Crimson Eagles' Nine Optimistic Prior to Start of 1960 Season on the Baseball Diamond

The Fairfield Warde Mustangs varsity baseball team will scrimmage arch-rival Fairfield Ludlowe High School at Kiwanis Field, home of the Falcons, Thursday, March 25. Warde opens its regular season at home against Staples High School the following Tuesday, March 30.

This year's squad is hoping for a successful season, much like its predecessors 50 years earlier. The 1960 Andrew Warde Crimson Eagles were coming of a 9-9 campaign, bolstered by the return of eight veterans from the state tournament squad two years earlier.

Co-captains Jack Flanagan and Ray Vlader and junior Jerry Zacchia, sporting a lofty .350 batting average the previous season, led the Eagles into the 1960 campaign. Seniors Ted Skola (pitcher), Glen Englander (outfielder), and Howie Ratner engaged in early season wind sprints and calisthenics to prepare for the alumni game, the season's debut, on April 9, 1960, at Owen Fish Park.

Coach Bob Jackson expressed optimism that the Eagles would better their .500 mark from 1959. Larry Gill, Joe Vige, Hank Babe, and Curt Helgren graduated from the jayvee ranks to strengthen the varsity.

According to the 1960 Flame yearbook, "When our tufted diamond begins to sparkle with baseball activity, handfuls of gallant fans gather on slivered bleachers and soggy sidelines, partly out of loyalty to team and sport and partly --- well --- because it's Spring."

Paul

Please sign the AWHS Guest Book.

Visit the Andrew Warde High School Gift Shop.

Watch the AWHS 1976 vintage "film".