Early Baseball Days in North Olean

North Olean History - Early Baseball Days in North Olean
Some of the earliest teams and comments—On Sunday, May 2, 1915, the Polish Stars, Frank Kujawa’s strong North Olean team, was to play Weston Mills. The Stars met and trimmed the East Olean Athletics the previous week.

On May 2, 1915, Bill Subject’s team, the North Olean Giants, was to meet the Polish Stars No 2 team. Subject was booked to pitch for the Giants. Kubiak and Jonak alternated pitching for the Stars.

Sunday morning, July 25, 1926, on the Cattaraugus Tannery diamond, Jonak’s Rogerville Stars. trimmed the Homer Hill All-Stars to the tune of 2 to 1.
Players for the Stars were: Struble, Driscoll, Martin, Murdzia, Klimzyck, Padlo, Gill, Jonak, H. Butinski, Belvees and B. Butinski. The Homer Hill team players were Allan, J. Woodgie, Gazdick, L. Woodgie, Caffo, Harvey, Duke, J. Lundy, Gaino, Lyons, Cashimere and G. Lundy.

On June 6, 1932, St. Michael’s,. another well-known and popular team of North Olean, played on the Franklin Street diamond and defeated Chipmonk in the ninth. Bess Slevinski hurled his usual fine brand of ball, and drove out two triples.
Players on the St. Michaels team were: Suda, J. Padlo, Butinski, Liwa, Slevinski, Harenda, Y. Padlo, Prevesk and Kukulka.

HISTORY OF THE POLISH NATIONALS
The story begins on April 11, 1933, when 85 members attended the second meeting of the North End Athletic Club, 1306 N. Union Street.
The following officers were elected by the members: Ted Pacer, president; William Dolly, vice president; Chester Bloom, secretary; James Morbito, treasurer; John Everett, sports committee chairman; Stanley Batesky and Joseph Marowski, assistants.

On the night of April 15th, four boxing bouts and four mat contests featured the first ‘Smoker’ of the season staged by the North End Athletic Club. Joseph McDowel presented several specialty dances, accompanied by Stanley Batesky. Tom Madden, a New England fighter was a guest of the club, and referred the bouts. A regular meeting of the club would be held on Thursday night, April 20th at 8 p.m. when several important matters would be considered.

The North End Athletic Club was an active social organization. The following were the many social activities held by them. On Thursday, April 27th, a dance was held at the Dom Polski Hall, corner of N. Union and E. Elm Streets. The hall was decorated for the occasion and dancing continued from 9 to 12 with Johnny Weatherall and His Royal Night Hawks furnishing the music.

On the evening of May 4th another ‘Smoker’ was held in the clubrooms that featured four fast boxing bouts and two wrestling matches. Eight of the best leather slingers in the city were seen in action in the boxing bouts. The "Two Black Crows" and "Irish Kelly" put on a ring show between the bouts and other intervals. The wrestling show was headed by the clash of John Ondes of Homer Hill, Tiger and Ray Bloom, ‘The North End Flash’. Both boys used the flying tackle to advantage, so the match proved most interesting. Since the officers of the club decided to extend the membership quota to sixty, ten new members would be taken in that week.

The Club held a dance on May 11th at the Dom Polski Hall from 9 to 12 p.m. and was attended by a large crowd. Johnny Weatherall and his Royal Nighthawks furnished the music playing both Polish and popular music. Arnie Goranson presented a group of accordion selections during the intermission.

At the May 24th meeting it was decided that for the remaining of the summer, the meetings would be held semi-monthly. The baseball team would journey to Salamanca for a meet with St. Joseph’s team at Broad Field on May 30th, Decoration Day.
The line up for the team as announced by manager Ted Pacer were: Lane at first, Pacer at second, Handley at third, Kukulka at short, Ondes, Bloom, Everett, Jonak and Hanobik in the outfield, with Joseph Marowski or Babe Soder behind the bat. The pitching assignment was given to Bill Bloom, Chet Bloom, Johnny Williams or Leo Subject.

The wives of the members of the Club sponsored a dance at the Dom Polski Club on Saturday, July 1, with Johnny Gabriel and his Syncopators in Blue furnishing the music.

The Polish Nations, formerly the North End Athletic Club team won a double on Sunday, July 9, 1933, from the Seneca Indians.

The North End Athletic Club held a special meeting on July 19th when they reelected all officers with the exception of the secretary. Andrew Hanobik was elected to fill this post. Plans were made for a dance to be held at the Dom Polski on July 29th, with the proceeds for the Polish National’s Baseball Team representing the club. Johnny Weatherall and the Night Hawks would provide the music for the dance.

The first of a series of three-baseball game between The Nationals and the Bamby Club were played on Sunday afternoon, July 23rd, on the Franklin diamond.

On August 10, 1933, a special meeting was held at which Ted Pacer was reelected president of the North End Athletic Club. John Everett was reelected vice-president; George Lang was elected treasurer and John Kwiatkowski as chairman of the entertainment committee. Plans were made for a round and square dance to be held at the Dom Polski Hall on Saturday, August 12th.

The Polish Nationals and the Gas House teams clashed at the Polo Field on Saturday, August 19, 1933. With Stavish allowing only four hits and fanning seventeen, the Gas House had an easy win over the Nationals that day by a score of 19-3. The Gas House touched Sprugle, Bloom and Kwiatkowski for a total of twenty-five hits. B. Rucinski led the attack with a homer, triple, double and single, in addition to a walk and sacrifice for a prefect day. Lee had a homer, and two singles, while Kwiatkowski led the losers with a triple and single. Loftus and Slayer were the empires for the game.

Players for the Gas House team were: J. Farragher 3b; E. Stavish p; C. Lee lf; B. Rucinski, c; H. Kubic ss; K. Sowinski 2b; C. Judge rf; T. Kosinski 1b; M. Ellman cf; W. Kentinski rf; A Stavish and J. Kubic.

Players for the Polish Nations were: Spurgie 1b-p; Soder 2b; Kwiatkowski 3b-p; J. Dolecki ss; N. Abdo lf; T Pacer lf; H. Williams cf; P. Bloom rf; C. Bloom 1b-3b; B. Becker c.

APP DRISCOLL’S NATIONALS
‘App’ Driscoll’s Nationals won both games from Bolivar on August 6, 1933. At the first game played at the Polo Field, the Nationals won 21-2. The Nationals won their second game over Bolivar, which was played at Bolivar the following day scoring 8 to 0.
Players for the Nationals at Saturday’s game were: Flynn cf; Belvees of; D. Williams d-rf; J. Williams of; O’Haire lf-cf; Slayer 1b; Marron rf-cf; Cornell ss; Cottone, 3b; Rucinski 2b and Smith pitcher.

During the 1936 season the players for the Olean Nationals were: Coots Piechota, Johnny Laas, Lou DePoe, Lefty Walters, Joe Benjamin, Bill Keane, Dave Law, Weenie Flynn, yank Lee, Norm Utecht, Joe Szur, Ebbie Dzetek, Hal Jordon, Eddie Stavish, Bill Husband, Fundy Slayer and Bunker Snopkowski was batboy. They closed a successful season in 1936 playing all game at the Bradner’s Stadium, a majority of them under the lights.

HONORS FOR St. MICHAEL’S TEAM
On September 15, 1933, “Bess” Slevinski, big speedball hurler for the St. Michaels, lead the Cattaraugus County League in fielding among the mounds men. The following St. Michael’s players also led in their individual ranks: Harenda, first baseman; Piechota as second baseman; Woodgie as outfielder; W. Liwa ranked third as baseman; M. Padlo ranked seventh as outfielder; J. Padlo ranked second as catcher;

The St. Mikes led in club fielding with an average of .948, committing 33 errors in 631 chances.

APP DRISCOLL POLO FIELD
IN THE SUMMER OF 1992, THE LATE JAMES ‘APP’ DRISCOLL WAS HONORED BY HAVING THE ‘POLO FIELD’ IN NORTH OLEAN RENAMED AFTER HIM, ‘THE APP DRISCOLL POLO FIELD’. A PLAQUE HONORING HIM WAS PRESENTED TO HIS FAMILY AND A STONE MONUMENT PLACED AT THE BALL PARK. BECAUSE OF HIS LOVE OF BASEBALL AND HIS FELLOW MAN, APP ACCOMPLISHED MUCH FOR THE SPORT OF BASEBALL IN OLEAN.

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