1 10 1 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/32209/archive/files/eebf2ab8a96b54b96bca4595609fa263.pdf?Expires=1773878400&Signature=l-GMyZmttPQV392tcXNiz%7EJrRiAsBkFBdhJRUwDz4BzgOLJI4cCRxaAaTnyksC5Bv8QCI-AgInaJd0MXGc64q8c48NBzc0dpYHxCG-9H0AK%7EEdxfG1zmlpzdClBbtcjOz7I2kxW2b-5j57eMOt6c02wtUJYwIr7THcrxhijHb3t7TwUwdLHbNzbxcp3UY6HUaApRiIMVeT6SUxb57mEy3hgkh7Nwl7xSpRuwa16xw-jEm32-POjLRQv1WniN0kqcyVitni7fkUNSby4bf5mXDYwgZ-06Sp0M-62KN-lDbT%7EP5x8wqyibfnTnORBPU%7E4CURIVoZaV9PP4QK1wPx-7yg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM afa9d65b3612b14233434a4f19ebab5e 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 Guv Fuller Field but um 14:54 have you seen still pickup 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 � 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 Postcards from Falmouth Oral Histories Description An account of the resource A collection of transcribed oral history interviews from the Postcards from Falmouth project, 2020-23. Postcards from Falmouth is a local history project made possible by a Library Services Technology Act grant administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Falmouth Public Library Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Falmouth Public Library 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 Subject The topic of the resource Falmouth Heights baseball Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Falmouth Public Library (Falmouth, Mass.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Video transcript Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Postcards from Falmouth Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Falmouth Public Library (Falmouth, Mass.) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Richard Kendall Barbara Kanellopoulos Falmouth Community Television Falmouth Public Library 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