Chapter 5
WATCHUNG HAD GUNS
We knew we were a good team at the start of the 1966 varsity baseball season at WHRHS but the question was how good? Coach Matullo had been evaluating his personnel and early on came up with a re-worked infield. I remained at shortstop, but Billy Beyer was moved from second base to third base, Irv Zander was moved from the outfield to second base and at first base where Joey Ezro might have played when he was not pitching, Matty put talented sophomore Lou Defilippis, another of Frank Rossi's cousins. Lou had red hair that matched Frank's. Nicknamed "Lulu," he played shortstop on the junior varsity the year before and was the best hitter and defensive player on that team. (My brother David played center field on that team and was also great on defense. There was a game at Manville in my senior year, when Dave, a junior playing center field for the junior varsity chased down and caught a long fly ball hit by a junior varsity player from Manville that nearly reached Irv playing second base. Matty was very impressed and had Dave play center field on the varsity the following year.)
Returning to center field was Fred Ahlers, a fleet-footed left-hander who batted righty; in right field was Glenn Rossi, a right-hander who batted lefty; and Al Brown, a senior and steady all-around three-sport athlete in left. When Al didn't hit well enough in the first half of the season, he was replaced by Bill MacLeod, another three-sport junior with good speed who played well in the second half of the season and would be the quarterback on the football team the following year.
Coach Matullo honored Frank Rossi and me by naming us co-captains of the team. Initially, we had three seniors starting in the outfield and three in the infield. We were a veteran team with three, and then eventually five, underclassmen playing important roles and performing well beyond expectations. Our starting pitching staff consisted of junior left-hander Bob (Lefty) Stapperfennne and sophomore right-hander Paul Parker. Our third pitcher was junior Russell Harden, a hard-throwing 6'-3" right-hander. The three pitchers replaced the three seniors who had pitched for us in 1965. They were an unknown quantity and would have to prove themselves. Again, the absence of Joey Ezro was felt here. He could have helped the younger pitchers grow into their role. As it turned out they were exceptional without him.
By the end of basketball season, I was pining for baseball to begin and I suspect Frank was also. We knew this baseball team was good enough to challenge anyone. When Matty announced our new batting lineup we were even more excited: Irv Zander would lead off and play second base; Fred Ahlers would bat second and play center field; Frank would return as our catcher and bat third; I would bat fourth. It was a solid up-the-middle group of seniors who comprised a daunting top of the order. Lou Defilippis, who ended up only second to Irv in batting average at the end of the season would bat fifth. Glenn Rossi batted sixth, Billy Beyer seventh, Al Brown eighth and our two starting pitchers, Stapperfenne or Parker batted ninth.
Our first game against Bridgewater-Raritan was a sign of things to come. The first five hitters in our batting order scored a combined total of 15 runs. Irv went 3 for 5 and scored 4 runs. Fred went 2 for 3 and scored 4 runs; Frank and I both went 1 for 5 but he scored 3 runs and I scored 2. In his first varsity game as a sophomore, Lulu went 4 for 4 and scored 2 runs. Lulu and Frank each hit a home run. Sophomore Paul Parker went the distance and gave up 1 run on 6 hits. We won 18-1. It was a blowout.
We had beaten Bridgewater twice in the previous season by the score of 2 to 0 and 3 to 2. Had they fallen very low or were we just a lot better? In hindsight, the answer to that question was "both."
The next game, however, provided a second answer to the same question: "You may be a lot better but you can always be beaten in baseball." We played Franklin Township with whom we had split two close games the previous season. They rudely interrupted any thoughts of an undefeated season (a rarity in baseball) by beating us convincingly 5-2. They scored three runs early. We scored a run in both the fifth and sixth, but so did they, The Courier News in an abbreviated description of the game put it this way:
Bill Bittay drove in a pair of runs and Wilson Stallworth struck out nine to pace undefeated Franklin Township to its third win. The losers are 1-1.
Yes, we were "losers" for the time being. Better early in the season than late.
Next up was Metuchen. Lefty Stapperfenne threw four perfect innings, completed the game and ended up with a two-hit shutout. From the Courier News:
A walk to Fred Ahlers, Frank Rossi's triple and a single by Doug Eaton produced two runs in the first, and the winners tacked on three more in the third on a pair of walks, two singles and Irv Zander's double.
We won the game 7-0. Both Irv and I went 2 for 3 in that game.
We were back on keel. Next up was Somerville to whom we had lost twice by the identical score of 1-0 the year before. This game was a tight, extra-inning affair. Somerville tied the game 3-3 with one run in the bottom of the 7th. In our half of the 8th, Fred Ahlers walked and stole second base. Frank made an out and I was at the plate when Ricco the pitcher threw a ball that got away from the catcher. who then threw wildly to third as Ahlers attempted to steal which allowed him to come home with the winning run. Starter Paul Parker finished them off in the bottom of the eighth.
And yet the Somerville game cost us dearly. Billy Beyer, our veteran third baseman, broke his leg sliding into third. Billy was a strong all-around player who could steal you a base, drag bunt from the left-side, work a pitcher for a walk and play strong defense. He was a student of the game. He was also a good friend who had helped me get through Algebra II in our sophomore year. The day after the game he was in a cast from his toes to the top of his leg. Sadly, he was unable to drive his car, which happened to be a brand-new 1965 midnight-blue Mustang convertible with a white top and white interior. It had a three-speed on-the-floor transmission paired with a 289 cubic-inch engine. After pondering what to do with the car now that he couldn't drive it he decided to give it to me and appoint me his chauffeur. For the remainder of the school year, I would pick him up in the morning at his house in Warren Township and drive him to school. After school and baseball practice which he frequently attended, I would drop him off at home. Billy also lent me his Rawlings glove which was superior to mine.
Marty Kelly, another sophomore, was given the job to replace Billy at third base. in his first game against North Plainfield he went 3 for 3. He and Lulu at first base would perform far above expectations for the entire season. Marty wasn't as good a fielder as Billy and didn't have as much baseball experience as the senior veteran, but on several occasions he made important contributions.
We blew out North Plainfield 10-0. Without All-Area pitcher Tommy Utzinger, they couldn't compete with us. Lefty threw a two-hit shutout and struck out 14 in a masterful outing. Both Frank and Irv hit triples. We got three runs in the second inning and six in the third.
We were 4 and 1 and keeping our eye on Franklin Township for the lead in the Somerset County race. Our next opponent was Manville who we had beaten twice in '65 and outscored them 12-1. But they had a young pitcher named Dave Patrylo, who had a twin brother named Dennis at third base. I had played against the two of them in the Thanksgiving Day football game in which I scored a touchdown. He got his revenge against me by holding me to an 0 for 3. Irv, Fred and Frank also went 0 for 3. Lou Defilippis got our only hit in a one-hit shutout against us and we suffered our second loss, 1-0. Paul Parker gave up only two hits and a run in the first inning. it was a tough loss that made our path to a Somerset County championship more difficult.
We were 4 and 2. But good things started to happen. We played Franklin Twp at home next in a game that would set the tone for the rest of the season. At that point in the season, Franklin had beaten us, Bridgewater, Bound Brook, North Plainfield, New Brunswick and Ridge while only giving up five runs in those five games. They had lost only to South Brunswick but were undefeated in Somerset County. We were looking for revenge after our previous defeat three weeks before. Even though it was only early May, we knew we had to slice their two-game lead in half if we were to win the County championship.
We got all help we needed from Franklin's pitcher John Bukovinsky who walked the first six batters he faced leading to a six-run first inning. (Three weeks before, the estimable Bukovinsky had struck out 16 in shutting out North Plainfield.) Bob Stapperfenne gave up only one run in the fourth. We had five hits in eighteen recorded at-bats and they had 7 hits in 27 recorded at-bats, but we won 8-1, which shows you how too many walks can impact a game. I went one for two with two walks and two runs scored. Irv and Fred are both credited with only one at-bat in the box score, which means they likely walked three times each. After giving up the six walks in the first inning, Buckovinsky gave up a two-run double to Marty Kelly (batting eighth) before the inning ended. Kelly continued to show he belonged on the varsity.
Watching Frank hit during my high school years was an experience I will never forget. It was like watching a golf pro drive off the tee. The ball moved with greater velocity off Frank's bat than any I ever saw, except at the major league level. The sound was different when he hit the ball squarely. It was the sound you heard at Yankee stadium when the hitters were taking batting practice and the fans had yet to arrive. I had some power. I hit a couple of home runs in college that were over 400 feet, but Frank's long balls often traveled further than that on a line and they got there quicker. He was the best right-handed hitter I ever played with. His brother Fred was close, but Frank was in a league by himself.
Shortly after the Somerville game, I had a serious accident at home that kept me out of the next few games. When I was a child in the 50s, we had milk delivered to our home by Wagner's Dairy Farm located on Mountain Blvd in Warren Township. They had been delivering milk for most of the 20th century to homes in the area. At one point circa 1960 they opened a store and ceased delivering milk in quart bottles. My mother began buying heavy half gallon glass bottles of milk for her many children from the A&P. I was rinsing one of those empty glass bottles in soapy water when it slipped from my hand and broke on the bottom of the cast iron sink. As it fell I tried to catch it which cause it to slice the flesh on upper pad of the pinky on my right hand. The wound cut from the outside edge of my finger nail deep into the pad of my finger. It was a small but gaping wound that required four stitches. There was no way I could swing a bat or throw a ball with stitches in my finger.
The accident happened on Sunday, May 15th. On May 16th, we played Ridge, one of the weakest teams on our schedule. We beat them 12 to 1 with a 13 hit attack. Irv and Marty Kelly each had three hits. Frank hit a triple and a single and drove in two runs. Irv played shortstop in my place, Lulu played second base and Fred Ahlers played first base. A day later we played Metuchen with the same lineup. We beat them 9-0. Frank walked four times and scored three runs. Irv hit a home run, Glenn Rossi and Lulu had two rbi's each and Billy MacLeod, who was now playing full time in left field went 3 for 4 with three singles. Paul Parker gave up only four hits. The team was rolling.
We didn't play again until Saturday, May 21 when we met Piscataway in the first round of the state tournament. The state tournament is a single elimination affair; if you lose you are out. It had been six days, but my finger was not fully healed and the stitches were still in. I could throw the ball pretty well but swinging a bat was more problematic. Mattie came up with the idea to put a thin, folded piece of aluminum over my pinky finger and tape it tight. He thought I could play that way. I agreed. This was a game i couldn't miss. It was a little clumsy throwing the ball, but I managed it. I took a few practice swings; swinging the bat seemed as if it would be safe. In my first at-bat against Piscataway I hit a line drive single up the middle off pitcher Jim Jackson, one of their two stellar pitchers pitchers that year, the other being Frank Sullivan who was drafted by the Detroit Tigers after the season. We almost scored on a single by Fred Ahlers in the third but Marty Kelly, who had walked and taken second on a passed ball, was thrown out at the plate.
The game was still scoreless when I came to bat again in the fourth inning. I struck out swinging hard at a -chest-high fastball--so hard in fact that it crushed my aluminum pinky thimble and broke my wound open. My finger started bleeding profusely. The game was over for me. I sat on the bench staunching the flow of blood with gauze pads. Players were moving away from me so I wouldn't get blood on them. Irv took over at shortstop again and won the game for us in the sixth inning. He singled up the middle, stole second and took third when the ball was overthrown by the catcher. He then scored on a wild pitch by Jackson. Final score: 1-0. Jackson had 11 strikeouts and walked three. Lefty struck out six and walked three. We moved on to the next round of the tournament. Irv was having a hell of a season--hell, that is, for our opponents.
My maternal grandfather was a general practitioner named Dr. Charles Potter. His home office was in Washington, N. J. I took my messy finger up to him for evaluation. The wound was wide open. He decided to spray the open wound with silicon rubber to hold it together. The problem was that he then wrapped it with gauze before the rubber had dried. A week later I pulled the bandage off and a substantial piece of flesh at the top of my finger came off with it. To this day, my right finger is much more narrow at the tip than the one on my left hand. The problem of the wound opening up again had been solved, although I missed one more game to let the raw wound heal a little more.
That game was against Bridgewater on May 23rd. It was wild. We were behind 5-0 after four innings. Bridgewater got one in the first and In the bottom of the fourth scored four runs, one on a failed suicide squeeze in which the runner stole home anyway. But in the fifth we tallied nine runs after numerous singles, walks, Bridgewater errors and a triple by Fred Ahlers. Fred had two hits. Irv and Paul Parker had three hits each. We won 9 to 5.
I returned to action against Bound Brook on May 26th. From the Central New Jersey Home News:
Watchung jumped on losing pitcher Chuck Fox (2-7) for three runs in the first. Fred Ahlers launched the rally with a one-out single and tallied as Frank Rossi followed with a two-base rap. Doug Eaton tripled home Rossi and was tossed out trying to stretch the blow into a home run.
Finally I was able to contribute something. The box score from the Central Home News says that both Frank and Glenn Rossi had two hits apiece and in a comical typo it tells us that Fred Ahlers had seven hits in three at bats. Parker struck out nine and allowed three hits as we won 5-1 going away. Bound Brook was not the team it was the year before.
On May 31st, we played our second game in the state tournament. Our opponent was Southern Freehold. It was a game that is among the few that has lived long in my memory and not happily ever after. Southern Freehold beat us 7-3. Lefty Stapperfenne had a bad outing, giving up nine hits, two runs in the first and five in the fourth. In the latter inning he took a line drive off his leg and had to retire. Russ Harden finished up giving up only one hit in the remaining two and a third innings. Frank and I both walked twice. He went 1 for 2 and I went 0 for 2. Fred went 0 for 4 and Irv went 1 for 4. Our first five hitters scored 2 runs on 3 hits with 4 walks; their first five scored 5 runs on 6 hits with 2 walks. We didn't score until the 7th when we scored all three of our runs.
But the game was closer than it appeared in the box score. After they scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth to make it 7-0, we loaded the bases in the top of the fifth. I came up with two outs and hit a hard line drive deep in the gap in left center where center fielder Ted Clayton at full gallop made a perfectly horizontal diving catch in the webbing of his glove to end the inning. That one hurt. If that ball had got by him, it could have scored four runs.
Whenever I have discussed this game, which I have done perhaps too frequently throughout my life in talking to other ballplayers, I have claimed that we left 13 men on base in 7 innings. I think someone told me that shortly after the game. Without benefit of the scorebook and looking only at the box score, it appears I was mistaken and that the number of men we left on base was probably 11 in seven innings. Conclusion: their hitting was timely and ours was not. We were eliminated from the state tournament. We would have loved to have played them in a best-of-three series, but that's not how things work.
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We still had the difficult job of making up ground to win the county championship. We learned that Franklin Township had lost to Somerville on May 24 which meant we were tied with them in the loss column with two county games to play. The first would be on June 2 against Manville who along with Franklin Township was the only team in the County to beat us. We were at home. They again started Dave Patrylo against us He had beat us 1-0 in the first game. This game was similar but the outcome was different.
Billy MacLeod was hit by a pitch in the second inning, took second on a wild pitch and then scored on an infield error. In the sixth inning, Lulu walked, stole second and scored on MacLeod's single up the middle. Paul Parker pitched a near flawless game and only had trouble in the sixth inning when he had runners on first and second with one out. He pitched his way out of it and we won 2-0.
North Plainfield was our final regular season game on June 3. We were now 12-3 and tied with Franklin Township for the lead in Somerset County. We beat North Plainfield that day 12-3, the fourth time we had scored in double figures that season. (We also scored 9 runs in a game twice.) Our first six batters in the order went a collective 11 for 22. To my embarrassment, I was the only one in the lineup who went hitless (0 for 3) and did not score a run. To quote Whitman, "These are the days that must happen to you." In my defense, it appears I walked twice. Lefty gave up only 6 hits and got two hits himself. Fred Ahlers hit a home run. Irv went 3 for 5 and scored twice. Frank went 2 for 3 and scored once. Lulu went 3 for 3 and scored twice. We had clinched a tie with Franklin Township for first place in the County. Play-off time!
The championship game between Franklin Township and WHRHS was played on June 8th, 1966 at Plainfield High School. A little more than a week later we seniors would graduate. Lefty Stapperfenne started for us but needed relief help from Paul Parker. Irv Zander led off with a walk in the first inning and was bunted to second by Fred Ahler. Ros then drove Irving home. Franklin scored in the third after a walk, an error by Marty Kelly and a bloop single over Irv's head. We then had two runners thrown out at home in the bottom of the third.
In the bottom of the fourth the score was tied 1-1 with Marty Kelly on third and Irving on second, Fred Ahlers hit a grounder to deep short scoring Kelly, but on the late throw to first Irving kept running around third and scored by eluding the catcher's tag. It was audacious base-running and the most important run of the season. Irv went 0 for 2 that day but scored three of our five runs. I think that play broke Franklin's back.
In looking over box scores and descriptions of all the games, it surprised me to find so many of our runners thrown out trying to take an extra base. But i shouldn't have been surprised. Mattie was our third base coach and he was aggressive. He understood that because we had so many good hitters we could score more easily than most teams. So he pushed it and made our opponents execute.
Against Franklin that day Lefty Stapperfenne committed two errors and walked three, which caused Mattie to remove him for Parker with one out in the fifth, runners on first and second, and us leading 4-1. He induced a ground ball to me, but Irv dropped my throw on what the Courier News called "an easy play," loading the bases. We blew that one, but then Parker caught a one-hopper and started a pitcher-to-catcher-to-first double play which allowed us to escape the inning unscathed.
In the bottom of the fifth, Frank walked and I sacrificed him to second. Billy MacLeod drove in Frank with a base hit to left. In the bottom of the sixth, Irving walked again and scored on Fred Ahler's double. Fred tried to stretch it to a triple but was thrown out at third.
Paul Parker then added insult to injury in the top of the seventh by striking out the side. Their third and fourth hitters, Pellokowski and Bittay, were caught looking and Pecorraro batting fifth went down swinging. Final score, Watchung 5, Franklin 1.
To paraphrase the famous song, we were the champions, my friend.
The box score:
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Befitting of a championship team with a 14-3 record, recognition soon followed the final win over Franklin Township. Frank and Irv won first-team All-Area honors in the Courier News which covered a five-county area. Lefty Stapperfenne was named to the second team. Lou DeFilippis, Fred Ahlers and Paul Parker received honorable mentions.
In the All-Somerset County selections, Frank, Irv, Fred and Lefty made First Team. Of the ten players on the first team (comprised of 8 fielders and two pitchers), four of them played for us. The second pitcher after Lefty (who had an 8-2 record) was John Buckovinsky of Franklin Twp. who had 5 wins against 3 losses. Our Paul Parker had 6 wins and only one loss that season. He should have been named the second pitcher on the All-County First Team. Buckovinsky had walked the first six batters he faced in our second game with them, thus assuring their loss. Lou DeFilippis and Marty Kelly, our sophomore corner men, were selected to the All-County second team.
The story that accompanied the All-County selections had this to say about our honorees:
We had guns, indeed.
Just as impressive was our performance in the Courier News All-Area team. Frank and Irv won first team honors. Here are the photos of Frank and Irv from that story:
Frank Matullo should have been honored as the Somerset County Coach of the year. Norm Koury who guided Westfield High to a 22-4 record was awarded the Plainfield Area Coach of the Year, but Matty with our record should have been recognized for winning in Somerset County.
I did not deserve any recognition. In my sophomore year when I told Mattie I wanted to go out for tennis his forecast that I would win All-County as a senior, did not play out. I had a mediocre year and suffered that cut on my finger which kept me out of three games. In those three games, which were against weaker opponents, we scored 30 runs on 37 hits. Our batters' statistics got fat in those games. I like to think if I had played in them I would have had better numbers. As it was, I had 8 hits in 38 at bats for an average of .211. Sounds bad, but my saving grace was this: from the box scores it appears that I walked at least 14 times, which made my on-base percentage .423.
The Somerset All-County shortstop in 1966 was a senior named Sy Fuller from Franklin Township. He was also an All-Somerset County guard who averaged 20 points a game on their basketball team. He was a great athlete. The Courier had this to say about him:
Hiller, a slick-fielding shortstop with a good arm, was also valuable as a lead-off man. The 6'-0," 185 lb senior batted .312.
Batting fourth in the order i walked a lot. I had ten fewer at bats than Frank (who also walked a lot), 18 fewer than Irv who led off, and 14 fewer than Fred, who batted second. My reduced number of plate appearances was partly due to the three games I missed due to injury when I might have fattened up my average like everyone else did. But my 14 walks also tell me that my year wasn't wholly mediocre. You can't hit if they don't pitch to you.
I know I had a good year fielding at shortstop. We turned a lot of double plays for a high school infield playing behind two strikeout pitchers. We had a slick pre-game infield routine that intimidated a lot of teams. We could shoot the ball around the horn quickly. Matty knew how to get it moving with the fungo bat. We were like dancers out there.
We played Sy Hiller and Franklin Twp.three times in the 1966 season. Out of curiosity, I decided to compare my numbers with Hiller's in those three games. Hiller went 0-8, scored one run and walked 3 times. I went 2-7, scored two runs, walked three times and had a sacrifice bunt. I played pretty well in the three games that counted. Sixty years later I can take some pride in that.
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Nine days after winning the championship, we seniors graduated from Watchung Hills. Frank won a scholarship to Montclair State. For the next four years he tore up the New Jersey Collegiate League like no one ever had.
In his first official at bat at Montclair State as a freshman, Frank hit a home run. Later that season against Trenton State, he hit three home runs in one game, the third one being a walk-off in the 12th inning. In his freshman season, Frank hit 7 home runs The following year as a sophomore he hit 8 and drove in 21 runs. In '67 they only played 14 games; in in '68 they played 18.
I played with Frank on the Dreier's team during the summers of '67 and '68. The team played in two leagues: the Plainfield Twilight League and the Union County League, the latter of which which was more competitive. He was also playing in the Atlantic Collegiate League which was formed to allow Major League scouts the opportunity to watch the best college players from the region play against each other. He played for the Jersey City Collegians and won All-League honors in all three years he played for them. His coach there was Johnny Kucks, a former pitcher for the New York Yankees. In one interview Kucks marveled at his ability to hit saying that because Frank had a job, he often showed up late and couldn't take batting practice before the games. And yet he always hit the ball hard.
In the summer after our championship season in 1966, Frank placed third in batting average in the Twilight league with an average of .456.
Most of the players in the league were college graduates or well into their 20s and 30s. Some of them were paid to play. Frank was 17 years old when he accomplished this feat.
When Frank graduated from Montclair State, he held nine batting records there and finished with a .360 career batting average, which for a power hitter like him, was uncommonly good. A lot of those hits were not singles. At the end of the 1970 season he was cited in in Sports Illustrated in their Faces in the Crowd for his stellar career at Montclair State.
In 1970 after graduation, he was drafted in the fifth round by the New York Yankees. The following year he was assigned to play for the Fort Lauderdale Yankees, a minor league Class A team. He played two seasons for that team and then quit professional baseball. He was unable to play for the Yankee minor league team in 1970 because of a six month committment to the National Guard. When he did play in 1971 and '72, both seasons were interrupted by required service in the National Guard during the height of the Vietnam War. I and my two brothers of draft age were surprisingly lucky and drew high numbers in the draft lottery of 1970. Frank apparently drew a low number and joined the National Guard which allowed him to pursue his baseball career but was still a hindrance. He'd get in a groove and then have to report for military duty in August.
In 1980, he was honored by Montclair State and inducted into their Hall of Fame. I ran into Frank and his wife at our 20th high school reunion in 1986. He told me stories about being a pro player. He said he had played with Ron Guidry at Fort Lauderdale. I decided to research it recently. According to a story in the Fort Lauderdale News dated April 23, 1972, Guidry, the number 5 pitcher on the Fort Lauderdale Yankees at the time, threw a no-hitter for eight innings and then gave up a single to start the ninth, ending up with a one-hitter. In support of Guidry according to the article, "Rossi was the hitting star of the game with a 400-foot home run, a 380-foot double and two line singles. He batted in three runs and scored three." Because of games like that, Frank was awarded the sobriquet, "the Red Hammer" by his teammates.
In '86 we didn't discuss why he didn't make it to the major leagues although at one point he said he quit baseball because it was too political. I'm not sure what that meant, but I was surprised he didn't make it.
I later heard that Frank had become the owner of Fitzgerald Sporting Goods in Morristown, N. J. I believe he is now living in retirement with his wife in Boynton Beach, Florida.
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