Keeping Score: Leary family rides into the sunset

Published: 11-10-2023 5:46 PM

Modified: 11-10-2023 5:46 PM

Good morning!

Schoolboy baseball fans who’ve been around a while will tell you that two of the best umps to ever call the game in these parts were John Leary and Bob Gardner. Leary, who traded in his umpiring gear for religious robes when he became an ordained deacon assigned to the Blessed Trinity Parish in Greenfield, deferred the honor to his partner in blue: “Bobby Gardner, who now lives in South Carolina, was the best of the best in his time.”

John and Donna Leary’s son John Patrick grew up in Northfield and played on Pioneer’s state champion hoops team. “Both our kids, Johnny and Nicole, are great products of the Pioneer school system and were influenced by many people here in Franklin County,” said Leary. “They’ve gone on to chase dreams and choose great life partners.”

For Leary the younger that meant going west, young man, and then north, to Alaska to be in the great outdoors. His defining work to date is the ski jump he built at the Alyeska Resort near Anchorage that appeared in Ski Magazine and on professional ski jumping videos.

In October, John and his girlfriend Crystal took a five hour flight to visit her parents in Denver. John told his father he was going to propose on Oct. 29 during the Chiefs-Broncos game at Mile High Stadium. “We were so happy for them,” said John. “We made our way to the game secretly and watched it all unfold from a few sections away.”

They didn’t need binoculars because the Leary’s had arranged to have the life-changing moment shown on the Broncos’ new 225-foot screen at halftime. The message said: “Will You Marry Me Crystal Magee? I Love You. Let’s Ride!”

The sold out stadium roared its approval, and the Broncos went on to upset the Chiefs, 24-9.

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The 137th meeting between Amherst College (3-5) and Williams College (2-5) kicks off Saturday at noon at Pratt Field. The rivalry dates back to the same month and year that Grover Cleveland defeated James G. Blaine in 1884. The Ephs prevailed, 15-2, and now lead the all-time series, 75-56-5.

The Ephs are short for Ephraim Williams, a colonist who was killed in 1755 during the French and Indian War. The funds from his estate helped establish the college in 1793.

Amherst College was founded in 1821 by a splinter group of Williams faculty who thought the college was going broke and decided to get out while the getting was good. Their abandonment became the genesis for this long standing gridiron grudge match.

Amherst’s athletic teams were called the Lord Jeffs after Lord Jeffery Amherst who commanded the British forces during the French and Indian War. When students looking for a cause heard that Lord Jeff had allegedly suggested giving smallpox-infested blankets to the enemy, the teams were re-named the Mammoths.

According to Williams College sports information director Dick Quinn, the ultimate frisbee team was the first to call itself the Mammoths.

Smallpox be damned, the college and town are still called Amherst.

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The Pioneer boys basketball team is going to the 2024 Spalding Hoophall Classic in January and coach Scott Thayer is excited about having his team in the presence of topflight talent. “We’ll get to see players like Cooper Flagg,” Thayer said of the top-ranked recruit in the country.

The 6-6, 200-pound Flagg grew up in Newport, Maine, and plays for Montverde Academy near Orlando. The Panthers will also be sharing the gym with Dylan Harper of Don Bosco (NJ) Prep, Tre Johnson of Link (Mo.) Academy and Isaiah Evans of North Mecklenburg (N.C.) High School.

Pioneer was the only Franklin County team to get an invite and the Panthers will tip off against Hoosac Valley at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 11. It’s the first game of the entire tournament, which runs across five days at Springfield College’s Blake Arena.

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The Suburban Amateur Football League is the feeder system that supplies ready-to-play talent to football coaches up and down the valley. Saturday two Franklin County teams — the Franklin County Juniors and Frontier Pee Wees — will play for the league championship against South Hadley and Easthampton, respectively. These teams are coached at a high level and the talent on both rosters portends a great rivalry between Frontier and GHS for years to come.

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A momentous occasion occurred in 1954 when the Zamboni made its NHL debut at the Boston Garden. Since then Americans have had a thing for the cumbersome ice resurfacer named for inventor Frank Zamboni. Fans of the TV sitcom Cheers may recall that Carla Tortelli’s husband Eddie had been a Bruins goalie, and when his time came to be written out of the script he was run over by a Zamboni.

According to Nick Yetto in Smithsonian Magazine, Frank Zamboni and his brother Lawrence lived in Southern California and owned a company that made ice to refrigerate rail cars and later opened a skating rink named Iceland.

A machinist at heart, Frank tinkered for years until his eureka moment when the ugly jalopy made a fresh sheet of ice in 10 minutes. “It was a maiden voyage on par with that of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk,” wrote Yetto.

Indeed, today Frank Zamboni is enshrined in the U.S. Hockey, U.S. Figure Skating, World Figure Skating, U.S. Speed Skating and National Inventors halls of fame.

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SQUIBBERS: Broadcast partners Jeff Tirrell and Shawn “Hubie” Hubert broadcasted their 500th game together last Saturday in the shadow of Mt. Greylock, where Hoosac beat Athol, 34-18. “File it under, ‘Time flies when you’re having more fun than you deserve,” wrote Tirrell. … UMass hockey recruits are being toured around campus in a new Club Car golf cart, compliments of alumnus John Kennedy. “It’s just a more effective way to have them see the campus,” said Kennedy. … The Red Sox rank 16th in the 2024 MLB Power Rankings released by Will Leitch. His top three are the Braves, Rangers and Orioles. … USC quarterback Caleb Williams’s draft stock has fallen in the wake of three losses in four games. After last week’s Homecoming loss against Washington, Williams jumped into his mother’s arms and sobbed. “They’re already calling it the Lambeau Weep,” said the SportsHub’s Jim Murray. … Springfield Central’s Julie Bahati is enrolled in nursing at St. John’s University and wears No. 2 on the Red Storm's roster. The 6-2 Bahati won last year’s Vi Goodnow Award for best girls hoop player in WMass. … Don’t be surprised if it’s another live-by-the-trey, die-by-the-trey season for the UMass men’s team. … Alex Bregman’s 2-year-old colt No Nay Mets finished fourth as the second choice under Irad Ortiz in the BC Juvenile Turf Sprint at Santa Anita. … Over 6,000 schoolkids watched the Springfield Thunderbirds beat Lehigh Valley, 4-2, in a 10:35 a.m. School Day Game at the Mass. Mutual Center on Wednesday. The promotion was overseen by Greenfield native Todd McDonald, the team’s veep of sales and strategy. …. Reader Mike Ludden sent proof that a Camden Yards weiner cost more than a Fenway frank, $8.25 to $6.25. Thus there are four, not three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, statistics, and claims about who has the highest-priced hot dog. … WFAN’s Richard Neer on MLB’s postseason: “It didn’t seem like the World Series did it? It just seemed like another round of the playoffs.” … Steve Alford to Dan Patrick on playing for Bobby Knight: “When we were in battle he was the general and that’s the foxhole we wanted to be in. We knew we were the best prepared team, the most disciplined.” … Podcaster Mike Francesca after C.J. Uzomah dropped a meaningless TD pass late in the Jets’ loss to the Chargers: “Does anybody care? Me! I had him at 30-1 and he dropped it!” … One more from the Bobby Knight file: “The greatest motivator on earth is your a** on the bench.”

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