287 pages, $17.95
A Delightful Look at Maine’s Baseball Past
Jim Baumer has written an engagingly wistful book about a bygone era in Maine’s sporting history. When Towns had Teams describes the 30-year period following the end of World War II when men of all ages played baseball at the semi-pro and town team level throughout the state. Baumer’s book is a tribute to the men who played the sport, many of whom he admired as a boy growing up in Lisbon Falls, Maine. The author spent a year researching his subject, rummaging through yellowing sports sections and interviewing former players, coaches and umpires. The result is a delightful look at a period of Maine’s baseball past that doesn’t seem quite so distant by the end of the book.
I read When Town Had Teams from a special perspective. As a young man I played town ball myself on several different teams in New England, including Vinalhaven. Baseball was a very important part of my life as a high school and college player in the 1950s. I have fond memories as a summer kid of playing for the Vinalhaven Chiefs, including an off-island trip to play the Turner Townies in 1956, which I wrote about in the May 2004 issue of the Working Waterfront: “A Trip to Turner.” My love affair with baseball has continued throughout my adult life; I have spent most of my career teaching history and coaching high school baseball in Philadelphia.
When Towns had Teams is a nice blend of baseball history and social history. Baumer has researched his subject thoroughly and the book is replete with stories of games from yesteryear and descriptions of the legends who played in the generation following World War II. We are introduced to rubber-armed pitchers like “Bitsy” Ionta from Dixfield, who was 223-41 in his career, and “Stubby” Truman from Norway, who won 252 games and compiled an ERA of 1.33. Baumer’s uncle Bob, also from Lisbon Falls, pitched through the 1979 season, winning 179 games in a 29-year career. Baumer does his best to give hitters equal time in his book, though as a former pitcher himself, he is understandably a bit less admiring of the great sluggers of mid-century Maine. He does, however, include a section on the remarkable feats of “Drig” Fournier who stole home 25 times during his career!
Baumer uses Maine to illustrate the changes that were occurring in American society in the 1950s. “High school graduates from all over the country,” he writes, “were now deciding on college as an option to jumpstart their careers.” One result of this influx of manpower was the development of a more competitive brand of college baseball. This in turn improved the level of summer ball played at the semi-pro and town team level in Maine. The result was that spectators of the sport were treated to a high level of baseball from early summer until the last major league team had barnstormed through the state in the fall.
Baumer’s book is very informative. He explains the differences between semi-pro and town baseball: “Town team ball,” he writes, “was played primarily in Maine’s smaller towns scattered across the mostly rural reaches of the state.” Better players, on the other hand, were recruited by semi-pro teams and played games across the state. The author traces various leagues that were formed and folded, including the elite Down East League established in 1950, but which collapsed a few years later. We are reminded that teams at all levels needed sponsors to cover a variety of costs, including paying some of the players “expenses.” When Towns Had Teams contains a nice selection of pictures of past players and teams. In a book filled with so many names and places, however, an index would have been helpful.
Although a few leagues like the Twilight League in Portland survive today, Baumer concludes that “local baseball has all but disappeared in most areas of Maine.” There are a number of reasons for this decline and television is just one of the culprits. Baumer knows his subject and his story reminds us why for so long baseball was considered America’s national pastime.