{"id":593,"date":"2013-08-04T06:41:28","date_gmt":"2013-08-04T06:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/?page_id=593"},"modified":"2024-08-21T05:57:44","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T05:57:44","slug":"the-boys-of-spring","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.morgan-nj.org\/blog\/sample-page\/morgans-people-places\/people\/the-boys-of-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"The Boys of Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morgan Memories \u2013 The Boys of Spring<\/h3>\n
\"Margol<\/a>

Margol Ford Little League Team Circa 1968. Image Courtesy of Eric Mutter.
Front Row – L-R: Don\u2019t Know, Don\u2019t Know, George Giovenco, Don\u2019t Know 9, 4 Eric Mutter, 17 John Wilson, Coach Carter?
Back Row: Coach Richard Prevoznak, 8 & 5 Don\u2019t Know!, 10 Mickey Buckley, 16 Michael Prevoznak, 14 Verne James, 6 Francis Kriesmer, Don\u2019t Know.<\/p><\/div>\n

There is something about timing \u2013 it is said to be \u201ceverything\u201d. I had not been able to find my Little League photo from, uh, circa 1968, and then my longest time friend Eric sends me a copy of his.\u00a0 In my research to find what goes on in Morgan, NJ these days for Little League, I stumbled into the fact that Opening Day of the 2011 season was at 12 noon on Saturday, April 16, the same weekend this write-up was originally posted.\u00a0 How about that!<\/p>\n

The two primary organized youth sporting activities in Morgan in the late 1960s were baseball and football.\u00a0 Perhaps there was something else but not to my knowledge.\u00a0 Most likely, perhaps Kozy Lanes had a bowling league until it morphed into Club Bene.\u00a0 At the time, Soccer was a little known and even lesser understood commodity.\u00a0 In my case soccer was a totally unknown commodity. I\u2019ll cover football in a future page \u2013 this one is about baseball.\u00a0 While the baseball teams were not organized through Jesse Selover Elementary School, the two baseball fields were right next to it.\u00a0 Today there are three baseball fields next to Selover.<\/p>\n

\"Sport<\/a>

Sport O’Rama Photo Courtesy of George Mekula (dmangem01@gmail.com) who is looking for any team members to please contact him. Please also let us know if you know the names of any of these boys!
Front Row \u2013 L-R: Don\u2019t Know, Don\u2019t Know, Thomas Ryniec, Don\u2019t Know, Don\u2019t Know, Don\u2019t Know, Don\u2019t Know, George Mekula, Don\u2019t Know, Don\u2019t Know, Don\u2019t Know
Back Row \u2013 Mr. Kelly?, Don\u2019t Know, Don\u2019t Know, Don\u2019t Know, Don\u2019t Know, Mr. Mekula<\/p><\/div>\n

When the boys from Morgan Avenue and Dodd Place played baseball during the Spring and Summer, we used either sponge or whiffle balls and played on the street.\u00a0 There was a specific street and a specific place on that street.\u00a0 Probably we used chalk to mark the bases on Morgan Avenue just north of Willow Street.\u00a0 Looking back as an adult (or so I\u2019m told), I guess I can now understand why Sadie Dowdell didn\u2019t like getting her window broken by a foul ball.\u00a0 BTW, while I don\u2019t think the Sadie Dowdell who lived on Morgan Avenue was the same Sadie Dowdell who was the long-term South Amboy Librarian and namesake of the current South Amboy Library, what are the odds of there being two people with that same unique name living in the same area?\u00a0 Sorry Ms. Dowdell.\u00a0 The kids really did treat you terribly. Some of them have since told me how much they regret their childhood behavior toward you.<\/p>\n

For boys, there were three levels of leagues then.\u00a0 There were girls\u2019 teams then as well but I don\u2019t know much about them.\u00a0 All games were played in Morgan between the various different Morgan teams. There was no travel involved for \u201cAway Games\u201d since there weren\u2019t any.<\/p>\n

The first level was called something I can\u2019t imagine it would still be called: Midget League.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know the exact age range for this league but we were the youngest kids.\u00a0 The field we played on was the one right next to Selover\u2019s driveway at the northwest intersection of Woodland Avenue and Jersey Street.\u00a0 Memories of most of this time period have fully faded away for me but I recall playing catcher a lot.<\/p>\n

The highest level was the Babe Ruth League. This was for the oldest boys, pre-High School I think, and was played on a field at the bottom of the hill behind Christ Church Cemetery.\u00a0 I was never in this league so I can\u2019t say anything about it.<\/p>\n

The middle level, and the one I have some memories of, was Little League.\u00a0 I don\u2019t recall how many different teams there were at the time but each team was sponsored by a local business or community-based organization. My team was Margol Ford.\u00a0 Ironically to this day I have no idea where Margol Ford was physically located though recently I did run into this Grand Opening advertisement on page 3 of the August 17, 1967 South Amboy Citize<\/a>n which placed it somewhere on Route 9 in Madison Township.<\/p>\n

\"Margol<\/a>

Margol Ford Advertisement from the August 17, 1967 South Amboy Citizen.<\/p><\/div>\n

Each team had a unique accent color for their uniforms, specifically the color of the baseball cap and the color of the number on the shirt.\u00a0 These are the team names and colors that I remember (or don\u2019t remember):<\/p>\n