Odds and Ends From The MUSEUM!
By Trudy Wyman, Curator, Millinocket Historical Society Museum
Old scrapbooks, old newspapers, old photographs…all are a treasure trove of historical information! It’s spring and baseball season is beginning so here are some bits and pieces of Millinocket’s baseball story through the years.
A 1902 Millinocket Journal stated the Millinocket Baseball Club was newly formed with F. M. Peasley, president; Frank Parsons, secretary; GB Moran, treasurer; W. Long, manager. It says that “Mr. Long will leave soon to visit colleges and large cities and secure the best talent obtainable. He has large experience in this line having been an umpire in the National League. He thoroughly understands the game.” The Millinocket Baseball Club team may also have been called the Millinocket Tigers. The same players are shown in old photos with both those names.
GNP provided a fenced-in ball field on the flat area between Penobscot Ave. and Millinocket Stream. GNP built a grandstand with a seating capacity of 300. GNP had its own team that of employees and some college players and others who came to town for the baseball season. These extras were placed on the mill’s payroll temporarily.
An article in the Millinocket High School newspaper called The Chatterbox (Fall 1920) stated: In the spring of 1920, Carl Stevens, the baseball team manager, and Henry Martell, the team captain, went to Island Falls to a meeting. They signed the Millinocket High School baseball team to membership in the Southern Aroostook Base Ball League. Volunteer coach was Charles Howard, a “famous ‘Old Timer’ who has been in the New England League and in other fast companies.” The school’s athletic association wanted the team to have new uniforms, but as the financial standing of the association was low, they sent a committee around town to try to raise the necessary funds. Through the generosity of several businesses and “the foreman of the plant of the Great Northern Paper Company” $168.00 was raised. A snappy looking nine appeared on the diamond that spring representing old M. H. S.”
The Emerson Pills baseball team of the 1940’s featured such players as Noyes, Boynton, Pavone and Pound. Company I of the local National Guard also had a team.
Both Millinocket HS and Stearns HS fielded teams, MHS until 1901 when the school burned and SHS from 1923 and to today. The 1946 SHS team, using the motto ‘practice makes perfect’ won the Northern Penobscot Championship. The yearbook says, “The boys in school and those with Uncle Sam deserve much credit and praise.”
Millinocket’s first Little League teams were organized 70 years ago. Private sponsors teamed up with the Recreation Department and the community to bring Little League to town. Uniforms were purchased for four teams, fence posts set and dug-outs excavated by volunteers at the first field near the former Junior High School on State Street. Today, Little League continues at the field near Granite Street School.
