Like many events this year, baseball season has been delayed. Although our favorite teams may not be playing at the moment, it is interesting to muse that once semi-professional teams played a lot closer to home than they do today. Among those teams which played in the North Quabbin area were the Orange Peals, of Orange.
The Orange Peals began, according to John Waters, because “A combination of the Great Depression and the signs of War had both young people wondering what was going to happen. A neighborhood of young people mowed lawns and worked in the gardens, but spent every day playing ball at Sawtell’s Field, which is located near the present Little League fields.” Waters’ father, Frank, and Uncle William “Tink,” played for the Peals. The Peals began in 1936 and original team members were: Henry Olsen, Pint Lawson, Frank Waters, Bob Burrill, Winks Woods, Ken Burrill, Romeo LaFleur, Chuck Stone, Buzzy Johnson, Al Chapperis, Tink Waters and Bob Shearer.
In that first season, the Peals played local teams such as Erving Boy Scouts, Athol Trojans, Warwick Civilian Conservation Corps and the Greenfield Mohawks.
“The Peals did so well that first summer, that the following summer more local ballplayers joined the team and they expanded out throughout New England playing a more competitive schedule,” said Waters.
The teams they played included Milton Bradley and the Slattery AC from Springfield, Winchester AC, The House of David, Boston Giants, Holyoke KC, Florida Hobos, Ethiopian Clowns, as well as leading teams from Athol, Gardner, Greenfield, Springfield and Northampton. “They became so good and so famous, they played the Florida Hobos, a superior semi-pro all-Black baseball team from Florida, ” said Waters.
“In their ‘heyday,’ it was not uncommon for the team to draw a crowd of 4,000 or more to their Sunday afternoon games. It was America’s pastime. There was no TV, Internet etc. It was not uncommon for thousands of people to go for a ride and watch a ball game on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It was the thing to do,” Waters said.
Among those who remember watching the Peals was Kenneth Burrill of Wolcott, Vt., who grew up in Orange. “My dad, Kenneth Burrill, was a pitcher for the Peals. I remember sitting on the stone wall watching them play. I was so young that I was not allowed near the dugout because they were afraid I might get hurt. In the 1950s, there was an old-timer demonstration game. That was the last time I saw the Peals play.”
“Many of the players stopped to join the war in 1941. After the war, the team was started again in 1945 and 1946. But it was not quite the same as they had represented their country in World War II and after the war was over, they returned to the states to work, and have family responsibilities,” said Waters.
Today, there is a granite memorial of the Orange Peals located near home plate at the Orange Town Park, the Peals’ home field. A painting of the team hangs at the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.