CBC celebrates 50 years of baseball, softball at McCune Park

June 4, 2015 at 12:08a.m.

Organization celebrates

50 years of baseball,

softball at McCune Park

CANFIELD

Over the last 50 years, tens of thousands of baseball and softball players have called Canfield Baseball Club’s McCune Park home. They have many long-time volunteers plus the Ohio Turnpike Commission to thank.

Ken Brayer and Dale Stryffler, who between them have donated more than 80 years as volunteers to the club, say the Canfield Township land north of the turnpike to Shields Road once was targeted to be an airport.

“The Turnpike Commission overruled [that plan], saying you’re not landing [planes] this close to the turnpike,” Brayer said.

Instead, the land was purchased and donated by Ray McCune’s Sr.’s family. Howard Tieche and Forrest Renkenberger organized the club in 1960. Tieche, Roy Wiant and Stan Huber were among the first officers. The first field opened in June 1965 for boys ages 13-16. Stryffler was one of the umpires.

Today, McCune Park has 11 fields and 575 players ranging in age from 3 to 14 on 49 teams.

Saturday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Canfield Baseball Club will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Board member Amy Majernik-Herrmann, a CBC softball player in the 1980s, says 36 teams will play games as part of the festivities.

The celebration will begin with the national anthem and McCune throwing out the first pitch. Past presidents and board members will be recognized. The concession stand will be dedicated in honor of Howard “Howdy” Baird.

Fund-raisers include a bat-a-thon and home run derby as well as a Chinese auction and a silent auction. Among the donations are club seats for an Indians game, four Cleveland Browns tickets and four Ohio State football tickets. Radar gun pitching stations, bounce-arounds and face-painting will be available.

CBC has come a long way. Two more fields were opened in 1966. Stryffler, now a retiree from East Ohio Gas, often spent as many as five nights a week umpiring for four seasons, then gave it up to help at home when his wife, Jean, gave birth to their fourth child.

“I needed to spend time with my girls,” Stryffler said of his six-year break. Busier days awaited as he later became a trustee and league president.

CBC expanded twice in the 1970s. First, four smaller fields were created for baseball players ages 8-12 as the leagues sponsored by Kiwanis and Ruritan were absorbed into CBC. In the late 1970s, Brayer helped Ted Frazzini, Amy Dorcas and Louise Hartshorn create girls slo-pitch softball leagues for ages 9-12 and 13-16.

“The board wasn’t hard to convince,” Brayer said. “The sign-ups [showed interest], they [found] sponsors.”

Two more fields were added for the softball teams. In 1980, Frazzini created the Canfield Slo Pitch invitational tournament that attracted 60 teams from around the Mahoning Valley.

That was also the year that Tom Haefke, a coach since 1978, joined the board of trustees and eventually became trusted with the club’s tractor.

“Stan let me have the tractor one day,” said Haefke who worked for Canfield Township. The tractor’s starter required patience.

“He figured I’d never get it to start,” Haefke said. “Well I did and drove away, and Stan said, ‘He’s in.’”

Haefke spent the next 16 springs and summers spending his one-hour lunch break dragging the fields.

“I could do seven of them in an hour,” Haefke said, allowing him a couple of minutes to gulp down his lunch.

Eventually, tee-ball was added for ages 7-8. The next major change came in 1995 when CBC joined Little League and most of the softball leagues converted to fast-pitch.

“A lot of leagues were changing [to fast-pitch] then,” said then-president Gary Williams. “[We had to because] we were going into Little League.”

In 1992, CBC experimented with a fast-pitch team for ages 15-18. A year later, a team was created for ages 13-14.

In 1996, Canfield’s 9-10 baseball team won Little League’s state title. A year later, the 11-12 softball team finished as Little League’s state runner-up. In 1998, the 11-12 boys team won state and finished as the Central Region’s runner-up, one win short of going to Williamsport, Pa., for the Little League World Series.

“The thing that amazed me is that nobody ever got paid — all volunteers,” said Brayer who for the past 11 years has gone to McCune Park each morning to pick up trash and items for the lost-and-found.

“I feel like I’m giving back my share from a volunteer basis for the people who gave before me so our kids could play,” Brayer said.