The Comets

 The Comets



                                    Champion Midget Orioles Greg top row far right


     A truly great part of growing up in South Gate was the terrific athletic facilities at the park. The city fathers somehow created an excellent recreational eden for boys and girls during the time we were kids and after. You could do almost anything in those one hundred acres, from pitching horseshoes to performing a California twirl at the square dances. Kids could swim, play tennis, perform gymnastics and play the classic American big three baseball, football and basketball. The South Gate Junior Athletic Association was an amazingly well-developed organization with opportunities for Gate-folk from childhood to geezerdom. We did not have Little league but beginning competition on baseball diamonds was done in the Pee Wee League, followed by Midgets, followed by Juniors and for hard core teens Senior league. All of the Gate pals played at the park and put their stamp on one team or another. I played for the Eagles, Jack played for the legendary Jets and Hawks, Niall played for the Bombers and Ed Carroll played for the 7-Up Yankees. Good Gate Dads coached these teams with varying degrees of seriousness. Al Lopez was a firebrand, Gil Montano was shrewd and patient, Eugene Childs was the Branch Rickey of the SGJAA and for a couple of fun years John Sheehy coached the Comets when Greg was a boy. The Comets were a middle of the pack team who had their thrills but were never in contention to win Pee-Wee league. Greg was a loyal member of the Comets and played center field and occasionally pitched. He was very solid with the glove and not too bad with the stick. There were boys on the team who John played who were just not athletic but sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut. Case in point was a big game against a top team coached by Syd Genstill who took his manager role quite seriously. The powerful Bombers were fighting for the gonfallon and somehow the Comets kept the game close. In the middle innings a Bomber bomber lashed a liner to center where young Greggy took it off his shoetops on the dead run and slid down holding the ball to fire up his club. With the Bombers holding a 3-run lead in the last inning the rag-tag Comets loaded the bases but a sad case named Zalac who had not gotten a hit all year was up. It was on Diamond A by the pool and the stands went bezerk when this hopeless batter swung late and lofted a looper into right field and 3 Comets scampered home. While it ended in an 11-11 tie it was one of the greatest upsets in SGJAA history at that point and handed the championship flag to Ed Carroll's 7-Up Yankees.





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