Alan Greenwood

The Nashua High baseball team wanted more folks turning out at Holman Stadium in the spring of 1945. Or, at least, that was a sincere wish for the folks who oversee the city’s coffers.

APRIL 14, 1945 – “Baseball receipts last spring were $115.19 against expenses of $976.69, leaving a deficit of $861.50 according to the official statement released by the athletic committee of the Board of Education.

“Best money makers were the first two games of the schedule, against St. Joseph’s and Central, which brought in $41.70 and $42.50.

“Large items of expenditure were: Equipment, $245.72; transportation, $70; and coaches, $450.”

April 14, 1950: Telegraph sports editor Frank Stawasz teed off on the city’s failure to provide a bona fide facility for the high school track team, instead using Holman Stadium in a makeshift fashion.

“Nashua’s much-maligned trackmen have, at long last, a quarter-mile track. True, it’s not much of a track. Just a chalked oval within the four walls of Holman Stadium. It has no cinder carpet, just plain, ordinary turf. But it does have one advantage. It’s exactly one mile on the inside of the chalk circle, accurately laid out by the men of Duke Maynard’s engineer’s office.

“… Personally, I think the city can do better by its youth. … Early spring is not the time for young men with cleated and spiked shoes to be prancing upon a turf that is just awakening from the winter’s slumber and which needs extensive repairs to erase the scars of the previous year’s football campaign.”

This may have been the first shot over Nashua’s need for a track and field facility, which lingered for

decades.

APRIL 14, 1955 – “Nashua High’s 1955 baseball candidates continue to go through routine hitting, running and fielding plays today as the first week of preseason drills swings into high gear.

“Working around the nucleus of veterans who are in togs for another season of action, coach Buzz Harvey reports that weaknesses have developed in some positions. Candidates are currently battling for the first base post vacated by Roger Simpson, as well as the second base post, with John Narkunas and John Daniels as principals is also looming. At the hot corner, Sam Pavlopoulos and Roland Poliquin are the leading contenders. Veteran Porky Landry probably will hold down the shortstop position.”

It feels safe to say that very few shortstops in the history of the game have been nicknamed Porky.

Contact Alan Greenwood at 594-1248 or agreenwood@nashuatelegraph.com.

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