The first portion of this series covered the incorporation of the Village of Cambridge on 16-Apr-1866. Now we’re covering some major, subsequent steps along our village’s 150-year history. This week I’ll cover a hodgepodge of interesting events from our past.
Cambridge Stars, 1867
On 29-Jun-1867 the Stars Baseball Club played its first game, one in which they defeated the Greenwich Artic Baseball Club by a score of 177-43. That’s right, 177 runs and the game only lasted 2 hours and 50 minutes. They started slowly with only 3 runs in the first inning, but ended strong with 17 runs in the 8th and 30 runs in the 9th.
On 12-Sep-1867 they defeated Fort Edward by scoring 100 runs, 35 in the 8th inning, in a game lasting only 2 hours and 20 minutes. Their last game of their inaugural season was played on 5-Nov-1867.
The next season was just as exciting as on 12-Aug-1868 the Stars defeated a team from Troy 100-38. On 30-Oct they set a team record by scoring 50 runs in a single inning.
Besides the players listed in the photo, other Stars included McNitt, Sanderson, Green, Rice, Berry, Sanford, Hurley, Ryan, and Shiland. James Aiken, who lived on West Main in what is today the funeral parlor, was once scorekeeper.
CCS Baseball, 1953, 1957, 1971
All my life, I’ve heard of the baseball exploits of pitcher Tony Cristaldi (CCS ’53). In 1952 CCS won the League championship with a record of 10-0 and again in 1953 with a record of 9-1. From what I can determine Tony was the winning pitcher in every game.
Those great baseball teams included from the CCS class of 1952: Lindy Strout, Bob Dering, Bob Wocell, Maurice Santerre, Tommy Bell, Howie Andrews, and Frank Pemrick. Besides the players in the photo, the 1953-54 teams included Bob Wright, Tom Dempsey, Ken Luke, Tom Buckley, and Bill Higgins.
In 1971 the CCS baseball team went 14-1 to win the League championship. The newspaper compared that team of Doug and Steve Luke, Brian Young, Matt Durrin, Clark McLenithan, Tim Flynn, Bob Brown, Larry Bentley, Mark Madison, Rich Moses, Doug Dumas, Robbie Bell, Mike Brown, and Keith Headwell to the great teams of 52-53 and 57-59. The CCS group from 1957-59 seems to have won a ton of games in every sport with players such as Don and Dick Record, Bobby Shay, LeRoy Anderson, Jim Lull, Dick Wulff, Al Keiski, Joe O’Malley, Donny Vitello, John Ueblacker.
Local Baseball Bet
In 1954 Mayor Charles Ackley and the Rev Jack Wells made an agreement that, if the NY Giants (Willie Mays) beat the Brooklyn Dodgers (Duke Snider), they would push Ray Luke across Main Street in a wheelbarrow at high noon before the first world series game.
The Giants won the NL pennant by 5 games over the Dodgers. Funeral Director, O.K. Spurr, draped a wheelbarrow in black and provided pall bearers carrying a sign that read “Dodgers Buried at High Noon”. At the appointed hour, all participants were on hand, and Ray enjoyed a fast trip from the Cambridge Diner to the West End of town, proudly waving his placard.
Shot Heard Round the World
On April 19, 1775 at Lexington, British Major John Pitcairn fired the Shot Heard Round the World and the American Revolutionary War had begun. Later, the pistols were captured and went to American General Israel Putnam.
The pistols were passed to Putnam’s grandson, John Pope Putnam. In 1812 Putnam opened his law practice in Cambridge, and a year later married Elizabeth Dorr, daughter of Dr Jonathan Dorr.
The Pitcairn Pistols were located in Putnam’s home on South Park Street (behind what is today Stewart) at the time of his death. In 1875, his widow lent the pistols to Lexington for the Centennial Celebration. In 1879 Mrs. Putnam donated the pistols to Lexington, where they are now on display at the Lexington Historical Society.
James Bond and Cambridge
At the east end of Ash Grove is Black Hole Hollow Farm. During the 1950s and 1960s it was one of many homes owned around the world by the Bryce family. Mrs Bryce was the granddaughter of the founder of the Great American & Pacific Tea Company (better known as the A&P). That’s why Cambridge got one of the first newly designed grocery stores.
Ivar Bryce was related to the Mountbatten family, cousins to the British royal family. He attended Eton College with Ian Fleming. They served together in British Intelligence during World War II.
On the NW corner of Bates Road and Ash Grove Road, just before you get to Black Hole Hollow lived Ernest Cuneo. He worked at the Washington Post and, like many newspaper people during the war, was a spy. He served as an officer in the OSS (precursor of the CIA) acting as the liaison between British Intelligence, the OSS, and the FBI. The British even gave Cuneo his own secret spy name, Crusader.
Cuneo provided Fleming with the storyline for two James Bond novels: Goldfinger and Thunderball. Another Bond story, Casino Royale, was based on the road trip to Las Vegas by Bryce, Cuneo, and Fleming.
Fleming set one of his stories, the hideaway of Van Hammerstein on For Your Eyes Only, against the background of Black Hole Hollow farm.