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TOPICAL
FEATURED
Historic youth baseball park's rededication spurs memories
By Nancy Lowry New Castle News Apr 10, 2017
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Dan Irwin/NEWS
The Pirate Parrot scopes out Edward A. DeCarbo Field at Dean Park prior to Saturday's rededication ceremony. Pirates Charities provided
grant money to help refurbish the facility.
Memories of Dean Park and the good times enjoyed there came flooding back to many of New Castle's former Little Leaguers last week.
The 90­year­old facility was rededicated Saturday morning after a five­year series of facelifts.
Louis "LuLu" Quahliero's Seventh Ward team from Mahoningtown was crowned the first champion when the current ballpark — originally, the field was
located behind the present­day facility — opened in 1951. The final game of the series, played at Dean Park on Sept. 21,1951, saw his team defeat the
Fourth Ward team by 12­4.
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In 1951 the Seventh Ward team became the first New Castle Little League champions. Team members are, first row from left, Marchelene Conti, Joe Cangey, Anthony Lombardo, batboy Jerome
Cummings and Joe West. Second row are John Leitera, Bob Cummings, Anthony DeLuca, Larry Matteo and Bill Cummings. Third row are, coach Bill Cummings, Mike Lombardo, Bob Mangino, Lou
Quahliero and manager Mike Mash.
Contributed photo
"I remember it as if it was yesterday," he said. "We were the first champions in the first year of Dean Park. There was standing room only. The place was
packed.
"I was 12­years­old," he recalled. "It was the only year I could play Little League."
Quahliero recalled that Dean Park was not ready in time for much league play its first year. "We didn't play the championship series until late
September."
The Seventh Warders won the first game on Sept. 17 by 2­0, and played to a 4­4 tie in the second game on Sept. 19. The usual six inning game was
called at the end of the seventh inning. He added there were no lights at Dean Park that first year.
Jim Donston, who played for the Second Ward, recalled hitting a home run in the 1952 All­Star Game and receiving $1 from Little League president
Joseph "Joki" Travers, whose construction company built the field.
"I was 11 years old and a dollar went further than it does today," he said.
The fully renovated facility was reopened and rededicated Saturday. Extensive renovations to Edward A. DeCarbo Field of Dean Park were made
possible through a $5,000 "Fields For Kids" grant from Pirates Charities, awarded in 2013 to the New Castle Amateur Baseball Association to resurface
the field; a $52,000 grant from the national Baseball Tomorrow Fund, received in 2015 to purchase new lights for the field and a $10,000 grant through
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Pirates Charities, received in 2106, to install the lights.
The Baseball Tomorrow Fund is a joint initiative between Major League Baseball and the Major
League Baseball Players Association. The Fields For Kids program, begun in 2009, has
provided 251 individual grants in the Greater Pittsburgh region.
HISTORIC FIELD
The historic field, which shown brightly in the memories of man who played there in the 1950s
and beyond, goes back even further than they remembered.
Louis Quahliero, whose 1951 Seventh Ward team won the city title at
Dean Park, returned for Saturday's ceremony with a photo of his team
and copy of a newspaper clipping about the championship game.
Dan Irwin/NEWS
Former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Kent Tekulve signs an autograph for 11­year­old Dominic Cade at Dean Park.
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Deputy City Clerk Ciara Buck, researching city records, said the park was named in 1923 for J.J. Dean. Dean operated a grocery store on Mill Street.
City ordinances on file, Buck said, state that Dean and his wife donated the property to the city for the purposes of a park and playground.
Retired funeral director Don DeCarbo, who played there in the mid­1950s, recalls the area before the park as "a dump. People tossed garbage there.
then, one day they decided to make something of it."
He recalled Travers working with his father, Edward DeCarbo, and others to clear the area.
"There were no grants back then," DeCarbo said. "People pitched in and worked shoulder to shoulder. Joki Travers had the equipment, but a lot of
people helped."
The Dean Park Little Big League Baseball Park that emerged, according to an article in The New Castle News, opened on Tuesday, Aug. 7, 1951, with a
crowd of 2,000 fans.
Don Mancini provided information on the first game. According to The News account, the Fourth Ward defeated the Third Ward. 12­1. to win the First­
Half Championship of the city Little Big League.
Opening night ceremonies, according to the article, were conducted by Little League secretary Wesley Mann and featured President Judge W. Walter
Braham, Mayor John F. Haven, Dr. James Gillespie and league president Travers
Pittsburgh Pirates President Frank Coonelly, left, and New Castle Mayor Anthony Mastrangelo chat at Dean Park prior to Saturday's rededication ceremony.
Dan Irwin/NEWS
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The article also notes the first pitch was hurled by the Rev. Father Thomas Smith of St. Joseph Church, while Mayor Haven served as catcher and the
Rev. D.T. McIntosh of St. Luke AME Zion Church, was the batter. The article did not say if the first pitch was a hit or a strike.
NEIGHBORHOOD TEAMS
Frank Calabrese recalls that at that time, each ward of the city fielded a team.
"You had to live in the ward where you played, and every ward had its own field," he said. Calabrese played for the Sixth Ward, which represented the
West Side, and was able to play for two years at the Dean Park Little League park.
"It was a wonderful place to play, but not what it is now," he said. "We had no dugouts. We sat on benches the first year. And there was no grass."
He also recalled that Joseph's Supermarket sponsored Little League providing tee shirts and equipment.
Quahliero recalls the season was divided into two halves, with each team played a 14­game schedule, each team playing each other in both halves.
He also recalled, "That year, 1951, the Fourth Ward had the best record in the first half season but the Seventh Ward had the best record for the second
half."
Quahliero said he loved baseball an "played a lot of sandlot baseball. "We played baseball every day. There was nothing else to do."
LIFETIME OF BASEBALL
Baseball is in the DNA of Jim Donston's family.
Now 76, Donston, who coached baseball for three years at Westminster College, now watches his 13­year­old great­grandson play baseball. But at age
11, he was a Little Leaguer playing baseball in the premier year at Dean Park.
"They opened in 1951, but didn't really start using the field until the following year."
Prior to Dean Park, he said, each city ward played on its own neighborhood field. "Beginning in 1952 everyone took turns being scheduled as the home
or away team at Dean Park."
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