St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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JO 1945's UNDEFEATED TEAM S'nzf1Ji11lq.' Fr. Cuffc, Ellurnl, Bullock, McNabb, Mulhcrn, McGrath, Coach Murphy .S'e.zfed.' Pickanxl, O'Bricn, McAuliffe, Captain Barry, Sullivan, Collupy, Gibbons

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awed. fra' J N ess mf S 1' THE DIAMOND sport was late getting under way during our first spring at St. Sebastian's. To begin with, Easter made a belated appearance and, while we normally would have had the Baseball candidates practicing in the cage, the oil conservation program closed that avenue of approach in the interests of the war effort. However, late in April, Coach Ted Duffy led his hopefuls outdoors and ran an appraising eye over veteran and new material alike. The season before had marked Red and Black entry into bat-and-ball competition and the three wins and two losses that resulted had been satis- factory to the School at large. Although he did not say so, our 1943 Freshman class must have been disappointing to Mr. Duffy, for it did not take long for him to discover that he would have to rely chiefly on the veterans of the previous year. He did, indeed, have two new Sophomore prospects in Dan O'Brien and George Gilbert, but we Freshmen could only produce Joe Murphy. Preliminary practice over with, St. Sebastian's fielded a team that lined up as follows: Charlie McCarron behind the plate and Bob Baker on the mound, the infield, reading clockwise, was made up ofjimmy Collins, Hank Barry, Dan O'Brien and Joe O'Connell, in the garden the ball-hawks were George Gilbert, Richie Donahue and Frank Dailey. It can hardly be said that the laurels gained by this aggregation of enthusiasts were cum- bersome, because, in six starts, only two wins and one tie balanced our three losses. The Brooklir1ej.V.'s were our first opponents and they buried us under an avalanche of hits that added up to a 15-3 tally. We did succeed, however, in subduing Rivers School, but it took an important Hank Barry triple and two hits by McCarror1 to give us a 5-4 edge. In our next appearance we were humbled 7-1 by the Noble and Greenough J.V.'s, and our weakness with the stick was only too apparent. Next in order was a visit from the neighboring Presentation team and they were good enough neighbors to allow us to take a 5-3 verdict. We could not stand prosperity, however, for our fifth game saw us bow to Angel Guardian by a 5-4 count. A tie resulted when we were hosts to St. John's of Wellesley in the season's finale, for neither side was able to break the 5-5 deadlock. Within our own ranks, we saw Hank Barry's Reds victorious over Dan O'Brien's Blues by margins of 7-1 and 8-7 and we watched with bated breath as our reverend professors formed a Faculty team that nosed out the Varsity by an 8-7 hair. Thus the 1943 campaign came to an end without adding too much glory to our banners, but We were hopeful that future years would bring a more desirable harvest. Our Sophomore Spring inaugurated several changes in the Red and Black baseball scene. To begin with, the Varsity had a new coach in Mr. Murphy and while we had seen him in action in Football, Hockey and Basketball, rumor had it that the diamond pastime was his specialty. On the first of March the cage opened its spacious arms to ambitious candidates and for the first time we heard the crack of bat against ball indoors. At about the same time we noticed that a Steamroller had been brought in to level off the Varsity diamond, and that the backstop had been moved so that circuit clouts would be beamed away from the School, instead of

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in its direction. From a schedule point of view we relished the change that called for us to engage in eleven contests, in contrast to the five and six games of the two preceding years. It was, however, in the make-up of the School nine that we took the most satis- faction. Having gained athletic strength from the arrival of many new classmates, we could point with pride to the presence of four Sophomores in the St. Sebastian line-up. We had Mul behind the plate, Sull and Myron covering the right-hand side of the infield, and Paul McGrath holding down a garden berth. Veterans, for the most part, succeeded in holding down the other positions: Jimmy Collins toed the slab, Hank was at short, and Dan O'Brien and joe O'Connell resumed outfield posts. One other newcomer made the grade also when '45'sJimmy Wiles took over the hot corner. April 12th marked the opening of the '44 campaign, and we threw out the Hrst ball in a contest with Rivers that produced a 14-3 victory for the Red and Black. For the first time in the School's history, out batsmen demonstrated terrific power with the stick and that same prowess carried us to con- secutive and impressive wins over Angel Guardian, 18-5, and Browne and Nichols, 9-1. The latter contest was played at B.C.'s Alumni Field and it will be long remembered as Jimmy Collins' bid for admission to Baseball's Hall of Fame. Up until two were gone in the last of the ninth, Jim had a no- hitter, but at that point his mound rival, Lyons, rifled a scorcher over the infield and the charm was broken. In our next appear- ance we were humbled 7-4 by Noble and Greenough, chiefly by reason of Goodale's effective hurling. Checked temporarily, we roared back to the fray and submerged Brookline's J.V.'s rather easily by a 12-7 margin. The Closing weeks of the season sent us into action six more times and we emerged from these frays with honors even. Injuries crippled us for our meeting with Roxbury Latin, and the experimental line-up that had Bob Baker, Mul and Ed Phillips in the out- field, found Dan O'Brien converted to third and Charlie McCarron appearing behind the plate. As it turned out, a lengthy home-run by Roxbury's Connors, which we judged to be patently foul, turned the tide against us, 7-4. Visiting Portsmouth Priory next, a 16-4 landslide allowed Jimmy Collins to coast to an easy triumph, and perhaps we came home too complacent, for the next two frays had to be chalked up on the wrong side of the ledger. In the first of these contests, West- wood High got to Joe O'Connell in the third and we lost a 9-5 verdict. In the second, Roxbury Latin faced us again and cashed in 5-4, on our failure to hit in the pinches. We rang down the curtain on the season's com- petition, however, by duplicating our April Win over Rivers and by edging Westwood, 8-7. The Chestnut Hill lads had the mis- fortune of tangling with us when we were putting on a power exhibition that featured circuit blows by Mulhern, Phillips and Collins, not to mention Bob Baker's triple and two doubles. The final count was 19-6. In continuance of the Red-Blue game tra- dition, Mul's Blues bested Jimmy Collins' Reds on a 5-4 count, and it was Sophomore Paul McGrath's four-base blow that gave his classmate, Mul, the winning captain's placque. The Faculty game proved to be a disappointment, however, for the professorial group, that had boasted of its triumphs in the two preceding years, gave the Varsity nothing in the way of competition and suc- cumbed to a 22-6 rout. With the bats and balls packed away and the season's record filed in the School archives, we could well be proud of the first Red and Black diamond aggregation tutored by Coach Murphy. Seven wins in eleven starts against high- grade opposition! St. Sebastian's seemed well under way toward its share of athletic re- nown. The School's enrollment for 1944-45 was more than 125 boys, and, just as the increased student body had proved an important factor in our Football campaign, our diamond forces could not help but benefit by the influx of many new candidates. We watched the pre-