During the 1966 American Legion Baseball State Championship series, which was being played at Bordentown’s Gilder Field, a bunch of Hamilton Post 31 baseball players entered the Parfait House restaurant (now OceanFirst Bank) on Route 33 for dinner and received a pleasant appetizer.
“We walked in there,” outfielder Bruce Garland recalled, “and people gave us a standing ovation.”
Garland and his Post 31 teammate Gary Hohman got an even bigger surprise when they checked in at Steinert preseason football camp for the 1966 season.
The two had just helped Post 31 to the first of what would be two straight state titles – the only teams in program history to do that – and they were such celebrities that both Trenton papers sent photographers there to take pictures of them getting their equipment.
Flash forward several weeks later, prior to the opening game of what would be the lone undefeated football season in Steinert history.
“Before the game,” Garland said, “instead of giving any kind of talk, (coach Pete) Brescia told the team ‘I’ve asked Bruce and Gary to talk to you about what it takes to win.”
Wild stuff.
“The whole time period was wild,” Garland said.
It was also magical and almost impossible to even fathom in this day and age of legion baseball. Outside of Mercer County there are roughly 20 towns still with programs.
But in the 1960s, legion was massive in both participation and spectators.
“There was no travel ball,” Garland said. “This was the best baseball in the state.”
It’s an era that alumnus Gary Zarrilli likes to keep burning brightly, which is why he has organized a 60th reunion of the 1966-67 state champions.
There will be a barbecue on Friday evening, June 19, at former player Neil Bencivengo’s house. The next day, prior to the current Hamilton team’s 11 a.m. home game, the team will be announced and their accomplishments recited.
Ironically, the two principals – Zarrilli and Bencivengo – were the only two Hamilton High players on the otherwise all-Steinert roster. Post 313 had just been formed a year earlier but the two Hornets were grandfathered into Post 31.
This is the third such reunion Zarrilli has organized. He also did so after 20 and 50 years.
“I guess it was my idea just trying to keep this alive while we’re still living, and just get together for those who are still with us and share our memories,” he said. “It’s about nothing special except we were a close-knit team. Just an idea of keeping it going and reliving our past memories of those fantastic summers.”
Garland shudders at the fact it has been 60 years.
“Think about this — 60 years before 1966 was 1906 for Gods’ sake,” he said incredulously. “Ty Cobb was playing! It’s unbelievable, right?”
What’s unbelievable is how well the participants can remember the games and players in such vivid detail.
“We can remember the umpires and the reporters who covered us,” Garland said.
The manager was Clarence Ahr, while the Petrino brothers – Pat and Vito – coached third and first base. Members of both teams were Garland, Hohman, Dick Schnell, Bill Povia, Frank Fratarcangeli, Fred Armenti, Bob Petrino (Pat’s son), Bert Schwinn, Rich Mallam, Dave “Boog” Powell and Wolfgang “Petrasko” Von Kornya.
Playing only on the 1966 squad were Zarrilli, Bencivengo, Rich Sokolowski and Steve Collis. Other 1967 team members were Bob Herrara, Ed Terlecki, Jr., Wayne Bartolone, Lee Jackson and Dave Baker. The teams’ batboys were Kim Hohman and Larry Povia.
“Those guys treated us like gold,” Kim said.
Of that group, Pat and Vito Petrino, Ahr, Povia, Schnell, Schwinn, Collis, Bartolone and Powell have passed away.
Zarrilli is still hopeful of a strong turnout, considering how tight the teammates were.
“It was just a camaraderie,” he said. “The coaches were great. We were like a family. We all got along, we wanted to win the whole thing.”
Added Gary Hohman: “It was such a fun time to be playing sports in Hamilton Township. Not only with great players but also with really, really good guys.”
And they were not just baseball players, although 11 of them did go on to play Division I baseball.
Hohman and Povia were drafted by MLB teams. Seven players were actually two-sport athletes with some distinguished moments.
Hohman played football and baseball for the University of Minnesota and still holds the Gophers record for longest interception return at 99 yards. At the University of Rhode Island, Collis scored the winning goal in a morning soccer game, then kicked the game-winning field goal for the football team that afternoon.
Collis was the ’66ers’ starting first baseman and Hohman, still touted by many as Steinert’s greatest all-around athlete, was the second baseman. Completing the lineup was Bencivengo (catcher), Povia (shortstop), Mallam (third base) and outfielders Zarrilli, Sokolowski, Armenti, Petrino and Fratarcangeli. The pitchers were Petrino, Sokolowski, Schnell and Armenti.
That team defeated Westfield, 5-1, in a state championship game that had the mayors of Trenton and Hamilton in attendance at Gilder Park. Zarrilli homered and Sokolowski hurled the win.
But Post 31 suffered a tough defeat in the regional tournament in Bridgeton. Needing to win twice to claim a World Series spot, Hamilton defeated a team from Washington D.C., 13-0, as it roughed up their ace who was a Mets draft pick.
“The next night they threw a junkballer and beat us 2-1,” Zarrilli said. “I tear up just thinking about it.”
* * *
The following year, the states were at Switlik Park and Fratarcangeli blasted a two-out home run against Lyndhurst to give Hamilton its second straight state title.
“Switlik was a Babe Ruth park (before the high green fence was built) and there were almost no home runs in that entire tournament with the best legion players in the state,” Garland said. “Frankie’s ball just made it over. There were a lot of people at the game. We would literally get 5,000 to 10,000 people at some of those games.”
But once again, Hamilton just missed winning a regional tournament title
“It meant tremendous disappointment not to go to World Series by one game,” Garland said. “But it meant a lot to win the state title for two straight years, because we lost some great players off that ’66 team.”
The 1967 starters were Hohman behind the plate, Powell (first), Fratarcangeli (second), Povia (short), Mallam (third), Van Kornya (left), Garland/Armenti (center) and Garland/Petrino – who went on to Wake Forest together – in right. Armenti was the pitching ace while Petrino, Jackson and Schnell rounded out the staff.
“We won differently both years, which actually made it even more satisfying,” Garland said. “The first year we had a lot of hits and a lot of power hitting from different guys. The second year, we scrapped. We were fast. We were a great baserunning team, we stole bases, we went from first to third, second to home. The Petrinos and Clarence Ahr instilled that kind of stuff.”
It was a brand of baseball that thrilled the area for two straight summers.
“Being state champs was big news in our area,” Hohman said. “Being able to say you were league champions was pretty good but state champs was very impressive.”
Just ask the folks eating dinner at Parfait House.
