For about a quarter of a century, the people of Maine lived their passion for baseball in a way unlike any other time in the state’s history.
Every town, it seemed, had a team, and virtually every young boy dreamed of playing for their town’s team, just as their fathers, uncles and older brothers had, and having hundreds, if not thousands, of their family, friends and neighbors turn out to watch them play.
From the end of the second World War to the early 1970s, baseball held a central place in the way of life of countless communities around the state, and semi-pro and town teams were a preferred source of entertainment on warm summer nights.
Among those in attendance was a young boy from Lisbon Falls named Jim Baumer, whose uncle Bob was a standout pitcher and manager for the Roberts 88ers, Lisbon Falls’ town team in the Andy County League.
Watching his uncle helped plant the seed for baseball that remains with Jim Baumer today. He manages a team in, and is the president of, one of the few remaining leagues in the state, the Twilight League. Now a freelance writer living in Durham, Baumer, 43, often thought about how the hundreds of teams of his childhood had faded away and wondered why the game’s place in our daily lives had changed.
Upon discovering that there were no comprehensive historical records of the era he grew up in, he decided one needed to be written, and that led him to his first book, “When Towns Had Teams.”
Baumer poured over microfilm from newspapers from all over the state, including the Lewiston Daily Sun and the Evening Journal, scoured game stories and box scores, and conducted nearly 40 interviews with players, coaches and umpires to compile his 287-page book.
Stories needed to be told
One of those players, Ted “Bitsy” Ionta, has been approached several times over the years by other writers curious about his stories from over 50 years of playing baseball. None, however, had followed through on plans to tell the complete story of Maine post-war baseball.
“I thought he was just another guy who wanted to get some information about the old leagues, but when he called me back three or four times, I knew he was serious,” said Ionta, who at age 69 still plays for a Rumford team in the Men’s Senior Baseball League.
Baumer found many others eager to reminisce and could probably write a couple of sequels with all of the stories he collected. Many of the players have feared for years that their stories would die off with them, and the golden era of baseball in Maine that they helped foster would be forgotten.
“You’d ask a couple of questions and you’d be there a couple of hours,” he said. “But at the same time, there was a humility there. They knew how good they were, but at the same time, a lot of them really downplayed it.”
“I think most of them sort of have the feeling that nobody cared about their stories and their baseball,” he added. “I think, for them, it was a validation, you know, here’s somebody that cares about what we did and understands that it was something more.”
Baumer said he tried to capture that “something more” with his narration, detailing how town team baseball brought together young men from all walks of life, how many of them worked long hours at back-breaking jobs and still found time to practice and play baseball three or four times a week.
He also chronicles the rise and fall of numerous leagues (including the Twin City League, the Andy County League, and the Down East League) and the success of numerous local teams, such as the Auburn Asas, the Norway-Paris Twins, the Turner Townies and the Farmington Flyers. But Baumer goes beyond the box scores, too, covering the exploits of some of the most colorful men in the game, including Dixfield’s Ionta, Cash Clark of Farmington, Chi-Liv’s Adrien “Drig” Fournier, and Norway’s Bill Thurston. All of them are members of the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame.
Fan interest in town team baseball began to wither with the growing influence of television and automobile in the 1970s. Men became less willing to devote their free time to the game, and teams and leagues slowly folded.
“Regardless of where you went in the state, there was always a Bitsy Ionta there that was the catalyst for baseball in that area,” Baumer said. “When those guys left the scene baseball died.”
“It’s not coming back”
Baumer shopped his book around to several Maine publishers and garnered some interest, but decided instead to form his own small independent press, RiverVision Press, and make his book the first offering. He said “When Towns Had Teams” will set the tone for RiverVision, which will specialize in titles that capture the unique qualities of small town Maine, by focusing on its culture and heritage.
Along those lines, Baumer is considering writing about the history of Maine auto racing for his next project. Although he admits he’s not a big fan of the sport, he’s eagerly anticipating being flooded with stories from Maine’s racing legends, just as he was by some of the state’s baseball greats.
“You feel honored to have them telling you those stories,” said Baumer, who is having a book signing from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Book Burrow in Auburn. “Then you feel like you have a responsibility to accurately portray what it was, because it was a special time, and it’s not coming back, not to that level, ever again.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
