Beacon Bombers get down

This story of the famed Beacon Bombers, reprinted from the June / July, 1978 issue of Tower Topics, is in fond remembrance of the late Jim Derendal. Click on the headline to see a photo album. You will need to list your name and e-mail address.

By CHARLES BUFFUM
Once again, the newsroom's Beacon Bombers softball team showed the difference between ordinary teams and the pits.

In a season marred only by a couple victories, the Bombers once again tested and proved the Third Law of baseball physics - that what goes down usually stays there.

Coach Jim "Why Me?" Derendal left town before the season was over, but that didn't change the Bomber's luck: The other teams kept showing up.

Not that it was all bad. Among the highlights were ... urn ... er ...

Never mind. The guys who showed up had fun fantasizing about being ball players, and the Boulevard Tavern in Cuyahoga Falls, where the Bombers did their thing, made lots of post-game money from a team that was not only from hunger, but. from thirst.

Among team standouts were Paul Tople, who stood out most of each game; B. D. Downing, who had two stolen bases but was ordered to give them back, and George Sillia, who went 4-for-4 in one game. That's errors, not hits.

Also disgracing themselves and journalism for still another season were Larry Pantages, Mickey Porter, Jim Dettling, Charles Buffum, Rick "The Ripper" Reiff, Chuck Ayers, Jim Ricci, Roger Mezger, D. Booth Cooper, Bill Hershey, Tim Hayes and probably others who played with such mediocrity that they are already lost in the mists of baseball history.

Frantic to win, Derendal also imported ringers Bill Chaney, John Richardson and Joe Balazowich. Alas, they quickly became acclimated to the Bomber system.

Cooper, incidentally, won the GoBack Player of the Year

Award for his efforts to make a pitching comeback. Wearing the lucky socks former teammate Satchel Paige gave him when they were both in Uttle League, Cooper dazzled the opposition with his timely buying of pitchers at the tavern after the game.

Unlike locusts, Bombers come back every year, and plans already are underway for next season's schedule. So far, Derendal has lined up the Erie Island Elementary School junior varisty and the Spanish Amerian War Vets - both of which have thumped the Bombers in the past.

The Bombers steadfastly refuse to play the Ladies of the Knight.