Good morning!
Baseball season begins at alternate times for everyone, and for me it began last month on a breezy cool evening in Gainesville, Florida, where the University of Florida Gators hosted the University of North Florida Ospreys.

There was some doubt we’d get in because Crosby Hunt couldn’t find the tickets on his smartphone. The young woman scanning bar codes called over her supervisor who looked at Hunt and said, “You know what? I love you. Go on in.”

Hunt and I grew up in Deerfield and have remained kindred spirits tethered by baseball. He asked if I’d seen the “The Holdovers” which was filmed locally at Deerfield Academy and NMH.

“Only the first half hour,” I said.

“Watch the last scene, it’s our little league field,” he said.

On a side note regarding the film: Da’Vine Joy Randolph won an Oscar for her role as the head cook at fictional Barton Academy. Back when I attended Bement, the head cook was a woman named Mrs. Peters. She made terrific meals, but one day during lunch a student pulled a band-aid out of his mouth. He took it to the kitchen and showed it to a worker who turned and exclaimed, “Mrs. Peters, we found your band-aid!” 

Gateway to the Pros

The Florida Gators play at 7,000-seat Condron Family Ballpark which opened in 2020. Last year they averaged over 6,000 fans a game and ranked fifth nationally in total attendance. They’ve won 16 SEC titles and 15 NCAA regional titles, but their only College World Series championship was in 2017. Last year they lost the CWS to LSU in a best-of-three series in Omaha, but every year they’re a threat to win it all.

When Pete Alonso slugs a home run for the Mets or Brady Singer tosses a shutout for the Royals, Gators fans can say they saw them play in Gainesville. Last year the Texas Rangers took outfielder Wyatt Langford with the fourth overall pick, and the U-Fla. product is tearing it up in spring training with four home runs, 10 RBIs and a .375 batting average.

This year’s can’t-miss kid is 6-foot-6, 250-pound Tampa native Jac Caglianone. “He’s an Ohtani type,” said Hunt. “He pitches Sundays and DH’s or plays first base the rest of the week.”

Last year Caglianone hit 33 home runs and won seven games on the mound; this season he’s batting .429 and has lowered his ERA to 1.80. That night against the Ospreys, Caglianone roped a line drive single to center field and started a nifty 3-6 double play.

North Florida’s campus is in Jacksonville and plenty of fans made the 75-mile trip. After Ospreys pitcher Clayton Boroski balked home a run in the fourth inning, a Gators fan yelled, “Go back to high school!”

Not far away an Ospreys fan shouted back, “That was rude!”

Silence ensued. There aren’t a lot of rowdies at Condron Family Ballpark, the beer’s too expensive.

The Gators won 13-4, and on my way out of town the next morning I stopped at the Krispy Creme for my two free doughnuts compliments of Tanner Garrison’s double. No ticket stub? No problem, I showed the clerk my scorecard and he bagged the two freebies.

Next stop, Fort Myers

Several years ago Lowell psychologist Peter Hantzis co-authored a book with Bernie Carbo about his struggle to overcome drug addiction. Carbo’s rise to fame happened in the 1975 World Series when his pinch hit three-run blast off of Reds pitcher Rawly Eastwick set the stage for Carlton Fisk’s 12th inning home run off the left field foul pole.

Before “Saving Bernie Carbo” was published, Hantzis contacted me because he needed info about a photo that had appeared in a Red Sox story I wrote for the Valley Advocate in 1975.

A friendship ensued, and every year he invites me to join him, his wife Linda and her brother John Pantazis for the annual game between the Red Sox and his alma mater Northeastern at JetBlue Park.

This year I agreed and made it the linchpin of my Florida trip. The festivities began under the big tent where alumni wore white Northeastern baseball hats and filled their plates with a smorgasbord of chicken, hot dogs, baked beans and burgers.

While they ate, others threw baseballs at a pitching canvas that measured ball speed. Whoever threw the hardest won a prize. “I saw you throw,” said Hantzis. “You’re a hard thrower.”

He is a kind man, my top speed was 29 mph.

Hantzis played for Northeastern and his .320 career average is third-highest of the wooden bat era. Aluminum bats bother him, and we agreed that the “ping” of the bat detracts from the game.

After lunch Linda tried to help one of her husband’s former teammates retrieve tickets from his smartphone. Her brother John is more adept at technical issues. In 1997, his Bedford-based company Amptek, Inc., developed a gadget that enabled Sojourner to take pictures of Mars’ surface.

“It was the size of a bottle cap,” said Pantazis. “It reflected X-rays that were used to analyze the elements, fifteen percent lead and so on.”

We sat behind home plate and watched a Red Sox batting order you wouldn’t recognize in a police lineup. The only player I knew was Nick Yorke who’d been taken 17th overall in the 2020 draft. Yorke had two hits and flied out to deep center field. In Grapefruit League games this spring he’s 2-for-18, both singles, and is destined for another year on the farm.

The Lowe-down on Derek

What made my day was meeting Derek Lowe in the Northeastern tent. The 50-year-old Michigan native was the picture of contentment sitting at the autograph table, signing photos and baseballs, taking selfies and posing with anyone who asked.

Lowe won 176 games and had 86 saves and the first eight years of his 17-year career were in Boston. He was one of my favorite players because he played hard and gave good quotes. After a blown save at Yankee Stadium he said to reporters, “What now? Bottle of scotch?”

One of my favorite Derek Lowe stories occurred in the first inning of a day game at Yankee Stadium. In the first inning, a disheveled-looking Lowe fielded a ground ball, looked to first and wheeled and threw to third base. Great throw, but the bases were empty.

What happened? Here’s my theory. It had poured all night and into the morning and everyone thought the game would be postponed, including Lowe who’d decided to have a night on the town.

Between autograph signings I posited the scenario to Lowe. “Do you remember that game?” I asked him.

“No,” he laughed, “but that sounds like something I’d do.”

It wasn’t the answer I wanted, but I finally got the chance to ask.

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Former local radio host Ted Baker is the voice of Hobart athletics on WHWS-FM in Geneva, N.Y. Last week Baker asked Brock Hines to join him for Hobart’s run at defending its D-3 hockey crown. The Statesmen are 25-2-7 and will advance to the Frozen Four if they beat Curry College (21-5-1) tonight at The Cooler where they’re 16-0-0.

“Ted was my first-play-play partner in 1993,” said Hines. “He asked if I’d like to call the Division III semis and hopefully the finals. Their Frozen Four is at Trinity College in Hartford on Thursday the 21st and Saturday the 23rd.”

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Keene State’s run to a national title ended in Greensboro, N.C., last week where the Owls were beaten by sectional host Guilford College, 82-60, in the D-III Sweet 16.

“Foul trouble was a major issue,” wrote coach Dave Hastings. “Two of our starters fouled out and they out-scored us from the free throw line 17-6.

“Tyler Dearman’s the best player we saw all year,” added Hastings of the 6-3 guard who led all scorers with 27 points. “Guilford was well coached. We knew they were good and it was going to be tough against them.”

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The 1942 TFHS baseball team and coach Earl Lorden were inducted into the Western Mass. Baseball Hall of Fame two weeks ago, and Ray Zukowski said the ceremony went off without a hitch. “Bill Togneri did a helluva job narrating the story of ’42, and George Bush got up and spoke and he was funny as hell.”

When Bush was done, emcee Rich Tettemer stood and said, “We need another George Bush in the White House.”

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com