Tom King

Jim Gorham, in his first year as the Campbell High School head baseball coach – in fact the program’s first year – saw his team get no-hit in its first game – and three-hit in another game.

So he figured it was time to show them how to hit. First pitch, he whiffed. Kids chuckled.

Second pitch: over the fence.

“I got their attention,” Gorham said.

Yes, Jim Gorham sure did. In case you missed it, a couple of weeks ago another local baseball coaching icon left us, as Gorham passed away after battling some medical complications for the better part of six months.

Had his coaching career been in Nashua, Gorham would have been deemed as legendary. He was his school’s first varsity baseball coach, and in a 17-year career won five Class M/Division III championships. But he was the head coach at Campbell, a smaller local school tucked away in the woods of Litchfield and competing mainly against schools way out of the area. And, in many sports, competing very successfully, we might add. Baseball included, thanks to Gorham.

His career ended as it should – on top in what was a classic comeback in the Division III title game on a hot June Saturday in 2017. The Cougars were trailing 5-3 going into the bottom of the 10th after sending the game to extras earlier. Two outs, nobody on: triple, wild pitch (5-4), single, two walks, ground ball error as two runners crossed the plate. It was named the Telegraph’s Game of the Decade.

As Gorham said right after the game, “One in a million.”

That’s what Gorham was. A guy who had no varsity baseball experience but had success with youth teams in Hawaii, of all places.

“As far as the coaching, he knew how he wanted to do things and he stuck to it,” his good friend who coached with Gorham on the staff at Swampscott (Mass.) High School Paul Halloran said. “He did not deviate. He was a small ball guy, National League type manager. And he was exceptional about scouting and having his teams prepared. … I think those kids going into games knew as much about the other team as the other team knew (about themselves).”

But it was the things that surrounded the baseball that vaulted Gorham above the rest. He was an old school coach, and tried his best to teach life lessons as well as baseball.

“I’m old school,” Gorham once said to yours truly. “One of my players once said to me, ‘My father says I’m probably going to like you, because you’re not politically correct.’ I told him, ‘You go home and tell him that’s the best description anyone has ever had of me.’

“I was brought up to say what’s on your mind, as long as you don’t insult anyone.”

Classic Jim Gorham. You see, as Halloran mentioned, Gorham was old school but also a players’ coach. Many embraced the lessons he taught, and those who didn’t usually realized they had made a mistake as they got older.

A sign of just how he was appreciated by many who put on the Cougar uniform was the number of former players who would come back to help him out coaching, or come to see his games.

The administration usually had his back. If they didn’t, he would’ve been out of there in a flash, not needing the headache.

Jim Gorham made tough decisions. He let a talented player here or there go when they violated the rules, and never regretted it. What he’d regret was the fact the kid didn’t make the right decision in the first place.

“I still think (the old school ways) work, if it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “If you’re not doing the right thing, you’re going to lose the respect of the kids in the long run. And if you lose their respect, you’re in trouble.”

He never did. But the one thing that nagged at yours truly a bit was when Gorham hung them up, the school, at least visibly or to this scribe’s knowledge never really did much to acknowledge him. A big night in his honor, etc. He deserved better. Perhaps something could be done – name the field after him, with a plaque? After all, he was Campbell baseball.

We missed Gorham after he left coaching. A season preview phone call would last at least an hour, talking about anything. Life, sports, it was all the same to him.

Believe it, Gorham is missed in Campbell baseball circles because they simply have not found anyone to really replace him. No one has lasted more than a year; last year’s coach, Chris Metz, was hired away last fall at Souhegan after the very curious dismissal of former Saber mentor Tom Walker. Walker ironically had replaced the area’s ultimate baseball legend, Bill Dod.

Here’s the bottom line: Jim Gorham simply got it. And he did his best to make sure his players got it, too.

That, friends, is what coaching kids is all about. It’s what Jim Gorham was all about.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.