AUGUST 28, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY GREG TARTAGLIA
SPORTS EDITOR |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
RIDGEWOOD — Charlie Ponkop and a five-line blurb in The Ridgewood News started it all.
The Ridgewood U14 Raiders’ recent trip to the Junior League World Series in Taylor, Mich. — and welcome home celebration staged on Monday — marks the latest chapter in the village’s longtime devotion to youth baseball.
A glance at the archives of The Ridgewood Herald-News (as it was then called) revealed an entry in then sports editor Bob Curley’s column, “Curley Cues”, on June 16, 1949 that extended an invitation to youngsters seeking a summer activity:
“Boys in the eight, nine and ten year old age group, who are not playing baseball, should contact Charlie Ponkop at the Ridgewood YMCA … Should interest warrant, Ponkop will organize a league for you fellas [sic].”
One year earlier, former Ridgewood High School athletics coach Minous Cannon had helped launch the town’s Midget, Junior and Young Mens’ Baseball Leagues, according to the July 11, 1948 News.
It was Ponkop, however, who initiated the Ridgewood Small Fry Baseball League that produced the village’s first “Little World Series” qualifiers.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/world-renown-a-long-standing-tradition-for-village-1.139996
I wonder if Charlie made the kids clean up their water bottles back in ’49….