings were calculated by reconstructing the second half schedule from July 5th through August 21st using Newsday articles reporting games scheduled and the results of the same. I could not find results for the July 18th Nassau Dems vs Geo. Smith & Son and the July 19th Short Rail vs Charlies games.
On Thursday August 21st, in the final game of the second half, Musicaro’s defeated Dejur 6 – 1 to win the second half season. Both Ollie Johnston and Roy Stephenson gave up three hits, but Roy walked three as he let six Musicaro runs to cross the plate in the first inning while his mates were committing a pair of errors. In all, Stephenson struck out six and walked five as Dejur made three miscues and collected a lone run in the first inning (Newsday 8/22/58).
Championship and Consolation Series:
On Saturday September 6th, a one game playoff was held between the first half season winner, Dejur and the second half season winner, Musicaro’s. Originally listed as a best two-of-three series, the clubs agreed to a single game since Dejur, having retained the Mid-Atlantic ASA regional crown, was scheduled to leave Friday September 12th for the World ASA tournament in Minneapolis. Dejur squeaked out a 4 – 3 victory to win the 1958 Jones Beach Softball crown. Dejur put together five singles for three runs in the first inning while Pescitelli and Weigand combined to bring home one for Musicaro’s. The actual margin of victory came via a home run by reserve Denny Palmer in the fifth inning boosting the score to 4 – 1. Leading 4 – 1 after five innings, Stephenson began to tire. A hits batsman, a double by Jerry Stahurski and a walk loaded the basis for Musicaro’s in the sixth inning. Ollie Johnston flied out, letting one run in. Stephenson then fanned Stan Stahurski and Al Wolfe to end the threat. Musicaro’s again came fighting back in the seventh. Pat Pescitelli and Weigand singled. Gene Roberti made an overthrow allowing the runners to advance to second and third. Harry Curtis popped out. Joe Sawyer then slammed a fly to deep right field. It was caught, but Pescitelli scored and Weigand raced to third. The throw was wild and Weigand continued to the plate. But Roberti, fading to protect the relay, grabbed the ball, flipped at Hernan who sprawled on the ground, grabbed the toss, and tagged Weigand to end the game (Newsday 9/8/58).
There was no need for a playoff for third place as the Meenan Oilers came in third place in both the first and second halves of the season.
Jones Beach All-Stars:
On Saturday night, July 26th, the annual Jones Beach All-Star game was played at 8:30. The Dejur Camera club, present league leaders hosted an All-star aggregation chosen by the league managers as being the most outstanding players in their respective positions (Smithtown News 7/24/58).
The All-Stars pounded Roy Stephenson and the Dejur nine, the defending league champions, 10 – 4. Stephenson had one of his roughest nights. He was belted for sixteen base blows, one of them a grand slam home run by Tim Hegermann. Pat Pescitelli led the winner’s assault with three hits in four trips to the platter. Guy Sparrow, N.Y. Knickerbocker court standout, went the distance for the All-Stars, and kept seven hits well scattered. He fanned thirteen Dejur sluggers and walked just three.
Stephenson issued four bases on balls while striking out seven Stars (Newsday 7/28/58).
Jones Beach Invitational Tournament:
On Tuesday September 2nd, Starlite won the Jones Beach Invitational Tournament over last year’s winner, the Thunderbirds of Brooklyn, by a score of 2 – 0. Top notch pitching by John Albertielli was a big factor in the win over the Riis Park outfit. Albertielli struck out only one man, walking one, but had plenty of stuff on the ball, allowing but three hits. He was never in trouble. After Bob Smith led off the third with a triple, Albertelli grounded to the second basement allowing Smith to score. This proved to be the winning run (Newsday 7/3/58).
Note: Brackets were re-created from reported scheduling and limited game results reported.
Highlights of the 1958 Season:
On Monday June 16th, Mickey O’Connor of Starlite pitched a perfect game, 4 – 0, over Hillside Terrace. O’Connor struck out eighteen of the minimum twenty-one batters and got the others on infield outs. He whiffed thirteen in succession spanning the second to the sixth frames. In addition, O’Connor had a single and double in three chances and batted in a run (Newsday 6/17/58).
On Saturday August 16th, the Dejur Camermen split an exhibition twin bill against the Raybestos Cardinals team from Connecticut. The Cardinals won the World Title in 1955, finished second in 1956 (and would go on to win the 1958 World Championship 34 days later). The Cardinals won the first game 3 – 0, with Roy Stephenson giving up two runs, and Jerry Fleming giving up the final run in relief in the seventh inning. Dejur took the night cap thriller 5 – 4 as Dick Surhoff went the distance, striking out ten and walking none. Ed Miron won the game with a solo home run off of Johnny Spring who came in for relief in the seventh. Spring took the loss after winning the earlier game. The games drew the largest softball crowd on record to the State Park stadium, with 5,000 fans overflowing the stands, jamming the outfield foul lines, and even scattering to sit on the sand dunes in the outfield (Newsday 8/18/58).
Infield Chatter:
On Saturday, September 6th at 8:30pm, the annual Jones Beach Softball awards were presented to the Champion, Second, and Third place teams by Abraham & Strauss. I could find no reporting any awards for MVP, homerun champion or batting titlists.
Guy Sparrow pitching for the Short Rail club also played for the NY Knicks, 1957 – 1959, and Philadelphia Warriors 1958 – 1960, averaging 7.8 point per game (Wikipedia).
On Monday September 1st, the Dejur Cameramen won the ASA Mid-Atlantic regional tournament in Elizabeth New Jersey and continued to the ASA World championships held in Minneapolis Minnesota from September 16th – 19th. They finished in fourth place in a field on twenty-one teams. Roy Stephenson (P – 3-2 33 IP, 44Ks) and Dominick Golio (OF) were named first team All-Americans with Golio also leading all players with a 421 average. Dejur’s Gene Roberti (SS) and Dan Kelly (1B) were named as honorable mentions (softballhistoryusa.com).
1959
The first meeting of the 1959 Jones Beach Softball league was held at 8 PM on Tuesday March 17th at the Central Mall Cafeteria (Newsday 3/17/59). Eighteen teams indicated their interest in filling the eight league vacancies. Dejur and Musicaro’s were already seeded due to their finishing first and second in 1958. The pre-season games would consist of double and triple headers on Sundays until completed (Newsday 8/18/59).
It was reported that all ten teams have had one or more superior “chuckers” of superior quality (BDE 8/14/59).
First Half Standings*:
* These standings were reported as of 6/15/59 (Newsday 6/16/59) for games played from May 24th through June 15th and supplemented with game results from June 16th through June 20th, the final day of first half play. It also includes make-up results for the first half games played on June 29th and July 13th.
The Meenan Oilers by virtue of their perfect 9 – 0 record were the first half winners.
Second Half Standings*:
* – These standings were compiled for games played from June 22nd through August 3rd using Newsday articles reporting games scheduled and the results of the same. I could not find results for the July 14th Club Chris vs RVC, July 30th Wonderbar vs Kings and August 5th Wonderbar vs Club Chris games.
# – Eddies, whose sponsor was ill, dropped out of the league for the second half on June 23rd (Newsday 6/24/59).
The Dejur Cameramen by virtue of their perfect 9 – 0 record were the second half winners.
Championship and Consolation Series:
The playoffs pitted the second half winner, DeJur Camera against the Meenan Oilers, first half winners on Thursday August 27th. What was supposed to be a two out of three series was changed to a single game for the championship most likely due to the upcoming busy ASA tournament schedules for both teams.
Richie Surhoff, Meenan’s ace chucker, returned from a six-week layoff with a broken foot and limited last year’s champs to three hits, while striking out six and walking four in a 5 – 1 win. Dejur got its only run in the first inning as Phil Condouris walked and scored on Pat Marotta’s long, long single. Meenan scored once in the second inning when Surhoff singled, Phil Pia tripled him in. They added another in the third on singles by Len Issacson, Bill Bolling and Gary Rutkowski. The three fifth inning scores came on a single by catcher Vern Stevenson, a double by Bolling, a single by Pete Van Arthos and two errors on an attempted pickoff. Loser Roy Stephenson struck out seven in five innings before being relieved by Jerry Fleming who pitched two hitless innings. The win over the Cameramen ended a four-year domination of the Jones Beach League and crowned the Meenan Oilers as the 1959 Jones Beach League champions (Newsday 8/28/59).
Third place in the league was decided by the overall season record. Musicaro’s (14 – 4 overall) held down third place as of August 13th and was the third-place winner for 1959 (Patchogue Advance 8/13/59).
Jones Beach All-Stars:
Doc Linnehan sent his Meenan Oilers against a crack 18-man Jones Beach loop All-Star team on Sunday evening, July 12th. Meenan placed 2 men on the first team and three more on the second team, but they will be replaced. Linnehan was named honorary All-Star Manager, but he was spelled by Buddy Reid of Club Chris inasmuch as he was naturally handling Meenan (Newsday 7/3/59). The All-Stars defeated Meenan 1 – 0. The All-Stars scored the game’s lone run in the third inning on a single by Joe Arleth, an error at short, a sacrifice fly and a fielder’s choice hit by Skip Donder. The Stars were only able to collect but two hits off Richie Surhoff and Wayne Jaeckle while Guy Sparrow gave up three to Meenan (Newsday 7/13/59).
Jones Beach Invitational Tournament:
The third annual Jones Beach Invitational tournament commenced play on Tuesday August 19th. The Meenan Oilers defeated the Thunderbirds 9 – 1 to take the crown. Participating in the tournament was Meenan, Musicaro’s and Dejur representing Nassau’s Jones Beach League, Flayton’s, and the
Thunderbirds of the Queen’s Riis Park League, and Huntington Sport Shop, Norton A.C. and A&P Masons, all from Huntington rounding out the Suffolk entries. The Oilers jumped out to a 4 – 0 lead in the second inning and that was more than enough. Chuck Senzel was the big factor in the second as he slammed a two-run homer driving home Phil Pia who had singled. George Cheslock was credited with the victory as he limited the Birds to two safeties in the first and fifth innings. In turn, he batted in a run in the sixth. Bill Bowling, who had 2 – 2, and Pia who had 2 – 4 and one RBI, were the other batting stars for Meenan, all of whose runs were earned except for two in the fifth (Newsday 8/27/59).
Note: Brackets were re-created from reported scheduling and limited game results reported.
Mid-Atlantic Regionals at Jones Beach:
From Thursday, September 3rd through Monday, Labor Day, September 7th, the Jones Beach Stadium hosted the Mid-Atlantic Regionals (8 team – double elimination) tournament. This was the first time in the NYC Metropolitan area since 1947 (Floral Park) and the first time ever at Jones Beach. The top teams in the area were playing for the right to advance to the World (National) Tournament to be held beginning September 21st in Clearwater Fl. Long Island had three teams represented, DeJur, Musicaro’s and Meenan Oil, the Met ASA tournament champ from the Manor Field (Huntington) tournament and the Suffolk County champs. Rounding out the field were teams from Connecticut, Newark, Rochester, Buffalo and New Jersey.
DeJur’s boasts the incomparable Roy Stephenson along with Jerry Fleming and Whitey Carlson. Meenan has Dick Surhoff, Wayne Jaeckle and Rush Riley while Musicaro’s leads off with Ollie Johnston and follows with Joe Smith. (The Long Islander 9/3/59).
The tournament featured fourteen games, eight teams, and an “estimated 50,000 spectators by those who should know”. Labor Day saw DeJur, last year’s regional champs face off against Musicaro’s.
Musicaro’s won their first game but lost their second game Saturday night. On Sunday, fighting their way out of the loser’s bracket and back to the finals, Ollie Johnston pitched and won three games for Musicaro’s. On Monday, September 7th, DeJur defeated Musicaro’s by a score of 1 – 0. Roy Stephenson picked up the win for DeJur Camera, proving “that an old man can have a boy’s arm”. (Northport Observer 9/10/59). Total attendance was estimated to be 35,000, with 5,700 on Saturday night the top single crowd. The action concluded one of the top softball seasons on Long Island in years- a season where the world champion Raybestos Cardinals, the four-time ASA Clearwater Fl. Bombers and other nationally known clubs competed on the local front (Newsday 9/9/59).
Highlights of the 1959 Season:
On Tuesday June 30th in a game between Meenan and Wonderbar, the two opposing pitchers, Dick Surhoff and John Albertelli combined for a total of one strikeout over seven innings. Meenan took the 6 – 3 decision with Surhoff recording the only strikeout (Newsday 7/1/59).
On Tuesday May 26th, Skip Carlson pitched a perfect game for Eddie’s Lounge in a 6 – 0 win over Republic Aviation. He fanned 19 of the 21 batters with only Paul Elias in the fourth and Sol Salvagio in the fifth, grounding out to first (Newsday 5/27/59).
Infield Chatter:
Although I could find no reference to the individual awards for 1959, Denny Palmer, shortstop for Dejur finished the season with a .473 batting average and won the batting title (The Long Islander – Huntington 9/14/61). Following closely behind, with two games remaining to be played in, Kenny Sommers had a .452 average. The other three .400 averages were Bill Bolling of Meenan (.429) Pat Marotta of Dejur (.405) and Guy Sparrow of Club Chris (.400) (The Advance- Patchogue 8/13/59).
In the ASA World (National) Tournament, held in Clearwater Florida, DeJur came in fourth with a five win and two loss record in a twenty-three team field. Stephenson (P 3 – 2, 34 IP, 32 Ks) picked up first team All American Status. Teammates George Fowler (2B) and Jerry Fleming (util) picked up second team All American honors (softballhistoryusa.com).
1960
The first meeting of the Jones Beach Softball league was held on Tuesday, March 15th at 8:00 pm in the Central Mall Cafeteria. For the first time ever Jones Beach softball would feature Slo-pitch softball games on Sunday and Wednesday nights at 8:30 pm at the Jones Beach Stadium. Slo-pitch, in contrast to the fast pitch game, emphasizes hitting and fielding rather than pitching. (Greenpoint Weekly Star 6/10/60).
Eighteen teams were signed up to compete in the double elimination tournament with three games each Sunday (11am, Noon, & 1pm) starting April 3rd through May 22nd to decide the five open slots. The eight teams qualifying for the 1960 Jones Beach League were: DeJur Camera, Meenan Oil, and
Musicaro’s by virtue of their 1959 finishes. Huntington Sports Shop, Manny’s, Short Rail, Cherrywood, and Club Bar fill out the final five spots (Long Islander 4/14/60 & 6/2/60).
First Half Standings*:
* – The Newspaper reporting for the 1960 Jones Beach League games was sporadic. I could only find results for approximately 20 of an estimated 28 regular season games. Based upon stated team records in Newsday articles, Cherrywood won the first half season with Musicaro and Dejur tied for second.
Second Half Standings*:
* – I could only find results for approximately 17 of an estimated 28 2nd half regular season games. Based upon stated team records in Newsday articles, on Friday August 26th, Dejur defeated Cherrywood 6 – 5 to clinch the second half season with Musicaro finishing in third and Short Rail in fourth (Newsday 8/26/60).
Championship and Consolation Series:
The playoffs pitted the first half season victor, Cherrywood, against the second half season winner, Dejur. Dejur won the 1960 Jones Beach championship two games to one.
Game 1 – On Monday August 29th Dejur defeated Cherrywood 3 –2. Tootsie Thompson gave Dejur the lead with a two-run homerun which traveled well over 250 feet since the fence was moved back for ASA World Championship specifications. In the fifth inning with the score tied at 2 – 2 with two men on
base, Tootsie Thompson hit a sinking liner which dipped and bounced off the pitcher’s mound. Guy Sparrow, pitcher for Cherrywood argued the ball left the field of play between home and third and should be a foul ball. The umpires saw it differently and said it crossed the third base foul line between third and the outfield fence resulting in a fair ball and the eventual winning run scoring. Roy Stephenson retired ten of twenty-one outs by strikeouts while Sparrow nailed only two of eighteen on strikes. Each team made six hits (Newsday 8/30/60).
Game 2 – On Tuesday August 30th Dejur met Cherrywood in a double header to decide the 1960 Jones Beach championship. Cherrywood defeated Dejur 2- 1 in nine innings. Guy Sparrow struck out four, walked one and allowed two hits. He was instrumental in getting the winning run in the ninth. He singled in back of a single by Al Wolfe to put runners on first and third and set up the game-winning hit by Chuck Delaro, a liner to left (Newsday 9/1/60).
Game 3 – In the nightcap of the doubleheader, Dejur defeated Cherrywood by their own 2 – 1 score. Sparrow didn’t walk anyone in this game, but his downfall was one pitch thrown to George Fowler, who hit a two-run homer in the fourth. Al “Tootsie” Thompson had singled ahead of Fowler (Newsday 9/1/60).
There was no indication in any reporting of which team took third place in 1960. Based upon
Musicaro’s finishing second in the first half and third in the second half, I believe they finished in third place for 1960.
Jones Beach All-Stars:
The annual Jones Beach All-Star game was scheduled early in the season to be played on Saturday September 11th at 8:30 pm. It was to feature the Jones Beach All-stars vs the strong Providence team, “Local 57”. I could find no reporting of All-Star selections or on this game being played but being that hurricane, Donna was rapidly approaching; this game was most likely cancelled or rained out.
Jones Beach Invitational Tournament:
The annual Jones Beach Invitational tournament was to be held from September 6th – 9th. Seven teams were to have participated, two from Suffolk County, two teams from Queens, two from Jones Beach League and one from Mitchel Air Force Base (Northport Observer 9/8/60). The first game was played on Tuesday September 6th with Cherrywood defeating Sonny’s of the Riis Park League 5 – 0. The Invitational was cancelled after Hurricane Donna hit on September 12th – 13th resulting in four feet of water inundating the two softball stadiums. As a result, time was needed to prepare the fields for the opening ceremonies and games of the ASA World Championships which were scheduled to commence on Friday September 16th.
ASA World Championships at Jones Beach:
The 28th ASA World Fast Pitch Softball Championship tournament was held at Jones Beach with twenty-two teams vying for the title. The games, 44 or 45, were played on the two softball fields starting Friday, September 16th and through to the finals on Friday, September 23rd. The schedule called for ten games on Saturday September 17th, eight games on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday which would narrow the field down to six teams. Night double headers Wednesday and Thursday, set the stage for Friday night’s finale. Teams were housed in the City of Long Beach with a welcome luncheon at noon on Friday at the Marine Dining Room where tournament officials greeted the managers, and the tournament draw was held. Two clubs, the defending champion Aurora (Ill) Sealmasters, last year’s champions, and the host Musicaro squad didn’t have to draw. (Greenpoint Weekly Star 9/9/60). The tournament almost didn’t happen. After hurricane Donna, the main stadium was under four feet of water and the dugouts
weren’t even visible. Officials stated that six or eight men were working on the fields, and they would be in top shape for the tournament (Newsday 9/14/60). Pumps went to work and slowly the salt water was dumped back into the ocean. The grass had to be well washed with fresh water. By Friday night, everything was back in shape.
The cost of the tournament was to be met by a small admission charge. The main stadium was for books of series tickets, reserved seats and general admission. The second field (1,000 comfortable seats) – general admission, no reserved seats, but book tickets were honored. A complete book – all games with seats behind home plate were $15. Seats directly behind first and third base, reserved – were $10. $7 books were for reserved sections all games. General admission for each double header was $1 (Northport Observer 9/8/60).
Apparently, the attendance figures were a disappointment. Following hurricane Donna cleanup and the opening ceremonies on Friday (attendance estimated at 2,400), the rains returned on Saturday night, continued on Sunday, and kept pouring on Monday. Dan Belcastro, chairman of the World tournament committee, estimated Wednesday night’s doubleheaders drew 1,400 spectators. “We’ll have to draw 15,000 people to break even on Thursday and Friday”. He attributed the lack of spectators on opening night to “the cold weather and the Yankees playing Baltimore for first place. Khrushchev and Castro came to town and the United Nations was in session and people were glued to their TV sets”. Belcastro stated that they needed 100,000 spectators over the course of the tournament, “we need that many because we have a $25,000 nut to cover”. “The affair certainly didn’t get the space that it calls for in the newspapers” (Newsday 9/22/60).
On Friday September 23rd, the Clearwater (Fla.) Bombers, coming through the loser’s bracket defeated the Cinderella team of the tournament, the Delta Merchants (Stockton Ca.) twice by identical 1 -0 scores.
The DeJur Camermen, the Mid-Atlantic region champs, finished in a seventh-place tie (2 – 2), while Musicaro’s (Host) finished 0 – 2, tying for 17th place. Jerry Fleming (DeJur, Util) was selected first team
All American while second team All American honors was bestowed upon DeJur’s George Adam (1B) and Gene Roberti (3B). (softballhistoryusa.com).
Infield Chatter:
In an article in Newsday on July 17th, it was mentioned that of the twenty-four games played to date, seventeen of them resulted in shutouts.
An August 24th Newsday article identified the official Jones Beach League announcer as John Keaney, an English teacher and guidance counselor in the East Meadow secondary school system. He has held the job for the last five years. Aside from play by play announcing of the games, he provides a running commentary on background color that keeps the fans informed.
1960 marked the first year for the newly established Atlantic Seaboard Major Softball League. Of the eight teams in the league, Dejur and Meenan were the local entries along with Scranton (PA.), Wilmington (DE), Johnny’s (Baltimore MD), Trenton Polish Falcons (NJ), Tuck Tape (Westchester, NY) and Burry Biscuit (Elizabeth, NJ)
Dejur arranged to play ten “home” game dates against other top softball teams in the newly organized Atlantic Seaboard Major Softball League at Hickey Field in Rockville Centre. The two exhibition games they played there in 1959 drew 1,000 and 1,700 spectators and netted the Village $700 (Long Island News and Owl 6/17/60). Meenan played their league home games at the Levittown Stadium on Loring Road.
1961
The first meeting of the 1961 Jones Beach league was scheduled for Tuesday night, February 28th at 8:00 pm in the Central Mall Cafeteria.
For 1961 the Jones Beach Slo-pitch League will play the season at the (existing) softball stadium near the East Bath House and the Jones Beach Softball League (fast pitch) will play games at the new stadium located between the West Bath House and Field Two. Both leagues will begin league play on Saturday night, May 20th. (Long Island Advance – Patchogue 5/25/61). The slo-pitch league has a 8:40 pm curfew so that noise from the field will not interfere with Marine Amphitheater shows. For this reason, the regular Jones Beach Softball League was moved to the new West Field (Newsday 4/13/61). This season will consist of three rounds, each consisting of 7 games (Newsday 8/15/61).
First Round Standings*:
* – The win / loss records for Dejur and Local 55 were based upon a July 7th Newsday article. The balance of the results was based upon game results and logical assumptions for the period May 22nd through June 29th.
# – The Local 55 “Climate Controllers” were sponsored by the Labor-Management Industry Fund of the Sheet Metal Workers Union Local #55.
On Thursday July 6th, Dejur and Local 55 faced off in a one game playoff to decide first place for the first round of the Jones Beach League. A two out single by Al McCoy in the bottom of the seventh, gave Dejur a thrilling 1 – 0 victory over Local 55. Roy Stephenson and the loser’s Ollie Johnston were locked into a pitching duel until the seventh. With one out, Gene Roberti was hit by a Johnston pitch.
Stephenson sacrificed his teammate to second and McCoy lined a single to center. Roberti scored standing up (Newsday 7/7/61).
Second Round Standings*:
*- Dejur and Local 55 again once again ended in a deadlock in the second session. This time they finished up that way as co-champions, with no playoff taking place. (The Long Islander, Huntington 9/14/61). The second-round standings were re-created from newspaper reporting of results for 26 of 28 games played from July 5th through August 10th but no results could be found for Meenan vs Glenbrook and Meenan vs Musiciaro’s games.
Third Round Standings*:
* – The win / loss records for Dejur and Local 55 were based upon a September 14th the Long Islander, – Huntington article. The balance of the results was based upon reported game results from August 14th through August 29th with some logical assumption based upon Dejur’s 7 – 0 record. It appears that with so many tournaments happening late in the season, articles reporting on the Jones Beach league was secondary to the reporting on those.
In the third and last round of the 1961 Jones Beach Softball League, DeJur came out on top finishing in first place and Local 55 wound up in second spot. There was no reporting on which teams finished in third place in any of the three rounds of the 1961 season.
Based upon the three rounds’ results, I would say that Dejur won the 1961 championship with Local 55 coming in second place.
Highlights of the 1961 Season:
On Friday August 4th, Short Rail’s George Cheslock pitched a perfect game defeating Wickersham 2 – 0. Cheslock struck out eight and only allowed two balls to be hit out of the infield. Both were easy flies to left field. He almost lost the perfect game on the last batter of the seventh inning. He went to a 3 – 2 count on Jerry Venables before striking him out. It was the second perfect game in the last ten years of the Jones Beach League, the last being Ollies Johnston’s in 1959 (Newsday 8/5/61). I believe it was actually Skip Carlson who pitched the 1959 perfect game based upon a 5/27/59 Newsday article and it also overlooked the back-to-back perfect games pitched by Joe Smith and Roy Stephenson in the 1957 season.
Jones Beach All-Stars:
Scheduling conflicts caused the cancellation of the Jones Beach All-Stars vs the Providence team. The reason was that Local 55, which placed four players on the All-Star team, was playing host to the Metropolitan ASA tournament on the same night as the scheduled All-Star game. In addition, Meenan, who placed one player on the first All-Star team and two on the second were also playing in that tournament (Newsday 8/10/61).
Mid-Atlantic Regional Tournament at Jones Beach:
Local 55 played host to the Mid-Atlantic Regional ASA playoffs Labor Day Weekend from Friday September 1st through Sunday September 3rd at Jones Beach. Dejur tromped through the double elimination event without a loss on their way to their fifth straight Mid-Atlantic Championship. They whipped their first three opponents without giving up a run- Dick Surhoff throwing a one hitter in the 11- 0 romp of Newark, Roy Stephenson’s; two-hitter stopping Rochester 7 – 0 and Surhoff’s four-hitter blanking Meenan 3 – 0. Local 55, knocked into the loser’s bracket after a 7 – 3 loss to Meenan, roared back to oust Syracuse 8 – 0, and Elizabeth NJ 3 – 0. They then, in their first year of play, eliminated Meenan 4 – 1. In the final, Dejur vs Local 55, Roy Stephenson got the start but was chased in the third inning. Surhoff came out; Stephenson flipped him the ball and gave him a pat. Surhoff struck out Denny Palmer with two on and two out protecting a 4 – 2 lead. Dejur scored another run in the sixth and had
the title 5 – 2. Surhoff won the most valuable player award, while Local 55’s Ollie Johnston won the MVP pitching award. By winning, Dejur would represent the Mid-Atlantic region and travel to the World Tournament to be held in Clearwater Fl.
Jones Beach Invitational Tournament:
The Invitational tournament was back in 1961 after being washed out last year. It was held from Tuesday September 5th through Sunday September 10th. I couldn’t find the first-round participants nor could I find any reporting on the final Sunday game to determine the 1961 winner.
Note: Brackets were re-created from reported scheduling and limited game results reported.
Infield Chatter:
The Meenan Oilers disbanded after the 1961 season (Long Islander 4/12/62). Manager George “Doc” Linnehan, who had been with Meenan since 1954, announced his retirement from softball. Linnehan in retirement for the winter came back in 1962 and joined the Dejur Cameramen as a coach and signed six of the key former Meenan players (Newsday 2/10/62 & 7/9/62).
In May it was announced by the Long Island State Park Commission that an arrangement had been developed whereby the DeJur Cameramen would be using Jones Beach for its home games in the second season of the Atlantic Seaboard Major Softball League (Long Island Advance 5/4/61).
In a June 22nd Newsday article, Dejur manager Sam Rosenberg who organized the club in 1947, stated that when accounting for equipment and expenses in general, as well as a possible $8,000 to send a team to the ASA World Championship tournament, the total cost of outfitting a team can run $11,000 per year. He further stated that the club did not start “loading up” until it joined the Jones Beach
League in 1955”. On that subject he added “at Jones Beach, players’ jumping from one team to another requires the consent of all managers in the league, so changes come between seasons”.
The 1961 ASA World Championship Tournament was held in Clearwater Florida September 15th – 22nd. The DeJur-Amsco squad finished tied for 9th with a 1 – 2 record in a field of twenty-one opponents (softballhistoryusa.com).
Early in the 1961 season, Roy Stephenson announced that this would be his last season in softball. “I would have quit years ago if there were other ball players coming up”, he said, “but there aren’t. The
same guys have been playing for years. The kids don’t want to play ball.” He once struck out 18 batters in a game; he has struck out more than 15,000 batters in twenty-four years. He started pitching in New Rochelle in 1935. He changed from his uniform to his street clothes in his car. “We used to play at the
stadium and we had nice bath houses there,” he said. “But they said the noise from the games bothered the shows they’re putting on. So now we have to change like this” (Newsday 6/21/61). On September 19th after being shutout and eliminated from the ASA World Tournament, Dejur’s starting and losing pitcher, Roy Stephenson announced his retirement. The veteran 39-year-old big right hander, once considered the fastest pitcher in the game, appeared in fourteen World Tournaments. (Newsday 9/20/61).
In 1965 Roy Stephenson became the 23rd man (along with eight women) to be elected to the National Softball Hall of Fame in Oklahoma. From his HOF Bio:
Roy Stephenson, Hicksville, New York – Men’s Fast Pitch – Pitcher
The Grumman Yankees, softball’s version of the New York Yankees, narrowly missed winning the ASA national title in 1951. Grumman finished third in the 17-team field and its star pitcher, Roy Stephenson, proved he was as good as anyone in the United States by hurling 66 innings in six games, 52 in the final 29 hours. Stephenson’s 4-2 record earned him his second of five All-America awards during his career of more than two decades. He also was an All-American in 1948, 1950, 1958 and 1959. In 1958, he won 42 of 48 games, striking out 576 batters and winning three of five games in the national tourney. In 1959, he was 48-8 with 784 strikeouts before going 3-2 in the national tourney. In national championship play, Stephenson was 23-18, 15-2 in state tourneys and 40-3 in regionals. A 6-foot-1, 190-pounder, Stephenson started playing softball in 1938 with the Shamrocks of New Rochelle. Then 14, he worked very hard in developing himself into a world-class pitcher. “I used to practice for hours. I would throw against a fence when there was nobody to catch me. It certainly built up my arm. There was a time when my right arm was one-third larger than my left arm.” Stephenson retired from active play in 1960 and called his greatest thrills striking out 28 batters in a row in a 15 inning game in West Haven, CT and being elected to the ASA National Softball Hall of Fame (https://www.softballhistoryusa.com/national- softball-hall-of-fame-1960s).
1962
Applications for the Jones Beach leagues were being accepted through March 31st, with elimination play scheduled to begin on Sunday, May 20th (Newsday 3/21/62).
For 1962 there were only six teams in the Jones Beach Fast Pitch League. Apparently, each team played twice in each half for a total of 20 games for the season. There were no playoffs. Dejur was apparently the Jones Beach champion since their overall record of 17 – 2 was the best and they were the first and second half first place finishers.
First Half Standings*:
# – Sheet Metal Workers International Association
* – The win / loss records for Dejur, Cherrywood and Local 55 were based upon a July 18th Newsday article. It stated that the July 17th victory by Dejur over Local 55 “allowed Dejur to tie Local 55 for the first half championship”. The balance of the results was based upon game results and logical assumptions for reported scheduled games and results through the end of the first half, July 9th.
Second Half Standings*:
* – The win / loss records for Local 55 and the Nassau Democrats were based upon an August 9th Newsday article. All others were records based upon review of game results reported in Newsday through August 29th. Based upon a September 10th Newsday article, it mentions that “Dejur won the championship with a 17 – 2 record”. Therefore, based upon their overall record, they must have finished 9 – 0 for the second half.
There was no mention of determining a second and third place finisher for the season.
Jones Beach Invitational Tournament:
On Sunday September 9th, Dejur defeated the Nassau Democrats 5 – 0 for the championship of the 1962 Invitational Tournament (Newsday 9/10/62). There was no reporting on the tournament other than some of the game scores. It appears that there were nine or ten teams in the single elimination tournament.
Infield Chatter:
Dejur players swept the awards trophies for 1962 for their Jones Beach League performances. Second baseman George Fowler was named most valuable player, right fielder Len Isaacson won the batting championship with a .468 average, and Dick Surhoff was named the outstanding pitcher (Newsday 9/10/62).
On Monday September 3rd, the Dejur Cameramen won the ASA Mid-Atlantic regional tournament in Elizabeth New Jersey and continued to the ASA World championships held in Stratford Connecticut from September 14th – 23rd. It was their sixth straight Mid-Atlantic Regional title, seventh in the last nine years. The Cameramen (2 – 2) finished tied for seventh in the twenty-one team field. Al “Tootsie” Thompson (Util) received second team All American honors (softballhistoryusa.com).
On Friday June 22nd, Roy Stephenson appeared at a Jones Beach Dejur doubleheader in the Atlantic Seaboard Major Softball League as a spectator. He was applauded by the 750 spectators in attendance as he was presented with a trophy for his contributions to the game. “Stephenson, 41, a balding man, six feet two inches tall, seemingly embarrassed by all the fuss” (Newsday 6/23/62).
1963
Elimination play was scheduled to begin on Sunday, May 20th. Both Jones Beach leagues, slow pitch and fast pitch, began play on Monday June 10th.
Season Standings*:
* – The win / loss records for Curren and Local 138 were based upon an August 24th Newsday article. Due to the lack of reporting, I could not determine if there were two halves to the season or how many games were played.
# – Formerly the Dejur Cameramen
@ – Doc Linnehan, after one season of coaching with Dejur, assumed the reins of the Local 138 Operating Engineers union team (a Huntington based team in 1962), moved them to the Loring Road field in Levittown and took with him, four of his former Meenan players as well as Guy Sparrow formerly of Cherrywood (Newsday 1/26/63).
On Friday September 13th, Curren Lincoln Mercury defeated Local 138 6 – 1 for the 1963 Jones Beach championship. Curren got off to an early lead when shortstop Marty Satalino hit a homer in the first inning. In the third inning John Williams put the game away with a grand slam homerun. John Melinski went all the way for the winners, giving up seven hits, striking out three and walking none (Newsday 9/14/63).
Jones Beach Invitational Tournament:
I could find only one reference to the “Jones Beach Tournament”. It mentioned that the Nassau Democrats had eliminated the Island Gardens 4 – 0 behind the strong pitching performance of Wayne Jaeckle. Other scheduled games were rained out. It went on to mention the future matchups involving among others, the Crew Cuts, Sybelle Carpets, Lake Grove Inn, Local 138 and Pelegrini (Newsday 9/21/63). No other games were reported on, or scores posted in Newsday or any other publications.
Infield Chatter:
On Monday September 2nd, Local 55 defeated Local 138 to win the Mid-Atlantic Regional tournament at Manor field in Huntington. This qualified them for the ASA World Championship tournament to be held in Clearwater Florida starting September 20th (Newsday 9/3/63).
At the ASA World Championship tournament, Local 55 finished tied for ninth place in a field of twenty teams with a 1 – 2 record (usasoftballhistory.com).
It became apparent to all in 1963 that fast pitch softball was dying and being replaced by slow pitch. In a July 9th Newsday article entitled “That Slow Pitch Game Has Caught on Fast” the argument was made loud and clear. Jones Beach now had two eight team slow pitch leagues playing (the “Open” and the “Industrial”) with many teams turned away while the fast pitch league was down to just six teams. The slow pitch game had more action and appealed to more people because “a lot of fellows don’t have the
coordination to play fast pitch, so they play slow pitch”. Jones Beach had given its full support to the slow pitch game and had even booked the ASA World Slow-pitch Tournament for the Labor Day weekend. There were so many teams coming for the tournament that games had to be scheduled for alternate sites. Quoting Charlie Noble, an employee in the special events program at the beach, “I’ve had slow pitch here for three years. At first, I reserved my opinion, but now I’m sure that slow pitch will replace fast pitch”.
1964
Both Jones Beach leagues began play on Sunday, May 24th.
The league again consisted of six teams as follows: Smitty’s, 3 Muskateers, Port Washington, Trunz Meats, Filiberto and the Nassau Democrats.
On Wednesday Sept 2nd Trunz and Filiberto both won their games earning the right to play each other on Friday Sept 11th. The winner of the September 11th game, Trunz, went on to play the Nassau Democrats on Sunday Sept 13th for the championship (Newsday 9/3/64). Based upon this scenario, I would believe that Filiberto came in third place for the 1964 season.
Championship Game:
On September 13th, Trunz defeated the Nassau Democrats 1 – 0 to claim the 1964 Jones Beach Softball League title. George Cheslock held Trunz to four hits but, in the bottom of the third inning, victimized himself with an error which put Frank Dinnino on first base. Dinnino advanced to second on a sacrifice and third on a groundout, then scored on Cheslock’s wild pitch. It was all Trunz’s pitcher Vinnie Liantonio needed. His five hit pitching silenced the Democrats (Newsday 9/14/64).
Jones Beach Invitational Tournament:
The Jones Beach Invitational Tournament was held from Friday August 28th through Sunday August 30th at the West Field. The tournament this year was labeled as the “World’s Fair Tournament” and featured teams from Connecticut, New Jersey and Rhode Island. I was unable to find scores for the first round of the tournament. In the championship game, Jim Adams allowed Providence four hits, striking out seven and walking three. Abe Baker went 2 for 3, hitting a single and a triple to account for two of Local 55’s three runs (Newsday 8/31/64).
Note: Brackets were re-created from reported scheduling and limited game results reported.
Infield Chatter:
Jones Beach hosted the 1967 ASA Industrial Men’s Major Slow Pitch National Championships from Friday September 1st through Sunday September 9th. Grumman Aircraft (5 – 2) from Bethpage came in third place in a field of 34 teams (softballhistoryusa.com).
In the ASA Mid-Atlantic Regional tournament held at Kodak Park in Rochester, the Local 138 squad won the right to participate in the ASA World Championship tournament to be held in Sunnyvale California.
In the ASA World Tournament (22 teams), Local 138 finished in second place. In only their second year of existence, they became the first Long Island team to make it to the finals. They came out of the loser’s bracket, by beating the host team, Sunnyvale 5 – 2 with Herb Dudley coming in relief of Richie Surhoff. In the first final, Doc Linnehan’s squad won 1 – 0 on Herb Dudley’s one hit shutout. In the final championship game, Local 138 lost 1 – 0 in an eight-inning thriller, with Herb Dudley taking the loss.
Local 138’s Herb Dudley (P, 4 – 1, 39 IP, 41 Ks, 3 shutouts), Tom Hernan (C), Al Aloisi (SS), and John Hefferan (OF) took first team All-America honors. Al Thompson (1B) and George Nevins (OF) took home second team All-American honors (softballhistoryusa.com).
1965
The Jones Beach leagues began play on Monday June 7th with games scheduled every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (Newsday 6/5/65).
The league again consisted of six teams as follows: Trunz Meats, Smittys, McNally’s Movers, Nassau Democrats, * Pelligrini’s Caterers and Pepe’s (Newsday 6/5/65).
* – The Nassau Democrats became the new sponsor for the former Local 138 team after it was announced the Local had decided to withdraw from the softball picture. Doc Linnehan would continue to manage the team which would play their Atlantic Seaboard Major Softball league games at St Raphael’s field in East Meadow. (Newsday 5/29/65).
The Trunz Quality Meats won the 1965 Jones Beach Championship (Long Islander 8/12/65). I could find no reporting on any games for 1965 other than a four-line article about Trunz beating Pepe’s 25 – 3 in a June 23rd game.
Infield Chatter:
In the twenty-two team ASA World Tournament in Clearwater Florida, Local 55 (2 – 2) finished tied for ninth place. Alex Smiros (OF) took home second team All-American honors for Local 55 (softballhistoryusa.com). This would mark the last time a fast pitch team from Long Island appeared in the ASA World / National Championships.
The Local 55 club lost its sponsorship from the Local Sheet Metal Workers union for 1965. Manager Steve Gerdik said “we’re retaining the Local 55 name in appreciation of the wonderful way Local 55 treated us over the last four years. But we’re on our own financially” (Newsday 6/22/65).
The Local 55 “Climate Controllers” disbanded after the 1965 season (Long Islander 6/6/66).
In Bob Zellner’s Newsday column, “Weekly Report”, he reported that 1965 marked the last ASA “world” tournament as such. The event would be strictly “national” from now on, with the growth of the international federation assuring a separate world title for the national titleholders. The Pan-American Games at Winnipeg in 1967 would be the first such clash for the men. The woman played a world championship in New Zealand this year. He also opined “Something must be done to boost leagues for the younger players. If not, fast pitch can be forgotten and slow-pitch will reign alone” (Newsday 9/25/65).
1966
Applications were being accepted for the four openings in the Jones Beach fast-pitch league with April 15th being the deadline. Rosters were limited to 20 players with a minimum age of sixteen. The elimination tournament was to begin on May 1st (Newsday 3/17/66).
The league again consisted of six teams as follows: Trunz Meats, Rossi Caterers, John’s Rest, Pellegrini’s Caterers, Palm Cafe, & Smitty’s. I could find no articles reporting on individual games or final standings for the Jones Beach League. The teams were ascertained from reporting on scheduled games and or reported scores.
In a 5/6/67 Newsday article, it stated that “Showboat” won the 1966 Jones Beach Championship except for the fact that Showboat was not one of the six teams playing in the 1966 Jones Beach League.
Infield Chatter:
In a major surprise, indicating the decline of the fast-pitch game, there was no bidding for the men’s national tournament. However, it was expected that Oklahoma City would apply later (Newsday 1/29/66). The tournament was eventually held in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1966 (softballhistory.com).
In Bob Zellner’s 3/26/66 Newsday “Weekly Report” column, he stated “there are only a scattered few leagues still playing regular – or fast-pitch softball. Just about everything else is slow-pitch. For the first time anyone can remember, it appears that there may not be a major fast-pitch team in either Nassau or Suffolk.” He noted that Doc Linnehan whose Levittown club finished second in the world tournament two years ago has switched to slow-pitch (County Sports). There is no question that slow-pitch has taken over- almost completely. There will be only a handful of clubs playing the old variety, with Jones Beach offering the only strong league.
In 1966 George “Doc” Linnehan switched to managing slow pitch softball with his County Sports team.
1967
Jones Beach announces three openings in Industrial, six in open slow-pitch, plus four in fast pitch. Teams will qualify through elimination tournaments starting April 30th. The deadline for entries is April 10th (Newsday 3/18/67).
The league again consisted of six teams as follows: Huntington, Mickey Allen’s Showboat, Trunz Meats, Q’s, Johns Rest, and Matheson & Wagg. I could find no articles reporting on individual games or final standings for the Jones Beach League. The teams were ascertained from reporting on scheduled games and or reported scores.
Infield Chatter:
Jones Beach hosted the 1967 ASA Industrial Men’s Major Slow Pitch National Championships from August 1st through August 9th. Grumman Aircraft (6 – 1) won the National Championship (softballhistoryusa.com).
1968
The deadline for entry into the Jones Beach Leagues was April 10th with the start date for the elimination games set as May 5th. There were four openings available in the fast-pitch league. Rosters shall not exceed 20 players with a minimum age of sixteen (Newsday 3/22/68).
The league again consisted of six teams as follows: Austin & Ireland, Boss Florist, Q’s, DiMaggio’s, Showboat and Gunther’s. I could find no articles reporting on individual games or final standings for the Jones Beach League. The teams were ascertained from reporting on scheduled games and or reported scores.
Infield Chatter:
Except for an eight-team village league and the North Shore League in Northport, fast pitch softball is dead in Suffolk. Big-time softball made its last stand in Suffolk when the Huntington club entered the strong Atlantic Seaboard Major Softball League last season, coming in fifth place in the eight-team league. But even if it had won the pennant, the club would have folded this year. The reason is simple: fast pitch softball just does not draw the crowds it once did (Newsday 3/30/68).
Jones Beach hosted the 1968 ASA Open Men’s Slow Pitch National Championships. Doc Linnehan’s County Sports club from Levittown (7 – 1) won the National Championship (softballhistoryusa.com).
1969
The league again consisted of six teams as follows: Mickey Allen’s Showboat, Herman’s, Salantri Electric, DiMaggio’s, Sav-On Printing, and Cross Austin & Ireland. I could find no articles reporting on individual games or final standings for the Jones Beach League. The participating teams were ascertained from reporting on scheduled games and or reported scores.
From Thursday August 21st through Sunday August 24th, Jones Beach hosted the Metro Long Island ASA Open Fastpitch Tournament (double elimination). The winner, Salantri Electric, advanced to the Mid- Atlantic regional tournament in Haverstraw NY. Based upon reported scores in Newsday for the period (with some errors corrected), the bracket looked like this:
Note: Brackets were re-created from reported scheduling and limited game results reported.
1970
The elimination tournament for the four open fast pitch leagues started on May 3rd (Newsday 4/1/70).
The league again consisted of six teams as follows: Palm Cafe, Mickey Allen’s Showboat, Salantri Electric, Harte’s Tavern, Robin’s and Cross Austin & Ireland. I could find no articles reporting on individual games or final standings for the Jones Beach League. The teams were ascertained from reporting on scheduled games and or reported scores.
Infield Chatter:
Salantri Electric of West Babylon consisted of former Local 55 and Local 138 veterans George Gardner and Alex Smiros and ageless pitcher Dick Surhoff (Newsday 9/4/70).
Jones Beach played host to the 1970 ASA National Men’s Industrial Slow-pitch tournament from Friday September 4th through Monday, Labor Day, September 7th. The Long Island Lighting Co. (2 – 2) came in tied for ninth place in the 38-team field (softballhistoryusa.com).
1971
This was the last year of the Jones Beach (fast-pitch) Softball League at Jones Beach. There were three leagues consisting of 20 teams playing on two lighted fields by parking field No. 2. Each season, the top two teams from each division are invited to return. The remaining 14 teams are selected after a single elimination tournament in May, in which 60 teams compete. Because of state cutbacks there would be no game announcers this season. Also, Jones Beach wouldn’t supply umpires and this year it would supply only two balls per game vs previous years where an unlimited quantity of softballs were supplied (Newsday 7/15/71).
The league again consisted of six teams as follows: Palm Cafe, Allen’s Showboat, Camelot Pub, Harte’s Tavern, LI Merchants and Cross Austin & Ireland. I could find no articles reporting on individual games or final standings for the Jones Beach League. The teams were ascertained from reporting on scheduled games and or reported scores.
In Joe Krupinski’s 7/1/90 Newsday article on a reunion held for fast pitch old-timers, organizer Bob Haig, who played 24 years with teams such as Wonderbar, Pellegrini’s Caterers and Mickey Allen’s Showboat, was quoted as saying “we won the Jones Beach League for the last eight years before it ended in 1972”. This would be for seasons 1964 through 1971 but I couldn’t ascertain the accuracy of the statement or the exact teams Mr. Haig played for in that period.
1972
The Parks department announcement only refers to Open and Industrial slow-pitch softball leagues.
In an interview with the new Commissioner of the Metro-Long Island ASA, Jim “Sonny” Carmen (former Bellmore Sigma & Post City twirler), it was mentioned that in Nassau and Suffolk counties, there were now 900 organized softball teams representing 15,000 players up from the 350 registered teams only five years ago. The game was changing too. The interest in fast pitch softball had declined to the point where there were only four or five teams playing in the metropolitan area and the long-established Jones Beach League for the first time will not play this summer. Slow-pitch was still very popular, but a new game was emerging: modified pitch. The pitchers can’t dominate as in fast pitch; no hitters are unheard of. Everybody hits the ball but not everybody gets a hit. There’s action on every play (Newsday 4/25/72).
In September of 1972 Jones Beach played host to the ASA modified pitch National Championships on Fields 1 and 2.
1977
In 1977 George “Doc” Linnehan was elected to the National Softball Hall of Fame in Oklahoma. From his HOF bio:
The only manager to have teams in the finals of the Men’s Major Slow Pitch and Men’s Major Fast Pitch National Championships, Linnehan started managing in 1956 and led the Meenan Oilers to a fourth
place finish in the Men’s Fast Pitch National Tourney. In 1964, he led Local 138 of Huntington, LI to second place. Switching to slow pitch in 1966, he led County Sports of Levittown, Long Island, NY to the national title in 1968 after finishing second in 1966 and third in 1967. His teams had a record of 55-23 in ASA national championship play. In 1965, he managed the Fast Pitch All-Stars and in 1968 managed the Slow Pitch All-Stars. A native of Queens, NY, Linnehan grew up in Jamaica, playing baseball in the Queens Alliance Baseball League in the 1930s before attending Palmer Chiropractic College in Iowa.
After opening his County Sports Center, he continued his chiropractic practice at night for several years and began playing and managing softball teams. He died in 1990 at age 74 and was one of the most respected and well-liked people in the sport during his career. He also is a member of the Long Island ASA Hall of Fame.
1979
The allotment and scheduling of the fields at Jones Beach State Park for the 1979 season took place at a meeting on Tuesday February 20th. All modified, slow-pitch and fast-pitch leagues or teams interested in using the fields for regular season play or special tournaments were urged to send a representative to this scheduling meeting (The Leader 2/15/79).
1981
Scheduling of the fields at Jones Beach State Park for the 1981 season was to be handled by lottery at a meeting on Tuesday October 21st in the conference room at the Long Island State Parks and Recreation Commission Headquarters in North Babylon. (The Leader 10/2/80).
Around 1980, the Long Island State Park Commission was dissolved as a standalone agency with jurisdiction over its parks largely being taken over by the NY State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, while it parkways were taken over by the New York State Department of Transportation (Wikipedia).
Jones Beach Softball Champions – 1937 – 1971
| Year | 1st Place | 2nd Place | Third Place |
| 1937 | Hempstead | Huntington | Unknown |
| 1938 (Village) | Baldwin | Sayville | Unknown |
| 1938 (Industrial) | Long Island Water | New York Telephone | Various (six teams) |
| 1939 (Village) | Hempstead | Unknown | Unknown |
| 1939 (Industrial) | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| 1940 | Grumman Yankees | Baldwin Mug Club | Hempstead Giants |
| 1941 (Men) | Floral Park Bombers | Grumman Yankees | Sash & Door Aces |
| 1941 (Women) | Lynbrook Pirettes | Long Island Trevocs | Idlewild |
| 1942 | Liberty Cardinals | Nassau Dodgers | Floral Park Bombers |
| 1943- 1945 | WW II | WW II | WW II |
| 1946 | Roosevelt Rotaries | East Islip Alumni | Freeport Legion |
| 1947 | Kluger Maroons | Bellmore Sigmas | Hempstead Millers |
| 1948 | Franklin Square Royals | Floral Park Bombers | Mineola Blue Devils |
| 1949 | Floral Park Bombers | Franklin Square Royals | Nassau Bike |
| 1950 | Republic Aviation | Bellmore | Floral Park Bombers |
| 1951 | Bellmore Sigmas | Botto Brothers | Royal A.C. |
| 1952 | Bellmore Sigmas | Strickland Royals | Levittown A.A. |
| 1953 | Post City | Long Island Neon | Botto Brothers |
| 1954 | Pin Up | Meenan Oilers | Musicaros |
| 1955 | Dejur Cameramen | Musicaros | Kings |
| 1956 | Dejur Cameramen | Musicaros | Meenan Oilers |
| 1957 | Dejur Cameramen | Meenan Oilers | Royal Democrats |
| 1958 | Dejur Cameramen | Musicaros | Meenan Oilers |
| 1959 | Meenan Oilers | Dejur Cameramen | Musicaros |
| 1960 | Dejur Cameramen | Cherrywood Lounge | Musicaros |
| 1961 | Dejur Cameramen | Local 55 | N/A |
| 1962 | Dejur Cameramen | N/A | N/A |
| 1963 | Curren Lincoln Mercury | Local 138 | Unknown |
| 1964 | Trunz Quality Meats | Nassau Democrats | Filiberto |
| 1965 | Trunz Quality Meats | Unknown | Unknown |
| 1966 | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| 1967 | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| 1968 | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| 1969 | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| 1970 | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| 1971 | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
1940
1940 “Member” Jones Beach Softball League souvenir 15” bat – Harrison collection
1942
1st Place Bookends -Harrison collection
2nd place medal – photo courtesy of John Haupt
Photo courtesy of Newsday
Stadium standings sign – Photo courtesy of The Gateway
Photo courtesy of Newsday
1948
1st Place Desk set 1948 – Photo courtesy of John Haupt
Franklin Square Royals – 1948 Little World Series Champions – Photo from Boardwalk Information Board
2nd Place personalized ashtray trophy 1948 – Harrison collection
Floral Park Bombers -1948 JBLWS Runner-ups – Photo Harrison collection
1949
Floral Park Bombers – 1949 Little World Series Champions – Harrison collection
1949 Little World Series Champions Banner – Harrison collection
1st place 1949 desk set – Harrison collection
Photo courtesy of Newsday
1950
Frank Jagiello – Nassau Bike
Eric Erickson – Floral Park Bombers / Photos Newsday
Al Wolfe – Bellmore Sigmas
Floral Park Bombers – 3rd Place money clip- Harrison collection
1951
Photo courtesy of Newsday
1952
Photos courtesy of Newsday
1953
Ollie Johnston – Republic Aircraft
Ken Sommers – Botto Brothers
Photos courtesy of Newsday
1954
Photos courtesy of Newsday
1955
Photos courtesy of Newsday
Photos courtesy of Newsday
Photo courtesy of Newsday
1956
Photos courtesy of Newsday
1957
Chick Talgo – Royal Democrats
Photos courtesy of Newsday
1959
Photos courtesy of Newsday
Photos courtesy of Newsday
1960
Jerry Fleming – Dejur Cameramen
John Keaney – Jones Beach stadium announcer
Photos courtesy of Newsday
1962
Dick Surhoff – Dejur Camera – Outstanding Pitcher of 1962
1964
Photos courtesy of Newsday
Miscellaneous Pictures
This picture is circa 1941–1947. In 1941 the pitcher’s uniform was drastically revised to make the twirlers look like “undertakers” under new ASA rules. The “hurlers” uniforms had to be all black or dark blue, with no letters or trimming of any kind on the front. This applied today as well as night games. In 1948 the “undertakers” rules for pitcher’s uniforms was abolished and the twirlers were allowed to wear the uniforms of their teams (www.softballhistoryusa.com/the-evolution-and-history-of-softball-in-the-united-states). Photo courtesy of Newsday.
Jones Beach Softball belt buckle – Season date unknown – Photo courtesy of John Haupt
Sources, Legend, Acknowledgements and Dedication
Sources:
www.newsday.newspapers.com (Newsday Archives – subscription)
www.nyshistoricnewspapers.org (The NYS Historic Newspapers)
www.bklyn.newspapers.com (Brooklyn Public Library archive 1809 – 1999)
www.softballhistoryusa.com (Steve Dimitry’s Softball History Website)
Legend:
BDE = Brooklyn Daily Eagle
NDR – Star = Nassau Daily Review – Star
Acknowledgements:
Special thanks to Steve Dimitry for providing documentation & clarification regarding regional tournament play and results as well as for his World Tournament details from his comprehensive website as noted throughout this compilation.
Special thanks to John Haupt for allowing me use of photos of his Jones Beach Softball collection obtained from the Jones Beach Club Facebook page.
Dedication:
This history is dedicated to the softball pioneering men and women who developed the game of softball into what it was and what it became. Additionally, I dedicate this to the memory of my father, William T Harrison Sr. who started playing in 1940 upon his graduation from Sewanhaka High School and played for fifteen plus years in the Jones Beach League, with and against, all the local softball legends. He died in 1962, much too young. I also dedicate this to the memory of my mother, Vera Harrison, “the keeper of the records”, for saving the newspaper clippings and trophies so that my three siblings and I would know who our father was.
