LOCKER ROOM
THE HILLTOPPER
October 13, 1953(By Johnny Clegg) Jamaica High School’s athletes and would-be athletes are back again and are looking forward to what they hope will be a championship year. Before we talk about the future, let’s turn the clock back to where this column left off last term.
Picture courtesy of Louise Cardone Calabrese, '53.
See below for her comments.
Jamaica had clinched the South Queens baseball title by beating John Adams 4-3 in a special playoff. They had now earned the right to face Bryant, the North Queens winner, for the Queens title at Flushing Memorial Park.
Jamaica came up with three runs in the first inning and never relinquished the lead, as they went on to win the game 6-1. Al Stone, who lost his shutout on an unearned run in the ninth inning, struck out thirteen batters,
The Beavers drew De Witt Clinton High School as their opponents in the quarter-finals of the city championship. The game was played at Macombs Dam Park, opposite Yankee Stadium. Neither team scored in the first two innings. Then, in the top of the third, Jamaica tallied a run on a single by Charlie Rinaldi and a double by Hal Seabury. But in the bottom of the third, Clinton came back with two runs on a walk, a single, and two very costly errors. Those two runs cost Jamaica the game, as both pitchers hurled shutout ball the rest of the way. The loss was no disgrace, however, because Clinton went on to win the P.S.A.L. baseball championship. Won All-Queens Honors
Compensating for this loss, however, is the fact that Jamaica held down more places on the All-Queens baseball team than any other school in the borough. Selected for this “dream team” were pitcher Al Stone, who had a fabulous earned run average of 1.03, giving up only eleven earned runs in 96 2/3 innings; Kurt Muller, who was one of the top defensive catchers in the city; and Joe Wilson, one of the top batters in Queens, who had a .320 batting mark. Here are the final batting averages, up to and including the three play-off games:
Player A.B. H. B.A. 1. Stone 41 14 .342 2. Fried 49 16 .327 3. Wilson 50 16 .320 4. Seabury 49 14 .286 5. Ward 48 12 .250 6. Teaman 8 2 .250
Player A.B. H. B.A. 7. Muller 54 13 .241 8. Lyon 47 11 .234 9. Kola 52 11 .212 10. Schmidt 15 2 .200 11. Rinaldi 21 3 .142 12. Offut 1 0 .000 Although we missed the top in baseball, Jamaica did come through with a city championship team. The handball team, coached by Mr. Thomas Lovely, brought home the honors, as they beat George Westinghouse High School 3-2. The entire squad, including Mike Dikman, Herb Plush, Jack Grumet, Lenny James, Marv Steinman, Al Kasten, Toby Pieniek, and Harvey Berger, was awarded white sweaters at the Boys’ Varsity assembly last term. Congrats Corner
Congratulations to Sylvia Gray upon placing in the girls’ singles in the New York State Open Tennis Championship.
Congrats also to Steve Frantz, who was runner-up to Bayside’s Bob Joyce in the annual Queens Interscholastic Golf Championship held at North Hills Golf Course.
Jamaica’s athletes kept in shape during the summer by working. The following members of the swimming team were lifeguards: Ed Mishkin, Glen Oaks Country Club; Bob Jaffe, now attending Harvard University, Woodmere Country Club; Bob Coddington, Dick Worthwein, George Poventud, and Denny Ferguson, Rockaway Beach. Of the basketball team, Al Seiden, Bernie Resnik, and Joel Pastolove were camp waiters; Bob Nemeroff and Yours Truly were camp counsellors.
Before finishing this column, I would like to emphasize one important fact. Jamaica High School has one of the largest student enrollments of all high schools in the city. Therefore, we should have capacity crowds at every sporting event throughout the year. Our athletes will appreciate this kind of support.
Louise's comments:
How about this picture? This team went on to lose the city PSAL CHAMP in '53 ... but they were winners for sure. First time in 20 years JHS made it to this competition.... They played on the day of our 'prom', what timing, huh? What a team that was.
I have found clippings covering the games during that 53 season... what fun to read. Had they pitched Jerry Fried.... we might have won that day. Al Stone was so tired. What a great piece of history.
Louise-Cardone, Calabrese, Class of '53
