My Little Town

 "Whenever I go and whatever I do, the experience of growing up in a small town travels with me. The memories are too deeply etched to fade. Things that happened in high school or even grade school seem to have happened only yesterday, and there are places in the town that still glow with the expectations of my youth.

I did not go back home, But, in a sense, I also never left. I will always be as much from that small town as I am from anywhere."

Top photo: Austin Little League team circa 1974-1975. Gerald Duffee is second from the left on the top row. 

Bottom photo: the rest of the Austin LL squad.

The Potter-McKean Little League has always been one of the most well-known and competitive leagues in Pennsylvania.

It was 1951 when the Potter-McKean team won the state championship and advanced to Williamsport for the Little League World Series. The P-M team lost their opening game to a team from Stamford, Connecticut, 4-2 in the single elimination tournament. The names of those players and coaches are still familiar to some of the citizens of the towns they represented. That team was coached by Eldred's Joe Wolcott, Gerald Carley of Roulette, Buzz Shirey of Roulette, and Cecil Gamble of Port Allegany. 

Above: A new year begins in the mid 70's with seven teams (two in Port Allegany). Gerald Duffee Sr. is the manager of the Austin team. Jim Woods (Shinglehouse) and Gus Kuratomi with Mike Shirey lead the Coudersport squad. 

This was my first year of coaching the Eldred team. I was still a college kid and although the team had been struggling for a few years prior and during my opening two years (only five wins in two years), we were able to build competitive youth programs in the following years. Two winning seasons (16 wins total) began to turn the page. The most encouraging part of baseball growth in our town was the number of kids who played little league or "farm team" baseball- 65-70 youngsters.

Until I saw this clipping, I didn't think that Gerald Duffee ever pitched against us. It was a brief outing, but we did face him for a couple of innings, That was enough! As you can see, Austin had no problems scoring runs. Duffee was 4-5 in this contest.

Shinglehouse always had a well-coached team with Jim Woods managing the club and players like Stan Dunsmore.

Many of the readers of this blog piece will identify themselves as residents of a small town. We all know that northwestern Pennsylvania and the southwestern New York area was made up predominantly of small towns.

I wrote a book in 2017 entitled "Austin, Pa's Major Leaguer- The Mark Corey Story." The most enjoyable part of the book for me was gathering information about the towns in Potter and McKean County and how one's perception changes through the years. 

Mark Corey was a dominant pitcher for the Austin Little League in the late 80's and later for the Coudersport American Legion team. He played three years for Edinboro University before being drafted in the ML 1995 free agent draft by the Reds in the fourth round. He was called to the big leagues on an infamous date in American history, 9/11/2001.

Here's Coudersport clinching the league going 11-1 overall. Bruce Fink homered for the Phils of Port Allegany. Gerald Duffee helped Austin defeat Roulette-this time as a left-handed catcher.

I can recall as a young player thinking that Austin was at least 50 miles from Eldred when the actual distance was 30 miles. The population of Potter County is slightly over 17,000 people (last census), the 5th least populous county in Pennsylvania. The county seat is Coudersport with 2600 residents followed by Galeton, Shinglehouse, Roulette and Ulysses.

Duffee homered in loss to Sayre.

Gerald Duffee grew up in Austin like many young athletes in a town of less than a thousand people. There was only 20-25 students in the senior classes and the athletes played baseball and basketball. If the gymnasium was locked, the youngsters shoveled the courts or some player was lucky enough to have been loaned a key to unlock the gym doors. The baseball program consisted of little league and Babe Ruth programs. When the players reached American Legion age, they played in Coudersport or Emporium. Mark Corey played in Coudersport while Duffee and star Austin athlete, Randy Cooney played in Emporium,

I found this clipping to be written in a somewhat disturbing manner, over- emphasizing the fact that Brenda Bates lost a 2-0 game to P-M in the playoffs. Duffee's HR were the only runs driven in by the Potter-McKean team. It's now very unusual not to see female players on ESPN's coverage of the LL World Series.

Austin's little league and later, Babe Ruth coach, Gerald Duffee. Mr. Duffee passed away in 2009 at the age of 77. He was employed in the Austin school system for many years as a history teacher, athletic director, guidance counselor, drivers education teacher retiring in 1985 as high school principal.

We won one game vs. Austin in my tenure, a one run win after his son Gerald had moved on to Babe Ruth.

His son's path was not unlike a few other Austin athletes through the years: little league, Babe Ruth, American Legion and high school basketball, amateur league Alle-Catt baseball and college baseball at Mansfield University. The one difference that separated Gerald from most athletes was his domination of each sport at each level. There's very few area athletes that combined the baseball and basketball skills that this young man displayed year after year. The numbers are stunning.

The collection of clips below are only a part of  his weekly performances. I don't like compiling many lists because inevitably you leave off some key names, but the town of Austin has produced some outstanding athletes and at times has put together  teams that are playoff contenders in both baseball and basketball.

Some of those players include: Tom Ripple, Dick Logue, Randy Cooney, John Frank, Steve Kudlock, Gary Price, Greg Garzel, Doug Dow, Joe Keck, Marty Corey and Darla Shepard and several more that I'm sure I'll be reminded of as the days go by.

Ten managers named in the Babe Ruth League.

The newly formed Austin Sports Boosters Club (1978). Club officers are: bottom row- Cliff Gledhill, Peg Rotello, and Doris Ianson. Top row-Sally Duffee, Gerald Duffee and guest speaker Richard Danielson. Danielson, former Smethport High Coach became the head coach at Pitt- Bradford.

Early season basketball scoring leaders (Duffee's) junior season. Jeff Kockler of Emporium is ninth. 

Duffee's sophomore year as he and teammate Todd Lamar are in at slightly over 17 points per game. Port Allegany's Randy Riale is third at 22 ppg.

Austin wins tournament game with only Gerald Duffee (27) and Joe Karpinski (23) putting points on the board for the Panthers.

Duffee scores 39 in overtime loss to Coudy.

Duffee leads area with 25.8 a game in his junior year. Cuba with St. Bonaventure recruit,  Andy Moore, is 17-1 overall. Northern Potter is 21-2

Top Big 30 players- left to right: Andy Moore, Ron Lindsey (Wyoming), Dave Baker (Portville), Jeff Jovenetti and John Dry (Salamanca) is below Jovenetti.
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Northern Tier All Stars- Duffee leads the way as a junior. Doug Glenn of Otto-Eldred and Jerry Mitchell (Oswayo Valley are also on the squad.

1980-81 North Tier All Stars are left to right- Duffee, Jeff Kockler (Emporium),Don Thompson (N. Potter), Doug Glenn (O-E) and Port Allegany's Marc Petzold

North Tier All-Stars are all seniors with Duffee making the team for the third consecutive year. Joe Hollencin (Emporium), Don Thompson (NP), Tim Erway (NP), Jerry Mitchell (OV) and Art Fenstermaker (O-E) make up the 6 man team.

North Tier All-Stars plus second team and honorable mention players. Joe Karpinski of Austin is an honorable mention selection.

Early season- Moore leads Duffee by a point.

Duffee clinches scoring title in junior season. Austin goes 2-17 and Duffee provided half the team's 49.1 ppg. 

Duffee wins title as senior over Olean Walsh's John Neeson.

Continuation of Big 30 team with Dave Hellwig (Ellicottville) and Thompson (Northern Potter)

Big 30 Coach of the Year Award Winners and Scoring Champions through the years: Duffee wins in 81 and 82. Other winners: Don Hurlburt (Hinsdale) in 1969 and Paul Dorman, 1972. Matt Grimone (Emporium) wins in 1975. Jim Thompson wins coaching award in 1972 and Hal Hansen (Bradford) wins in '73.

Big 30 photos- John Dry (Salamanca) and Duffee (Austin)

Gerald Duffee takes his baseball skills to the Emporium Legion team (Austin did not have a team) and hits a game winning homer with two out in the ninth inning.

Duffee strikesout 11 in shutout win.

Duffee strikes out 13 in another Emporium win- this time over Bradford. Above and below clip.

Duffee throws a one hitter in win over McKean.

Basketball clip slips in with Scio's undefeated mark. Emporium was 19-5. and Port Allegany, 18-6

Repeat clip of Emporium's win over Kane- Jim Slusarik homered for Emporium.

Duffee throws two hitter against Smethport.

TOP and BOTTOM- Duffee homers in Emporium win. Schager hits 9th HR for Emporium (bottom) Top- Duffie pitches 7-2 win over Smethport.

Gerald Duffee is on his way to pitch at Mansfield University, but still keeps his name in the local papers by playing Alle-Catt baseball for Emporium and Austin.

Emporium defeats Port Allegany 16-2 in Alle-Catt play. Duffee gets the W.

End of the season Alle-Catt playoffs- Duffee (now with Coudersport)strikes out 13 and gives up only two hits in win over Fillmore.

Gerald Duffee strikes out 20 in this Alle-Catt win. That game would lead to a discussion of one of baseball's unwritten "rules"- Never bunt to break up a late inning no-hitter - that's always a highly debatable topic for a good coffee shop argument,

Coudersport wins over Little Valley as Duffee homers. Steve Gustin, left-handed pitcher for the Shinglehouse Shantys, struck out 15 in win over the other Shinglehouse team. Gustin pitched for me at Saint Bonaventure. **** Clip listed above.

NOTES- Kim Tingley of Coudersport is the tenth leading career scorer in Pennsylvania history with 2,905 points. Melinda Martin of Northern Potter scored 2,140 points  (1995-1999).

Gerald Duffee scored over 1,500 points in his high school career and was a 4-year varsity starter. He also won back to back scoring titles in the Big 30. 

Brooks, Eddie and Kevin - Connections

                                  Brooks, Eddie and Kevin- Connections

Brooks Robinson passed away Wednesday, September 27 at the age of 86. He was one of baseball greats.

Brooks also provided the inspiration to write this piece, ironically tying three baseball people together that deserve to be recognized in the game, not solely for what they accomplished in the game, but for the people I witnessed or knew about in my own baseball world and provided a day(s) of enjoyment. Many times, just good stories-and we need those.

Even if you are not a baseball fan, I think it's a good read. I think it's rewarding to hear or read something favorable about all people, but especially those involved in athletics now. If it's junior high, sandlot, high school, college, amateur leagues or professional ball maybe it counters some of the bad that oozes in to our daily lives.

These three gentlemen are maybe connected in a somewhat around about away, but it makes sense to me and they all bring back good memories and/or good thoughts about right now,

   Brooks Robinson made his ML debut for the Baltimore Orioles in 1955 and his last ML appearance with the same club in 1977. He was an 18 time All-Star, won two World Series and was the American League MVP in 1964. He ended his career with 2,848 hits and 268 homers and won 16 Gold Gloves. He was inducted in to the Hall of Fame in 1983.

Brooks celebrates his MVP award with his family in 1964

The Orioles are set to go back to the World Series in 1970 after losing to the Miracle Mets in 1969. It's not unusual for professional organizations to put together a three or four year dominating run, maybe more difficult in the age of free agency and monopoly money contracts. You may notice that Terry Crowley was the only change from the '69 squad.

Baltimore played in three consecutive World Series- losing to the Mets in '69, beating the Reds in '70 and losing to the Pirates in '71. The A's then went on their run winning three straight in '72, '73 and '74.

The Reds lost in '70 and '72 then won two straight in '75 and '76. 

Three straight titles now with the before mentioned roadblocks plus multiple playoff series is almost impossible.

"Thanks Brooks Day," brought over 51,000 to the hometown stadium in September '77. The next night the Orioles drew 3,325 fans.

   Eddie Watt spent most of his big league career with the Baltimore Orioles playing in the big leagues from 1966-1975. If Brooks was at one end of the spectrum Eddie may have closer to the other end, yet he played a prominent and sometimes overlooked role with the Orioles success. He was awarded for his contributions, selected to the Orioles' Hall of Fame in 2000.

    Eddie became a pitching coach with Houston after his playing career and that's really when the Pransky part of the story began. My two nephews came down to Saint Cloud, Florida to vacation for a week in February. Shane was probably 12 and Brett was 10. I lived about three miles from the Astros spring training complex where Eddie was a minor league instructor.

   Before our initial visit we sat in my living room, brought out all of my baseball cards and began to put together all of the Houston players and coaches we might see at the complex.

  We had a substantial pile of Terry Puhl, Kevin Bass, Billy Doran and other Astros cards ready to go.

   Anyone who ever collected baseball packs of cards knows there is usually one player or coach you usually found in your pack almost every time you opened one and it wasn't Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays or Sandy Koufax. One of my frequent acquisitions was Minnesota's Tom Brunansky. Tracy Jones of the Reds was another.

   And, we eventually discovered we had probably 12-15 cards of Eddie Watt, both as a player and a coach. We had twice as many Eddie cards than anyone else.

   We went to the stadium early, probably a little after 8:00 for the 9:00 workout. I recall making the boys French Toast and awakening them to my version of David Bowie's "Young Americans." They didn't like my culinary or vocal skills.

   We'd pull in to the parking lot each day and as we walked to toward the cloverleaf of practice fields we always saw Eddie sitting alone on a bench outside the locker room entrance. He was one of the first staff members to come out so the boys would take a couple of his cards and approach him.

   Shane and Brett were always polite and Eddie was always gracious, seemingly surprised that these two youngsters would have some of his cards.

   We did that for three days in a row and I think Eddie always enjoyed and may have looked forward to it each morning. I always stayed away from the kids and let them do their thing. I was just happy they had a good time with it. Eddie probably signed hundreds of cards during his career and now we had about 15 of them.

Some notes about Eddie as the 24 year old reliever was putting some good numbers together. Eddie was a starter in the minors, but found his value with the Orioles as a late inning relief man. Eddie was from Lamoni, Iowa, about two and a half hours from where we live now. Graceland College is located in Lamoni. No, it wasn't named after Elvis!

   As the boys grew older, every once in a while we would talk about those autograph days and Eddie's name would always surface. Brett, who was now a very good writer thought about writing a story about his Florida spring training experience as a youngster.

   He called Eddie about 8-9 years ago and Eddie spoke pleasantly to him and included some good baseball stories including the time he picked up a signed Brooks Robinson glove for his grandchild.

   As he watched his grandson play in a pickup game, Eddie asked him about Brook's glove. His grandson replied that the glove was in use- as second base. The Hall-of-Famer's autographed glove was now being used as second base, stepped on and kicked around, but in the eyes of the youngsters serving a valuable purpose. Yikes!

   Eddie is now 82 years old. He was 38-36 in the big leagues with a 2.91 E.R.A. He won a World Series Championship with the Orioles in 1970. He appeared in 411 games in the major leagues.

Kevin Lester

   The first person I contacted after I heard of Brooks Robinson passing was my friend Kevin Lester. I was quite certain that the only time that I saw Brooks play was in an Old Timer's Game in Buffalo back in the early 80's. 

   I knew Brooks hadn't been out of the major leagues that long because I recalled he had a couple of hits in the game (Brooks retired in '77) Kevin confirmed that the game was played at War Memorial Stadium in 1984. Kevin would have known because he played in the game.

Larry Doby hit two home runs in the game for the American League stars, one off Warren Spahn and another off Johnny Sain.

When I was scouting I used to tell young catching prospects if they wanted to stay in the game for a long time the best way was to refine their catching skills. If pitchers like throwing to you, you'll have a job year after year. I didn't really mean that they might play in major league old-timers games or in one of the great baseball movies of all time, but in Kevin Lester's situation that was what took place.

I attended this 1984 classic with my parents and Ed Harrington. Note the crowd size- 26,434.

Kevin's bio- the early years.

   I was in my final season as the baseball coach at Saint Bonaventure in 1984. Kevin had graduated before I arrived on campus so I never met him until 1993-1994 when I was scouting a Buffalo Bisons game. Kevin was the official scorer for the Bisons, but that was one of the many hats he wore during the years.

   When we met for the first time in the Bisons' press room eating area, a 40 year friendship was initiated and continues to this day. I loved working games in Buffalo-I was only a 90 minute drive to my parents' home in Buffalo, I knew the Buffalo area well and Kevin and I could talk Saint Bonaventure, baseball and family endlessly.

   Kevin established a tradition for us. Whenever I came to town to start covering a series we would go to the press box and call Fred Handler, Kevin's coach with the Bonnies and my mentor, friend, and the baseball coach I succeeded at Saint Bonaventure. We'd talk to Fred before each opening game. It was always a true delight and a happy time for all of us.

Kevin was a teacher, coach and administrator at Williamsville South for several decades. Kevin was the catcher in "The Natural". He can be seen several times in the movie, often in the dugout scenes. Here's Roy Hobbs' bat- "Wonderboy.

Kevin is a member of the Western New York, the Buffalo Bison and the New York State Hall of Fames.

Kevin's bat leads the Bonnies to a win.

I knew quite a bit about Kevin's background, but not his football prowess at SBU. Also mentioned in this clip is Portville's Dan Dibble.

Kevin with Robert Redford. "The Natural" was filmed at War Memorial Stadium.

   Jumping back to that 1984 Old Timers Game, Kevin stated; "Yes, it was very special. USA Today was just getting started about that time and I was interviewed by a reporter and he asked me how I felt playing with and sitting in the dugout with Hall of Famers and future Hall of Famers. I looked down the dugout and I said I felt like the pope sitting with the 12 apostles."

   The next day there was a picture in USA Today of me catching while Willie Mays was batting and they had my quote in the paper about the pope comment. I got several calls from friends throughout the country.

   Brooks had a double and a home run using my bat. He wanted to buy if off me, but I told him it was my last one, and I asked him to sign it and he did."

This may not be the easiest clip to read, but it sums up what made all of these events possible for Kevin: FAMILY. Kevin and his wife Janet had three sons, Michael, Pat and Kevin Jr. plus eight grandchildren. Janet died from cancer in 2010.  I did not know until one of my scouting trips to see the Bisons.  Kevin and Janet were married for 39 years and provided a wonderful life for their children,

   I guess this story is about connections. Brooks is attached to Eddie and Kevin. Eddie is connected to Brooks and me (and my nephews) and Kevin is affixed to Brooks and me.

   My relationships with Brooks, Eddie and Kevin are all different, but all meaningful. What they share is how much they have contributed to others. We can simply say they are all good guys.