1952

Dartmouth of our day had a lot of athletic teams and their members mostly bonded closely, but none more so than our baseball team. Maybe its because, as team member Ev Parker thinks, "We had fall practice together, then workouts in the cage in early spring, a spring trip south and then the season itself—about 25 games. A lot of time together. My dearest friends were members of the team and we've kept up with each other ever since graduation."

Classmates who were on the spring 1952 team included Ev Parker (2B), Frank Logan (RHP), Jack Hart (3B), John Brower (LF), Dorn McGrath (RHP), Buzz Barton (C) and Steve Meterparel (CF). The team captain was Jim Churchill (RF) and the manager was Jack Fellingham.

The previous season had been a 4-22 disaster and former Yankee pitcher Bob Shawkey was brought in as coach. The combination of the savvy Shawkey and our talented teammates produced a respectable 11-11 season. It would have been even better if the players could hitbut, hey, who's to find fault after 54 years?

Along with every other teammate, pitcher Frank Logan recalls the highlight of the season as beating undefeated Holy Cross 2-1 in 15 innings at Hanover. Notable in particular because the Crusaders went on to win the NCAA Baseball Championship. What Frank didn't tell us, but teammates did, was that Frank pitched the entire 1$ innings in what was probably 40-degree weather!

In an economy move the College had the team transport themselves on trips in their own cars. Not all bad, Ev Parker recalls. "Car travel resulted in a certain amount of flexibility away from the coach and led to a lot of off-field fun. It worked both ways, because Frank Logan remembers unexpectedly encountering coach Eddie Jeremiah in a Norfolk burlesque theater.

But as acceptable as the senior season was, it would surely have been improved had pitcher Pete Burnside not turned pro after his freshman year. Could the team have used him? Buzz Barton, who caught him, recalls a freshman Harvard game in which Pete pitched a nine-inning shutout and struck out 24 batters!

Are all these guys still close? Well, every spring Churchill, Boyages, Meterparel, Logan, Barton and Parker all meet in Cambridge for the Dartmouth-Harvard game. They've done it for more years than anyone can remember.

Ask the team members what they got out of their Dartmouth baseball experience and you always get comments like "To this day my very best friends in life are my teammates" or "My Dartmouth baseball experience meant a great deal to me and continues to this day" and "Being part of a team sport is something one never forgets and in many ways it was the defining part of my college experience." Remarkably, they all echo the above.

Check out our class Web site at www.dartmouth.org/classes/52.

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