McGuire made things happen

Thursday, January 15, 2004

A few local hot stove league notes: Chances are if you ever met Dick McGuire you remembered him -- a cigar-chomping Irishman with a thousand baseball stories he was willing to tell you if you were willing to listen.

McGuire lived in East Winthrop and despite the fact he had no sons -- he and his wife raised four daughters -- he started Babe Ruth Baseball in Augusta in 1957. If you were a kid and needed a break, Dick would find you a glove and point you toward the ballfield.

"His most enjoyable times were when he was able to watch a youngster play and have fun," Babe Ruth League President/CEO Ron Tellefson said.

McGuire was a unanimous choice for the national hall by the Babe Ruth International Board of Directors at their annual meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The national headquarters is in Trenton, N.J.

With the help of the National Guard, where he worked full-time as a staff sergeant, McGuire got two fields built on the Piggery Road (one bears his name) and turned the complex in Augusta into the envy of towns throughout the state. The league also includes teams from Gardiner, Hallowell and Windsor, and the fields are home to Cony High School, American Legion and fall league teams.

Along the way, McGuire spawned an army of volunteers who continue the work he started nearly 50 years ago.

"There was a time when Dick got out of the local organization and we had a couple of rocky years," said Joe Linscott, one of the daily workers at the complex. "I asked him if he would come back in and he did right up until the time of his death."

Whlle he was away from the Augusta organization, McGuire started Bambino baseball in Maine and served as its commissioner. Today, it's thriving under the banner of Cal Ripken League.

McGuire died of cancer in 1996, a few months after several hundred friends showed up for his induction into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame.

"He could always get something done," Augusta Babe Ruth president Al Cloutier said. "He always had an answer for everything, he wasn't wishy-washy."

For all that time he put in, he never had a boy who played baseball."

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They'll be no plaques or fields erected in Gary Cummings' honor, but he'll be greatly missed around the ballfields in Augusta. Cummings died this month after fighting cancer for the past two years. He and his wife Peggy were actively involved in Little league, Babe Ruth and local booster organizations as their sons, Eric and Brandon, came up through the ranks.

Cummings always brought a positive outlook to the ballpark, both as a spectator and a coach.

"He helped out with both his boys teams in Babe Ruth, also in Little League," Babe Ruth league president and former Cony High coach Al Cloutier said. "He was always volunteering. He provided his boys with a strong work ethic."

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The search for a new Cony High School baseball coach is nearly at an end, several months after former coach Al Cloutier resigned. Final interviews are being conducted this week and next and a candidate is expected to be proposed to the school board early next month, according to Cony athletic director Dan Bowers.

Gary Hawkins -- 621-5638

ghawkins@centralmaine.com

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