September 13, 2012 pdf edition - Quaboag Current

PAGE 20 A Turley Publication • www.turley.com I Thursday, September 13, 2012
Time to meet the Mack
Editor’s note: This story is the
last in a series about baseball great
Connie Mack and the upcoming
celebration Friday, Sept. 14 and
Saturday, Sept. 15 of the 150th anniversary
of baseball legend Connie
Mack’s birthday, hosted by the town
of East Brookfi eld.
-EAST BROOKFIELD
By Jennifer Grybowski
Turley Publications Reporter
The East Brookfi eld Pride
Committee, with the assistance
of other departments,
committees and volunteers,
are planning for a 150th
birthday celebration for their
hometown hero called Connie
Mack Day Friday, Sept. 14 and
Saturday, Sept. 15.
“The town of East Brookfi eld
is honored to be able to host a
celebration befi tting this champion,”
organizer and Selectman
Larry Gordon said.
This hall of fame manager
and team owner served a major
role in major league baseball
during its early days of development.
“This event has taken on a
life of its own,” Gordon said.
“When this thing all started I realized
that Connie Mack’s 150th
birthday was coming up because
I like history. I talked to other
committees and thought it might
be nice to have a little event to
recognize this. But it just became
huge.”
Friday night will feature four
guest speaker presentations at
the elementary school at 7 p.m.
(see last week’s Quaboag Current
for details), as well as kiddy
carnival rides, games and food
vendors at the town complex
from 5 to 9 p.m.
Senator Connie Mack III,
grandson of Connie Mack Sr.,
will attend the events on both
days.
On Saturday, several events
will take place throughout the
town complex and surrounding
area. The day will kick off
with a pancake breakfast from 7
to 9 a.m. at the East Brookfi eld
Baptist Church. A $6 donation
is suggested for the meal. Beginning
at 8 a.m., thrill-seekers can
take a tethered hot air balloon
ride, subject to favorable weather
conditions.
The parade will begin at 10
a.m. at East Brookfi eld Elementary
School going west on Route
9 and end at BayPath Estates on
North Brookfi eld Rd. The parade
will consist of four marching
bands, fl oats, fi re trucks
from many towns, antique cars
MUD MAN I FROM PAGE 1
a way for the players to legally
scuff up the ball, spit on it, or
rub it in dirt to help the pitcher
get a better grip. The umpires
and coaches complained the ball
would get ruined or tampered
with once the leather softened
and the stitches loosened.
One fall, Blackburne returned
home and searched for
the perfect rubbing compound
in his old fi shing hole, according
to legend. One day he eventually
he found mud he liked in
a secret tributary of the Delaware
River, near Palmyra, New
Jersey where he lived most of
his life. He tested it out while
coaching under Connie Mack
and tractors, special dignitaries
in cars and local non-profi t
groups. After the parade, the
antique cars and tractors will
proceed into the parking area
at St. John the Baptist Church
for a car and tractor show which
will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
At 10:30 a.m. the fairway
booths, farmers’ market, kiddy
carnival rides and fi eld games
will begin. An art show and
quilt show will also begin at
this time. The East Brookfi eld
Historical Society, the Massasoit
Art Guild and the Quabaog
Valley Railroaders will all
be presenting from 11 a.m. to 4
p.m. in the Hodgkins Building.
From 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. the
band Something Different will
be providing live music.
Author Normal Macht, who
has written two biographical
volumes on Connie Mack, will
be selling and signing his books
from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the
library.
Then, at 1 p.m., there will be
a Connie Mack Field rededication
ceremony. The Master of
Ceremonies for this event will
be East Brookfi eld Elementary
School Principal Ron Tomlin.
This event will include guest
speakers, an essay contest reading,
the unveiling of a Connie
Mack Field sign and the serving
of birthday cake. The rededication
will be followed by a reenactment
of Connie Mack’s fi rst
championship game between
East Brookfi eld and North
Brookfi eld from 1:30 to 3:30
p.m.
“This is one of the fi rst ideas
we thought about,” Gordon
said. “We knew they had been
done before so we felt it appropriate.
We just didn’t know how
we would do it.”
But then there became such
a great interest in the event, and
from that interest came donations.
“We realized we could really
do this game right,” Gordon
said.
The East Brookfi eld Pride
Committee was able to purchase
uniforms in the 1880s style for
the players, baseballs, bats and
other equipment needed due to
the donations. David Prouty
Athletic Director Charles Fahey
has put together the teams,
which will consist of all adults.
“This is the very fi rst championship
game Connie Mack
played in, and it was played in
1883 between the East Brookfi
eld and North Brookfi eld
teams,” Gordon said. “We are
going to re-enact that game to
at Shibe Park in Philadelphia
where it was perfected. He
then marketed his idea, and by
1938, he was supplying the mud
to all American League teams;
because Blackburne was a diehard
American League fan (as
was Connie Mack), he refused
to sell the mud to National
League teams until the mid-
1950s. Since then, every major
and minor league team has used
only his product. One container,
a little more than 16 ounces,
will usually last a season. Lena
died in 1968 not before passing
on the secret mud location
and harvesting technique to his
best friend John Haas who then
passed it down to Burns Bintliff,
Jim’s dad. Jim never met Con-
Jim’s dad and predecessor, Burns Blintiff.
as close to detail as possible.”
The game will be played by
the National League rules of the
1880s. Spectators will notice
some differences in the game,
such as the ball is pitched underhand;
the ball is the same size
as current baseballs but is softer,
like a softball; none of the players
have protection – they use
their bare hands to catch balls;
when a batter comes up to the
plate they will call the type of
pitch they want and if the pitcher
doesn’t pitch that pitch, the
throw is called as a ball; there is
only one umpire and he stands
off to the side, not behind the
batter, so he can see what pitch
is being thrown.
“It is defi nitely going to be a
different type of game,” Gordon
said.
A trophy presentation and
closing remarks will be held at
3:45 p.m., followed by a chicken
barbecue at 4 p.m. sponsored
by the East Brookfi eld Fire Department.
Also at 4 p.m., the
Quabbin Community Band will
be providing live music at the
bandstand.
“It’s going to be a great day,”
Gordon said. “It’s going to be a
lot of fun.”
In general, most events are
free and open to everyone.
“We’ve had a lot of very
generous donors; we’ve raised
over $16,000 for this event,”
Gordon said. “Originally, we
talked about a small one-day
event, maybe a country fair and
a fi eld dedication. Word started
spreading around and quickly
we became aware we would
need an awful lot of money to
put on this event. My wife [Sue
Gordon] has done a phenomenal
job of getting the funding
together.”
nie but he said Lena has a great
love for him. It’s one of those
odd baseball stories that fans
love. Not many people, or ball
players for that matter, have
ever heard about “the mud”.
Jim is coming to town because
the founder of his company,
Lena Blackburne, was great
friends with Connie Mack. Lena
was signed into professional
baseball by Connie. In 1908,
Connie sent him to Worcester
to play ball in the New England
League. Their paths touched often
throughout their careers until
Lena landed back coaching
under Connie in Philadelphia
in the 1930s with the Athletics.
According to Jim, “It was then
that Lena discovered the mud.
It was under Connie Mack’s
watch at Shibe Stadium in Philadelphia
when the mud was perfected
and used throughout the
American League. Eventually
in the 1950s, MLB standardized
on the mud and even wrote
it into the offi cial rulebook for
baseball. Over the years many
have tried to replace or duplicate
the mud, including Rawlings,
but no one has been able to
fi nd anything better that doesn’t
discolor or damage the ball cover
and stitches. Rawlings fi nally
gave up searching for something
better and uses Lena Blackburne’s
Baseball Rubbing Mud
on their traveling baseball caravan
at the World Series and All
Star Games events after they’d
TURLEY PUBLICATIONS COURTESY PHOTOS
Several photos of the program from the Lena Blackburne Testimonial
Dinner. Coaching for Connie Mack was Lena’s Dream Come True.
demonstrated the process of
manufacturing baseballs. Jim
proudly states that they (Rawlings)
then rub some of his mud
on the ball.
Jim is hand delivering some
mud to be used in the old time
baseball game and he’ll have
a demonstration of the mud
for anyone that brings a shiny
new baseball to Connie Mack’s
150th Birthday Old Time Base
Ball Game. Jim is the honorary
guest of Cat Lick BBQ
who will be serving up delicious
smoked pulled pork sandwiches
throughout the day with all proceeds
going to St. John’s the
Baptist Church of East Brookfi
eld.