Sam Carchidi: Celebrating that summer of long ago

Anybody who has ever played Little League baseball probably has memories of players they

knew

would some day reach the majors.

Growing up in Haddon Heights, I was sure I was witnessing two future big-leaguers when I watched Mark Ewell and Don Newell pitch for their respective youth teams.

I was convinced they threw as hard as Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson, and that they certainly were better than some of the retreads in the Phillies' rotation. The only reason they didn't have their pictures on baseball cards - ah, I can still smell the sweet aroma that the powdery gum gave those wax packs - was because they were only 13 or 14 years old.

At least that was my perspective at the time.

I'm sure some kids who played for Penns Grove/Carney's Point felt the same way when they watched Bruce Ulissi, Larry White, Steve Cooker, Mike Ayers, Mike Maconi, Sonny Carter and Freddy Morris perform for their Babe Ruth League team during the Popsicle summer of '68.

I bring this to your attention because a reunion is in the works to bring together the Penns Grove/Carney's Point all-star team that put the tiny Salem County community on the map - long before Bruce Willis (Penns Grove High, Class of '73) became an action-movie hero.

Against all odds, Penns Grove/Carney's Point, composed of 14- and 15-year-olds, defeated many teams from much larger communities and won the Middle Atlantic championship to earn a trip to Klamath Falls, Ore., site of the 1968 Babe Ruth League World Series.

White is now an executive with the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, the governing body of high school sports in the state. He helps run numerous high school tournaments, and when he sees the joy on the faces of state champions, you can excuse him for rewinding back to the summer of '68.

In that Babe Ruth tournament, White went 8-0.

And he was considered the team's No. 2 pitcher, behind Ulissi, who would later star at Penns Grove and pitch at Lehigh University.

"There were," White said, "a lot of magical moments."

Players' arms are babied in today's pitch-count-happy world. Not in '68. White, for instance, pitched two full seven-inning games - beating Haddonfield and Trenton - in less than 24 hours in the tournament.

"By the end of the second game," he said, "my arm was hanging."

Fourteen of the 15 players would play baseball in high school at Penns Grove, while one played at since-closed St. James. All had just completed their freshman or sophomore high school years when they went on their magical run, winning the Mid-Atlantic crown in a region that included teams from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland and Ontario, Canada.

Penns Grove/Carney's Point, the little team that could, went an astounding 14-2 in the Mid-Atlantic tourney before losing two close, hard-fought games on the national level.

And now, for the first time since their 1968 accomplishment, members of that team are planning an Aug. 9 reunion - exactly 40 years, to the day, from when it captured the title.

Most of the players still live in the area, though one resides in Florida and another on the West Coast.

"It was a very tight-knit group," said White, who umpired on the triple-A level and coached basketball at St. James, Woodstown and Williamstown before surfacing at the NJSIAA. "Five of us ended up being the starters in basketball for Penns Grove, and most of us played baseball together, so we shared a lot of good times.

"We still keep in touch, and the tales have gotten longer," he said, smiling, "and everybody remembers that they batted a thousand."

Hmmm. Sounds like they, too, should have joined Ewell and Newell - my boyhood idols - as big-league players.

The reunion dinner will be held at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 9 at DiPaulo's Restaurant in Penns Grove. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased by calling White at 609-259-2776 or by e-mailing him at

» READ MORE: lwhite@njsiaa.org

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