Another impossible dream in ’67, this one in Lynn

The summer of 1967 was magic. The Impossible Dream season turned the Red Sox from a group of not-so-lovable losers into a phenomenon.

Lynn was, perhaps, the epicenter of that baseball-crazed summer. Not only because Boston’s young, charismatic, and talented right fielder, Tony Conigliaro, had graduated from the city’s Catholic school, St. Mary’s, five years earlier. But also because a group of teenagers from the city would make that summer their own.

For the first time in 24 years, a Lynn American Legion team, East Lynn Post 291, captured the state title.

The 1967 championship, though, was not without controversy. Nor was it without strange twists of fate involving two of Lynn’s legends: Conigliaro and Harry Agganis.The East Lynn team recently got together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its title at Lynn’s Porthole Pub. It was a bittersweet reunion. Not everyone could be there. Several of the players live out of state, one in Ireland. A few have passed away.

East Lynn lost the first game of its best-of-three state championship series with Pittsfield, 2-1, at its own Fraser Field. Then trailing, 5-3, heading into the eighth inning of the second game at Pittsfield, East Lynn got its collective nose out of joint.

Rattling the cages of the baseball gods, tournament officials — believing the outcome was a foregone conclusion — brought out the championship trophy and parked it near homeplate, preparing to present it to Pittsfield.

That did not go over well with the East Lynners, who scored four runs in the eighth and ninth to win the game, 7-5, and set up the rubber game at Fraser Field, where home-field advantage took on new meaning.

The final game was scheduled for nine innings, but was called by the homeplate umpire after just seven, even though Pittsfield had just scored two runs in the top of the inning to tighten the score. The ump said the lights from adjacent Manning Bowl were affecting his vision to the point that he couldn’t see pitches.

As requested by the umpire, East Lynn coach Jim Leonard went to Manning Bowl and requested the officials turn off the lights for the football teams warming up for a game. The football officials said no. So the umpire called the game, and East Lynn won, 4-3, and claimed the title.

The football game being played was the annual Agganis All-Star Game — named for the former Lynn Classical star who died when he was 26 — with nearly 20,000 people in attendance.

The date was Aug. 18, 1967, the same day the 22-year-old Conigliaro had his career – and his life – tragically altered when he was hit in the face with a pitch.

No one knew how badly Tony C was hurt. At Fraser Field, there was only joy as East Lynn was awarded the trophy that almost stayed in Pittsfield.

For those who attended the reunion, 50 years quickly faded away.

Steve White is 67 now. The team’s third baseman still lives in Lynn, and retired from General Electric a few years ago after putting in 40 years.

“We lost our first two games that year and then we got on a 15- or 16-game winning streak,” he recalled. “And it was the summer of ‘67, the Red Sox were going to win the pennant, we were playing real good ball, and it was just the whole summer, the Beatles were coming out with new songs every couple of weeks.”

Many of the players grew up playing together.

“We had success with many of the same guys on our Babe Ruth League all-star team that went to the state tournament and then at Lynn English,” said Peter McGinn, an outfielder who is now 67 and a retired school administrator who lives in Lynn.

Jack King, the team’s center fielder who just turned 69, was at the reunion, but he wasn’t there when the team won its title. As a cadet at West Point, where he was recruited to play baseball, he had to report to campus by July 1.

After 10 years in the military, King worked as an engineer for an energy corporation. Retired, he now splits the year between the North Shore and the Houston area.

“There were no egos on that team,” King said of what made the team special. “It really was a team, and everyone was really good at playing their role. We had kids who could play several positions, so we had some versatility. It was truly a team.”

Each, to a man, credits coach Jim Leonard, now 83, the retired Lynn school superintendent. East Lynn wasn’t an offensive powerhouse, but Leonard had pitching and defense. Left-hander Mike Pazik was his ace, followed by right-hander Fred ‘Butchie’ Collins. His team also had an uncanny ability to score timely runs.

A 1968 graduate of Lynn English, Pazik went on to pitch at Holy Cross before the Yankees selected him in the first round of the 1971 draft. After a 1974 trade to Minnesota, his career was cut short by a car accident in 1977. He is now a scout with Kansas City and occasionally sports his 2015 World Series ring.

“It was a great bunch of guys having fun, but we were pretty good players, too,” said Pazik, who lives in Maryland. “You don’t win a state championship by mistake. You have to be doing something right. And I think it all started with the direction we got from our manager.

“We expected to win. I don’t think we ever thought we were overmatched against anybody.”

Bob Condos, who has lived in Florida for about 25 years, couldn’t make it back for the reunion. Instead, he called in, talking to his teammates by cellphone.

“We knew that we were good, but that’s quite a stretch to go to a state championship,” he said. “That [team] sort of fell into great pitching and a never-give-up attitude, and that came from Jimmy Leonard.”

Leonard wants none of that.

“I hate coaches and managers who say ‘I won 500,’” he said. “You didn’t win anything if you’re a manager. The people who win are the people on the field, not the coaches. You orchestrated them, but they’re the ones who won.

“It was just a remarkable, hard-working group of kids.”

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