1
10
1
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/7ab354b8042c50266babb47ce05e9e91.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=mpNf9QljCy-isRnPtvLXfewehdsVIG9YbzMwtx0nIn%7EYRmK6lhaS3ycWGDvX9BhPtbfso7QcEIrnVCqLwqAk9p6f0LdqDTvDewqD7RJmbw5CN5TrAisI2bQebrv2awB0vqZ%7E9R%7EuyYUDr-sarBYcfmi-M94yXMrNJDRL1YGYirVUpmvxBmKTaf43iYvlXZ%7ETylOSUbWY19omBHuHxwEGG-qq2V34ARA-oZB8ENoTpr34UkIIJ%7E6vIbtYTRSLx8nw88ddIeyfEmGPecXQyOhByebk4piKUY7o8dpBQ%7EAdFg1yWGujig3yCMVY79L%7EMa9iPo5ZYZ1iNl393i3RDZQ4ug__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
0c2831ee061fee7cf271863a1e81b60b
PDF Text
Text
Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript
Recorded: March 3, 2020
Oral Historian: Richard Kendall
Interviewer: Barbara Kanellopoulos
Topic: Falmouth Heights Baseball
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
00:00
[Music]
00:45
welcome to the program
00:46
and um thank you very much about
00:50
Falmouth Heights well if we're talking I
00:53
think I’m talking a little bit about the
00:54
ballpark
#falmouthheights
#falmouthheightsballpark
Gunning_Heights_Ball_1251 through
1265
Hunt_Heights_Bldg_267 through 269
Hunt_Heights_Bldg_194
Hunt_Heights_Bch_274
00:56
at the great park that was set up in
00:58
1870
01:00
Falmouth the Heights as a summer resort
01:03
was really starting to be put together
01:05
and over the next three years
01:07
the six gentleman from Worcester
01:09
Massachusetts acquired all of the
01:11
properties
01:12
and uh zoned it on their own zoning map
#1870
1
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:16
very tight restrictions decided where
01:19
the parks would all grow
01:21
uh go so they had a really uh
01:24
it was the first planned unit
01:26
development in the history of
01:27
Massachusetts
01:28
so it ran in those years and it evolved
01:31
as it as the years went by but that
01:34
particular year set up everything
01:36
every single park throughout the
01:39
the system the whole Falmouth Heights
were all
01:41
part of the grand design
01:42
and when you walk through Falmouth
Heights
01:43
you can take a look at that
01:45
and and uh admire it and the largest
01:48
parcel of all was what we call the ball
01:51
field
01:52
and that has been used for all sorts of
01:54
things everything from
01:56
uh a children uh boys and girls
01:58
campground with tents and religious
02:00
training uh had
02:02
had political events uh Herbert Hoover
02:05
had a
02:05
fundraiser in there on that that with two
2
#herberthoover
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:07
thousand people
02:09
uh there's all kind of uses but even in
02:11
the 1870s baseball was an attraction
02:15
so in my contact don't go back to 1870
02:18
although I’m
02:19
wondering how I look like I might go
02:21
back to 1870
02:23
but it was taken over the the developers
02:26
of Falmouth Heights
02:28
did so in such a way that you would
02:30
always have an area
02:31
that could be used for spectacular
02:33
events
02:34
and baseball was one of those for them
02:36
and it was for myself as I grew up as a
02:39
youngster 10 11 years old there were
02:42
teams from Falmouth Heights teams from
02:45
Falmouth and we would either ride our
02:47
bikes from Falmouth to Falmouth Heights
02:50
or we would if we were lucky we would
02:53
had a nickel we could go on Palmer's
02:55
bus station which was on Walker Street
02:57
and for a nickel you could ride to the
02:59
ball field
03:00
and that's how we went back and forth
03:01
but Belvidere Plains had a team Falmouth
3
#walkerstreet
#belvidereplain
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Hunt_Village_Har_114
03:03
Heights had a team
03:04
and we all played on the Heights ball
03:06
field and I remember
03:07
most of my youth traveling to that ball
03:10
field and I went back
03:12
as years went by to play on it as in
03:14
Cape Cod League which was
03:16
already it had been going on since I
03:18
guess there were baseball in the Heights
03:20
since the
03:21
1870s but the Falmouth All-Stars a lot
03:24
of the local people that you would know
03:26
Willard Boyden who was principal of the
#willardboyden
03:28
East Falmouth Elementary School was the
#eastfalmouthelementaryschool
03:30
coach for the Falmouth All-Stars
03:32
and the old original Cape Cod League
03:35
with great players like
03:37
Butts Jonas if you remember about Jonas
03:40
so Roche Pires is just
03:41
outstanding athletes who competed in the
03:43
league
03:44
there was a team from the military
03:46
reservation
03:47
uh had great stars the young uh
03:50
professionals who had been drafted who
#capecodbaseballleague
#falmouthallstars
#rochepires
4
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:52
played in the cape league
03:53
Mass Maritime had a team Mashpee had a
03:56
team Barnstable
03:57
went all the way down to Eastham and
03:58
baseball league
04:00
say we were the Falmouth Falcons so we
04:02
were the second team from Falmouth
04:03
playing on the
04:04
Falmouth Heights ball field so many of
04:06
the names that
04:08
we that I’m familiar with I just happen
04:10
to be talking to Billy Swift who's doing
04:12
another tape for you folks
04:14
who played left field for our team in
04:16
that league and could tell you the same
04:18
stories of
04:19
Cape League baseball three days a week
04:21
and we just lived for it
04:23
as soon as somebody was old enough to
04:25
have a driver's license we were on the
04:27
road
04:28
but Norman Allenby uh Billy Swift
04:31
[Charlie Board] and Jack Cavanagh a list
04:34
of 100 people that probably played in
04:36
the leagues during that decade
04:38
but the ball field was always there for
5
#falmouthfalcons
#williamswift
Sp. unknown
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:41
the folks who need it by deed it had to
04:44
be available and accessible for every
04:46
property owner and that was the mandate
04:50
that was
04:50
by the original planners who founded
04:53
they were the Land and Wharf
04:54
Company and they just they dictated
04:56
everything rezoned it much like our
04:58
zoning maps of today
04:59
only with very carefully placed parks
05:03
all of those parks in Falmouth Heights
05:05
were turned over to the Town of Falmouth
05:06
for one dollar
05:08
so the ball field and all of the parks
05:10
throughout Falmouth Heights were deeded
over
05:12
to the Falmouth
05:13
Town of Falmouth for posterity and I
05:16
think that was a great
05:17
uh a great thing to have been done but
05:20
the ball fields themselves
05:23
everybody has a story about games on the
05:25
on
05:26
the Falmouth Heights ball field and
05:28
practices on the ball field
05:30
and I go down periodically and I’ll see
#falmouthheightslandandwharfcompany
6
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:32
youngsters playing
05:33
up front not from the pitching rubber
05:34
but playing from 20 feet earlier in
05:37
underhand maybe a little bit but playing
05:39
on the big field
05:40
or watching uh seniors play softball on
05:44
the field it's always a ball field
05:46
it hasn't changed in a hundred years the
05:48
the desire to have
05:50
events out there are just I guess it's
05:53
instinctive you have a big field and you
05:55
got to play a game
05:56
so that was my part of the uh the
05:59
baseball year the Cape Cod League for
06:01
several years
06:02
my brother Bob and I would be there
06:04
Charles Robb
06:06
Billy Swift who as I mentioned just has
06:08
another taping for you
06:11
but many were very memories a great deal
06:13
of memories
06:14
all together but
06:18
were the games organized today we have
06:21
um
06:22
organized baseball for young people and
06:25
yours seemed to be rather pickup games
#robertkendall
7
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
06:29
whenever you could get the groups to get
06:31
together
06:32
that that's the big difference there was
06:33
no Little League or Babe Ruth League and
06:35
what we would do is organize
06:36
teams in our region as Belvidere Plains
06:39
or Falmouth Heights or East Falmouth
06:42
or North Falmouth and we would use the
06:44
Heights as our ball field so we've made
06:46
up our own teams
06:47
with our own bats and our own balls and
06:49
we coached them within ourselves
06:51
it was just youth youth youth baseball
06:55
a lot of fun but no organization and
06:58
there was no
06:59
you never really won or a loss you just
07:01
played the game
07:02
so it wasn't too competitive it was very
07:05
competitive the team from the base had
07:07
uh
07:07
probably four minor league double a ball
07:10
players our star pitcher for the Falcons
07:13
was
07:13
had played double a for the Red Sox so
07:16
no the competition was good
07:18
the leagues now were outstanding
8
#bostonredsox
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
07:20
collegiates waiting to be drafted
07:22
our league had professionals former
07:24
professionals
07:25
college stars high school stars
07:29
it was a very competitive league I’m
07:31
sure that some of you looked up to the
07:34
stars oh absolutely absolutely when you
07:37
got up when you came up to bat as a
07:40
late teenager and you had a former
07:43
double
07:44
a major minor league pitcher going
07:46
against you you were
07:47
in awe you were definitely you know
07:50
a lot of ball players the older Jack
07:52
Cavanaugh had played Navy baseball
07:55
so they were the league was fast
07:58
Roche Pires as I mentioned probably one
of
08:00
the fine
08:01
when the Negro leagues were the only
08:04
place that uh that a non-white could
08:06
play
08:07
and Roche Pires was a triple sport
08:09
athlete magnificent
08:11
by any stretch of the imagination would
08:13
have been a high high minor league or
9
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:15
probably a major leaguer
08:16
given the opportunity and when you faced
08:18
Roche Pires in a game you knew you were
08:20
going to whiff three times
08:23
so that was before blacks were
08:26
bigger I’m talking about the 40s 40s
08:31
40s and 50s and do you remember some of
08:34
our own Falmouth
08:36
boys who went on to become professionals
08:39
well Rusty Robbins was in my high school
08:41
class he became a lieutenant in the fire
08:43
department here
08:44
Rusty was the three sport athlete in
08:46
Falmouth High School
#falmouthhighschool
08:48
the Boston Braves before they moved to
#bostonbraves
08:50
Milwaukee gave him a
08:51
minor league contract and Russ went down
08:53
to Florida to play for a minor league
08:55
team
08:56
he broke his leg as I recall early on in
08:59
his career and came back to Falmouth and
09:02
did not continue but Rusty was a real
09:05
real prospect
09:06
probably the finest prospect that I saw
09:08
in my years
09:10
you had to mention the fact that the
10
#rustyrobbins
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
09:13
land
09:13
has what's given uh does it
09:16
it seems that there were a lot of
09:18
wealthy
09:19
summer residents who bought property and
09:22
were quite generous
09:24
the corporation that bought from
09:27
Worcester the six gentlemen business
09:29
people were civic minded and they
09:31
understood the responsibility they had
09:33
they zoned it
09:34
we would be pleased with the zoning it's
09:36
it's equivalent to what we have today
09:39
uh it was all residential but the parks
09:41
had to be in
09:42
these spots here but the big changeover
09:44
was
09:45
when they had sold out all of their real
09:47
estate
09:49
they wanted to make sure that the parks
09:50
remained under care
09:52
and so everything was deeded as I
09:53
mentioned earlier to the town
09:56
were they retiring these gentlemen
10:00
the six people they would know they were
10:01
in the business to make money
11
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:04
they made a fortune they bought up all
10:06
of the Heights you think of Falmouth
10:07
Heights
10:08
as a land mass with no property owner
10:11
except one
10:12
and so it was re-zoned and they sold
10:14
every single piece of property
10:16
that was to be there and allowed it to
10:18
be there's a building on the water that
10:20
we now know as the casino a an
#casino #casinobythesea
Gunning_Heights_Bldg_1144 and 1146,
Gunning_Heights_Bldg_1151 through
1157
Hunt_Heights_Bldg_195
Hunt_Heights_Bldg_208 through 218
10:22
equivalent building to the casino has
10:24
been there for 100 years
10:27
so the Heights then was
10:31
the ball field but how about uh the rest
10:33
of the Heights did you have the kinds of
10:35
restaurants and
10:37
no they came later they came later what
10:40
you had was a really elegant
10:42
summer resort and people from
everywhere
10:44
that could travel that distance
10:46
would go to Falmouth Heights and that
12
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:47
was their desire
10:49
to establish the most elegant summer
10:51
resort uh
10:53
and as I think I mentioned in my early
10:55
mentionings it had been
10:57
around since the 1600s when the queen of
10:59
the Narragansetts
11:01
summered in Falmouth Heights so
11:04
Falmouth then was the watering hole for
11:07
the rich and famous
11:08
I would say the the Rose Kennedy
11:12
actually lived on the Heights looking
11:15
overlooking the ball park
11:16
as a summer person John Kennedy's
mother
11:21
they were what was it about Falmouth I
11:24
suppose it wasn't very crowded at that
11:27
time
11:28
the population was very small
11:31
well by comparative I don't know what
11:33
the high school classes are today but
11:34
our classes were
11:35
50s and 60s a little different
11:40
small town and uh well well managed as
11:44
it is today
11:45
very well managed but Falmouth is a has
#kennedy
13
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
11:47
been growing and growing
11:49
responsibly for some time
11:53
do you um do you think that was the
11:56
climate
11:57
different than uh do you see
12:01
for playing outdoors or did you have
12:05
any longer summers than we seem to have
12:07
today
12:09
I go back a few years but not that far I
12:11
think
12:13
I think the other things that were going
12:14
on the beach at Falmouth Heights
12:17
was deeded over to the town and
12:19
purchased by private sector people and
12:21
needed over a lot of the Falmouth
12:23
Heights
12:24
perks really came by uh gifting
12:27
or donating over by a wealthy group
12:31
that owned the whole Falmouth Heights
one
12:34
financial institution owned all of the
12:37
real estate on Falmouth Heights
12:39
when those individual owners had
12:42
property
12:43
the was the situation the way it was along
12:46
Surf Drive where
#surfdrive
14
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Gunning_Village_Sts_0085
12:48
when you owned a house really not a
12:51
cottage but kind of a palace
12:53
did you also own the beach the beach was
12:56
public
12:57
uh restricted to and mandated that the
13:00
beach was always successful
13:01
accessible to property owners so there
13:04
was never a restriction at all
13:06
and that that was one of the clever
13:07
things in the deeding
13:09
they made sure that the population would
13:11
get to enjoy the benefits of what they
13:12
had
13:13
including the ball field and
13:16
uh so um when you were playing ball
13:20
um how about the rules of the game did
13:22
you have to have
13:24
a ball of a particular weight or the
13:26
right kind of bat
13:27
or was it well we
13:30
we probably so I think I don't think
13:32
that has changed a whole lot and we
13:34
struck out as much as
13:36
against the good pitches and walked
13:37
against the other ones who were not
15
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:39
quite so good
13:40
did you have your own you had to bring
13:42
your own ball and back oh you did always
13:45
well you everybody came with their own
13:46
bat and you thought that that was magic
13:49
and your own glove everybody had their
13:50
own glove for sure some of those
13:53
players that you played with were they
13:55
at the high school
13:57
and perhaps uh we were a mixture
14:01
our particular teams and the Falmouth
14:03
All-Stars too were made up of
14:05
high school Russ Robbins who I
mentioned
14:07
earlier who had signed the contract
14:10
high school he played for the All-Stars
14:12
I played for the Falcons a couple of
14:14
high school players
14:17
were in on the League the rest were
14:18
college ball players are
14:21
players who were really good in high
14:22
school maybe played college who wanted
14:24
to continue to play
14:26
in the Cape League was a fast enough
14:27
league that they wanted to play in it
14:29
was a good league it was probably
16
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:31
competitive the better teams
14:33
would play competitively with the
14:35
college kids today and the base team
14:38
would have
14:39
the athletes who were minor leaguers who
14:40
had been drafted into the military
14:43
but we're probably the equivalent of
14:45
almost a triple a
14:46
team you you never beat them most of our
14:49
ball games today
14:51
are go for a field but um
14:54
have you seen still pick up games going
14:57
on
14:58
today at the ball field I’ve been well
15:01
as
15:01
Falmouth fortunately has set
15:03
up ball fields around the town I guess
15:05
when my
15:06
two youngsters played Little League and
15:08
Babe Ruth I followed them to their
15:10
respective
15:11
game fields Falmouth is
15:14
very good and very conscious of youth
15:16
youth activities
15:17
yes yes yes well I thank you very much
15:21
for
17
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:22
telling us about Falmouth Heights and
15:25
the baseball field
15:26
well I thank you for inviting me and I’m
15:28
glad that uh
15:30
I didn't tell you how many times I
15:31
struck out in the Cape Cod League
15:35
there's a history that I probably should
15:38
mention
15:39
without delay one of the pitchers for
15:42
our team was named Phil White
15:44
and I’ll talk about Phil was a very good
15:46
pitcher pitcher at the University of
15:47
Massachusetts and very good in the Cape
15:49
League
15:50
but I think I want to add a little bit
15:52
to his father and mother
15:53
who ran the Lawrence White dairy on
#lawrencewhite
15:55
Shore Street for those who don't
#shorestreet
15:57
remember it it's right at the foot
15:58
of as you come up Clinton Avenue and in
16:01
Shore Street intersection
16:03
but and they they actually had a running
16:06
dairy where they delivered milk in the
16:08
bottle but all that was left in my
16:11
generation was the stalls for the cows
16:13
and next to it a field that
#philwhite
#universityofmassachusetts
18
#clintonavenue
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
16:15
did the corn and the hay for the cows
16:17
but Phil would be young enough to have
16:19
remembered when his dad
16:20
was delivering milk and the cows were
16:22
being milked on a regular day
16:40
[Music]
19
�
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Transcript of Richard Kendall's Oral History on Falmouth Heights Baseball
1870
Barbara Kanellopoulos
Belvidere Plain
Boston Braves
Boston Red Sox
Cape Cod Baseball League
casino
Casino By the Sea
Clinton Avenue
East Falmouth Elementary School
Falmouth All-Stars
Falmouth Falcons
Falmouth Heights
Falmouth Heights ballpark
Falmouth Heights Land and Wharf Company
Falmouth High School
Herbert Hoover
kennedy
lawrence white
oral history
phil white
Postcards from Falmouth
Richard Kendall
robert kendall
roche pires
rusty robbins
Shore Street
Surf Drive
transcript
university of massachusetts
walker street
willard boyden
william swift