by Barry Stagg
by Barry Stagg
BASEBALL ON BERRY HEAD
This columnist took a scouting trip through the baseball fields of Western Newfoundland in late August. The fields in Lourdes and Stephenville were majestic in their damp loneliness. The local senior baseball season had ended. In fact the first senior baseball season in ten years had just ended with teams from Stephenville, Stephenville Crossing and Port au Port making up a strong three team league.
The field in Lourdes is once again an enigma. Baseball, which was so strong in that community on the Port au Port peninsula now seems to be in a state of remission. Maybe the revival of the economy with the new oil exploration going on both at Cape St. George- Mainland and at Long Point will put enough money into the economy to inspire a revival of the Lourdes Pioneers squad.
In Stephenville Pieroway Field stands quiet in the morning dew. This is a new field, barely fifteen years old. It was constructed on former airbase property thanks to the dedication and inspiration of Percy Pieroway, for whom it is named, and George Hutchings, a long time sports supporter, town counsellor and civic activist in Stephenville.
Down in Port au Port the baseball field "across the beach" on Father Joy's Road is the most active and the newest ball field in the area. Old timers' baseball, senior baseball and minor league ball are all finding time at a field that is even newer than the Pieroway complex in Stephenville. The Port au Port field is a replacement for the ancient diamond that existed in Aguathuna at the intersection of the Quarry road with Goose Pond Road. The "Quarry Field" went the way of the Aguathuna limestone quarry when it closed down in 1965. It took twenty years and lots of dedication but the new field on Father Joy's Road is a worthy successor.
All of these baseball diamonds are suitable monuments to the ongoing tenacity of the civic leaders of these communities. Support for the sport lags and soars from time to time but the baseball fields endure. Consider that there are four complete baseball fields in the Port au Port-Stephenville area. Baseball fields in the rest of the province are few and far between and are confined exclusively to the larger towns. There is something going on with baseball in Port au Port and Stephenville and it is a good thing and it has been a good thing for a long time.
I probably saw my first baseball game on these fields in about 1962. I was the mixed blessing imposed on a much older brother who cavorted on and off these diamonds during that era. Nine year olds were and are great ball fans who unfortunately must be taken home after each game. This was a major impediment to post-game cavorting or so I am told. In the next 33 years many more have played and stumbled and saved similar memories of these warm evenings. Much of the glory is in the remembering.
The last baseball field I toured is really the grandfather of all of the local baseball fields. This is the field I call the Berry Head field, which is actually located in the community of Port au Port East. However to all long time baseball fans this is the Berry Head field where local baseball was born and grew into a magnificent local sport.
On a sunny Sunday afternoon in August I came upon an "old timers" playoff game going on between Port au Port and Stephenville. The Berry Head boys field an over forty-five team. They were playing a Stephenville squad which had confined itself to the over thirty- five variety. On this particular afternoon the Stephenville boys were able to win 6-1 but the score itself was really secondary to the overall enjoyment of baseball that players and fans enjoyed.
Let the Downhomer archives show that Lonnie Abbott was the winning pitcher defeating Port au Port hurler Gervais Lee. The Gaudon boys, Cliff, Melvin and Urban looked nifty in the field for Port au Port. Ivan McIsaac was still sturdy and steady behind the plate. For Stephenville, Tommy Cole and Brian Gale clouted the ball in fine,athletic fashion.
Let the archives also show that Ron Gillis and I were spectators at the game. It was fun, it was the stuff that stimulated old memories, it was Sunday afternoon, the sun was shining, the fall was coming and it was baseball on Berry Head once again.
Until next month, be proud, be prosperous.