FILE PHOTO
Classical’s Tyler Way will represent the Rams in the Eastern Mass. baseball all-star game.
By STEVE KRAUSE
Dick Newton remembers being the first person in the history of the Eastern Mass. baseball all-star game to throw a pitch.
He also thinks he may be the only person in the game’s 40-year history to play, coach and umpire in the game.
“It was pretty special for me,” said Newton, who is the athletic director at Lynn English High School and a past president of the North Shore Baseball Umpires Association.
Frank Carey, who, with 736 victories is the winningest high school coach in Massachusetts history, has run the game, whose 40th edition will be Tuesday (7) at BC High’s Monan Field.
“The first game was 1978, at Fraser Field in Lynn,” said Carey. “At the time, I wasn’t aware that the shortstop for the South team was a kid named Greg Gagne of Somerset High.”
Gagne went onto play shortstop for the Minnesota Twins in the two seasons (1987 and 1991) they won the World Series.
Carey, a St. Mary’s high school teammate and lifelong friend of the late Tony Conigliaro, who played for the Boston Red Sox, said in 1978 that the all-star game featured the best baseball players in the northern and southern parts of the state. And that impressed Newton, who was a senior at Lynn English.
“That made it real special for me to play in the game,” Newton said.
In subsequent years, the game took on a wider significance. There is also a central/West game (which takes place Tuesday at 4), and players are selected from both games to play against the state of Connecticut later next week. For a time, that Mass.-Conn. Game was played at Fenway Park, but that hasn’t been the case in the last decade.
Newton umpired the game “a few years ago,” he said, and it struck him that while it was interesting in seeing the differences in the players, “you realize that there are still kids who can really play.”
Coaching the North team this year will be St. John’s Prep’s Danny Letarte and Lynn Classical’s Mike Zukowski.
The game will feature one player from Classical — leadoff hitter and center fielder Tyler Way. Also on the North roster is Louis Olivieri, a catcher from Swampscott.
Lynnfield will have two players participate in the game in shortstop Justin Juliano and pitcher Nick Aslanian.
Malden Catholic will also feature players in the game in pitcher Kellen Field and infielder Jake Horrigan.
St. John’s Prep center fielder Dan Frey, who batted clean-up for the Eagles, and Peabody left fielder Nick Palma will also play.
A handful of the top local juniors from the Class of 2018 will take part in the 8th Annual Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Junior Select State All-Star Game. The game will be played at Bentley University’s DeFelice Field on Sunday, June 18 at 2:00 p.m.
The game will feature Eastern Mass. (North/South) versus Central-Western Mass. Eastern Mass. Locals on the Eastern Mass. team include Malden Catholic’s Anthony Iannuzzi, Swampscott’s Luke Marshall, Peabody’s Jake Gustin, Beverly’s Matt Collins, Lynn Classical’s AJ Luciano and Lynnfield’s Cooper Marengi.
Award presentations will be made after the game. Also, an 18-player MBCA State Junior All-Star Team will be selected to take on the CSCA Connecticut Junior State All-Stars for the New England Championship on Saturday, June 24 at 2:00 p.m. at UMass Boston’s Monan Field.
Game co-directors are Steve Freker, who coaches the baseball team at Malden High, and John O’Brien, who coaches at Lynnfield, of the MBCA.