IN THE PARK: Barney Snyder of Tucson, Ariz., reminisces, “Oh my
… PONY league baseball. I lived on Hawthorne Road ’til I was 12. I
remember so much about those wonderful days. … Mike Riley, the
manager, telling a critical fan from his third base coaching boss
to “Aw, go home and beat your wife, ya bum.’

“Jamestown, an independent, was always the team to beat. They
had a bunch of older guys who probably came down from Class A or B
ball. They won most of the pennants. One year though, we had a
great team and when it got down to the end, the park was jammed
full.

“We had a lefty pitcher named Jake Schmidt who pitched the final
game and won. Danny Carnavelle may have been the player manager
that year. What a year. The place went nuts. There must have been
over 3,000 people at the park. I believe we even won the play
offs.

“I used to walk to games and take the short cut past the
slaughter house (old timers won’t forget that smell), no lights,
pitch dark if there wasn’t a moon, and nobody worried. I was less
than 12 years old and as long as my mom and dad knew I was coming
home right after the game, I had about 20 minutes max to get there
after Johnny Nelson, the broadcaster, wrapped it up. No
worries.

“Can you imagine a parent allowing that these days? Maybe in
Bradford but not many other places and if they do allow it in
Bradford, that is great, just great. If Pat Greer reads this
column, he ought to write in. He was the bat boy for a year, maybe
two.”

We also hear from Mary Ann Hannon of Grand Junction, Colo.: “The
ballpark! I remember going to the night games with my father and
the Donahues! But years ago, I was sitting on the deck in the late
afternoon on a cruise ship in the Pacific Ocean when a gentleman
came up and started to chide me for not getting ready for
dinner.”

“Somehow Bradford, Pennsylvania, came up, and he began to
discuss Bradford’s PONY league team! Small world, and so often when
I have said to strangers that I was from Bradford, Pennsylvania, I
was amazed at the positive feedback I would hear from people
traveling through Bradford!”