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Youth Baseball: Memories of Ridgewood’s 1979 World Series team

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AUGUST 21, 2015    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2015, 12:31 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

Terry Cardew understands the emotions the Ridgewood Raiders’ U14 Little League team is experiencing at the Junior World Series in Michigan.

Cardew was a star on the last Ridgewood team to get that far, back in 1979.

“We went into that year with the goal to win the state tournament, so when we got to the region and faced a bunch of 6-foot-tall, huge guys, we were relaxed, because we had achieved our goal,” he said on Sunday. “We were playing with house money.”

His Ridgewood National team won the East Region title and then went on to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.

“Back in those days, it wasn’t double elimination,” Cardew said. “It was single elimination, and we lost in the first round to Arkansas. Every game we played in the tournaments was sudden death. We lost, and that was it. We were done with no chance of winning the whole thing. We did play some consolation games, but that loss meant it was over for us.”

https://www.northjersey.com/news/bridging-a-36-year-span-1.1395971

6 thoughts on “Youth Baseball: Memories of Ridgewood’s 1979 World Series team

  1. They had to win 10 games to get Williamsport as I recall…..no easy feat…

  2. Ridgewood’s 1979 team had Doug Delaney on it too, and Craig Gunther. Not Paskelides, though. He would have dragged the average height of the team down to 4’8″. The guy swung a big Easton bat in freshman baseball at BF, though (RHS was a three year high school at the time).

    1. Steve Paskalides was on the team along with Craig and Chris Gunther, Chris Frazier, Terry and Chris Cardew, Doug Delaney, Jim Kelly, Roger Jones, Matt Homcy and Dave Homcy, Bill Guilfoil, Paul Brennan

  3. Paskalides should have made the team. Might have won it all with his quickness in the outfield and tight strike zone. He was some player not sure how he was overlooked.

    1. He was on the team

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