By Dan Shine
Voice Columnist
The West Haven Sailors
(As originally written by New Haven Register Sports Editor Bill Guthrie, 1967)
It was a short walk to Donovan Field during boyhood. And never on Sunday could you fail to find some idol there.
The best of the available World War II baseball talent was there. Players like young Larry Berra came from the New London Sub Base to play against the West Haven Sailors, the last of our successful semi-pro baseball teams.
When the Sailors stood at attention for the National Anthem, there was no line trying to get through the gate. The late Red McNamara already had sold his last ticket and probably was totaling the receipts for late owner Moe Quigley.
The other half of the Sailor management, Harry Noyes, was standing outside the dugout waiting for the umpire to yell, “Play Ball.” The umpire behind the plate had become as much a part of Sunday afternoon at Savin Rock as popcorn. It was Al Barlick, later a National League favorite for many years. Al’s “STEEEERIKE” pierced the calm of the afternoon and seldom drew an argument from Sailor or foe.
Many an afternoon was spent watching outfielders Johnny White, now of the New Haven Fire Department; Joe Rossamondo, Joe DiMaggio’s lookalike in center and the late Red Sheehan. White’s leftfield was short but high-fenced. Sheehan had so much room to roam in right that he deserved time-and-a-half pay just for retrieving a foul ball.
Many faces came and went in Sailor lineups, but those who stuck in the juvenile mind were third baseman Cy Block, short-stop Jackie Tyler and second baseman Whitey Piurek.
Every time Block was mentioned, there was always the connotation that he was a member of the Chicago Cubs. Just being a big leaguer carried a lot of weight if you hadn’t seen a big league game.
It mattered not that Block played in only 17 games in three years with the Cubs because he was playing behind a guy named Stan Hack, which was almost like playing playing for the Baltimore Orioles now behind Brooks Robinson.
And Tyler had that nice provincial touch. He was a little guy who had gone straight from East Haven High to the starting lineup of the Sailors.
Not that the Sailors were the Yankees in eyes more trained. But no one would be suspect if he argued that the expansion of major league baseball and the plight of the minors has lifted the stature of teams like the sailors to the level of the high minor leaguers of today.
“It was really great baseball,” said Block via telephone Wednesday from his New York City insurance office after hearing that the Sailors planned a reunion for April 21 at the Wst Haven Knights of Columbus.
“There were no greater fans than we had in West Haven,” said Block. “We really had a ball. I played there five years, from 1943 through 1945, when I was in the Coast Guard, and 1946 and ’47 when the Cubs sold me to a minor league club I didn’t want to report to. I was even going to settle in West Haven, but the deal I was trying to get with an insurance company never worked out, so I came back to New York.”
Block has become a high-income taxpayer because of his insurance business and has even written a book about it. But all you have to do is mention the West Haven Sailors and he virtually melts, like all who savor the success of the past.
“We had a great club,” said Cy. “Benny Ferriola caught with the Red Sox system, Doyle Lade pitched for the Cubs when I was there, Hank Majeski played with the Philadelphia A’s and I remember a young kid named Frank Morino who struck out 16 when we beat the Police, 1-0, one Sunday. I could never understand how he never made it to the major leagues.”
These are all names from Block’s past and the past of Donovan Field, which traded the sounds of Sunday baseball for those of Saturday stock car racing, and presently is being put to rest by a demolition crew as part of West Haven’s redevelopment program.
“Well, that’s the end of a grand old place,” said Block, who wouldn’t have recognized the Donovan Field of recent years.
Where Red Sheehan used to roam, a pit area entrance recently stood. And where Block used to try for foul balls in the stands, at least one stock car driver was killed.
Memories are as different as people. Some will remember the drone of Saturday nights. Others the sock of Sunday afternoons.