The Methuen Knights of Columbus won the Social Softball title with a 5/1 win over the Chez When at the Hayden Schofield on Lawrence St. This team playing in the league for its first year featured some seasoned fast pitch veterans.
Former Lawrence Alderman Dick Reming played cf and went 0 for 4 in this game. Raytheon retiree Barney Farley played first base and went 2 for 4. Freddie Nader a former CCHS 3 sport great played 2nd base and had 1 for 1. Connie Provencher was the catcher and had 1 hit in 3 at bat.
Dick Krauss who lived in So Lawrence then and Florida now after retiring from Raytheon went 1 for 4 and was the winning pitcher.
Bob Dziadosz played third, a former star hoopster at Central Catholic (he is also retired from Raytheon and now lives in Tewksbury) went hitless in 1 at bat.
Stan Klockson went 2 for 3 and patrolled rf. Jack Melia played ss and went 1 for 3. Frank Troianello was the rf and he is now Dr. Frank well known as a fine dentist and also played the catching position for his team.
For the Chez When it was their tough right-hander Don McLeod who also batted 2nd and got one of the 3 hits surrendered by Krauss.
Al Furneaux now of No Andover led off and played 1st base. Bob Hannigan a welder in those days now lives in Florida batted 3rd.
Dick Lynch an all-time great in softball circles hit cleanup and played cf, Blattenberger was at 3rd. Now a Seabrook resident and former local hoop coach and star was in lf, Beau Wilson was in rf, Jay Nerney was at 2nd base. Player manager George Simonian was the Catcher.
The KofC got six hits off McLeod and it was the middle of the winner’s order that did the damage, Farley had 2, Nader, Provencher, Krauss each had l hit and Klockson had 2.
The winners scored in the first 3 innings and the Chez When finally got one off the great Krauss in the 7th. Dick was not a stranger to winning titles and led this team to a season record of 24/3 and losing 1 game in the playoffs to end at 29/4.
Krauss won 27 straight games and on this night he showed why he was considered one of this area’s best ever pitchers as he issued no walks and gave up 3 hits to lead his team to the title.
George Simonian tripled and McLeod who was a fine hockey player who later coached a women’s college hockey team got the other 2 hits.
As usual the Lawrence St park was mobbed with fans as these playoffs were the place to be in late August and early September. These two teams were more than apt to reach this league plateau and the fans knew these playoffs would treat them to some fine games and also it was a social event that brought old friends and players together at summers end.
It was 1964 and the Methuen KofC wins the City softball title winning 5 games to 1 loss. The Chez When was the runner up.
