baseball

FITCHBURG — Baseball does not necessarily get the respect it deserves at Fitchburg High School. Played in the spring and at the end of a long school year, it has long been considered a sport secondary in importance compared to football, basketball, and track, even though it was the first to be contested at FHS way back in 1882.

For the first time, four baseball players and a baseball team were honored by the Fitchburg High School Athletic Hall of Fame on Sunday afternoon as part of its 11th Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Great Wolf Lodge.

Fitchburg has now inducted over 150 individuals, coaches, contributors, and teams to its Hall of Fame since forming in 2001.

FHS inducted the 1936 Baseball team, which included co-inductee Jimmy Flynn, and the 1990 Red Raider Boys Spring Track team this year.

The 1936 team found induction thanks to its 8-0 interscholastic record in which the Red and Gray outscored its opponents, 108-25. The Raiders also had to pull off this feat by playing all eight games on the road thanks to the March 1936 overflow of the North Nashua River, which left Crocker Field unplayable.

Flynn and Hall of Famers Jimmy Leo and Donald MacLean were members of that team.

Hall of Fame coach Chris Woods spoke on behalf of his 1990 team, which finished third in the All-State Meet at Bridgewater State University.

“As an FHS grad, I knew first-hand what it was like to be a senior,” Woods said of his preseason speech, “and compete on a championship team. I asked that they look around the clubhouse and realize that half the trophies on the walls and shelves were track and field.

“I told them they had a chance to make history.”

Baseball, though, was the focal point of the afternoon.

Kathy Flynn, who accepted Jimmy Flynn’s plaque alongside her stepsister Charlene, noted that her father had “an insatiable love of sports.”

“I know some of the happiest and meaningful days of his life were spent in West Fitchburg and playing sports for Fitchburg High,” she said.

Flynn entered the FHS building on Academy Street in 1932 and made the leap onto Clarence Amiott’s basketball team in January 1934. He quickly became hard to displace on the team, finishing every game with either team-high or second-highest scorer to Leo.

He was also a prodigious hitter for the baseball team. A two-time captain of the team, Flynn recorded 41 hits, 17 of which for extra bases, in 21 games over a three-year period.

In his debut game against Clinton, Flynn had a 3-for-4 afternoon, including a game-winning three-run home run in the eighth inning. He hit .591 in his senior year, the 1936 season.

Walter Beede from the Class of 1981 was baseball through and through. He never hit less than .350 on Michael Bourque’s varsity baseball team, which beat a perennially good Holy Name team all three years. Beede was known to spray the ball to all fields, and usually done so with power.

He was also critical in the success of the football team under John Dubzinski in the early 1980’s.

Beede was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 1981, two picks ahead of former pro Lenny Dykstra.

“It’s an honor to go into the Fitchburg High Hall of Fame,” he said. “I’m proud to be a Red Raider.”

Beede recalled his first trip to Crocker Field, where former groundskeeper Rupert Laquirrie scolded him for being on the grass — and for wearing blue shorts. Beede had intended to attend Lynn English, whose colors included blue.

“He brought me into the cage and gave me red shorts and a red shirt,” Beede said.

At 6-foot-8, Bryan Gauvin of the Class of 1993 was a dominating southpaw on Hall of Fame coach Ray Cosenza’s baseball team, and was also a pivotal member of the 1991-92 boys basketball team, the last Central Mass. title team for the Red and Gray.

Gauvin ended up pitching in the Yawkey League, the best amateur league in the state, where he went 43-3 over six years, with a lifetime ERA of 1.02.

Lloyd LeBlanc came to Fitchburg from Baltimore’s Loyola High School in the Fall of 1970 and quickly became known for his defensive prowess on the gridiron in the fall, and his propensity to strike out hitters in the spring. He struck out 75 hitters in two years, including a career-high 15 in a two-hitter against St. Bernard’s in 1972.

LeBlanc also still holds the FHS record for longest touchdown run from scrimmage in the Thanksgiving game against Leominster at 85 yards.

In addition, FHS inducted Barney Keenan of the Class of 1965, an outstanding half miler and cross country runner; Mark Jackson of the Class of 1982 for football and track; Ryan Logan of the Class of 2003 for football and track — Logan scored a 72-yard TD against Leominster, and racked up 16,618 individual points in track— as well as Frank McDonald of the Class of 2001, a football player from the 2000 unbeaten 12-0 football team inducted 11 years ago.

This induction was originally slated for 2021, but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The next induction cycle, which will begin in Jan. 2023, will culminate either in 2024 or 2025.