1949 No-Hit Ball Arrives at School Heritage Museum
A baseball recently arrived at the Huntington School Heritage Museum with faded names etched upon it. Some had disappeared into obscurity while others stood out bold and fresh. This wasn’t any ordinary ball. It was used by Jim Conroy 58 years ago to hurl himself into Suffolk high school immortality.
Mr. Conroy was the ace of the 1949 Huntington High School team. As a young man he used that ball to fire what baseball aficionados call a “no-no.” A no-hit, no run gem. On that late May day only four Bay Shore batters reached base and only two balls left the infield. The lefty mowed down 10 with a blistering fast ball in a 6-0 Blue Devil victory.
Known as “Ace,” Mr. Conroy had come excruciatingly close to a no-hitter several times that season, but fell just short. Against Bay Shore, the Blue Devils pushed across two runs in the first inning under ominous skies that threatened to unleash a torrent of rain. Two more runs came across in the third inning and another in the fifth. In the seventh, John Howell singled, stole second, went to third on an error and scored the final run when John Hamilton hit into a fielder’s choice, grounding out to the shortstop.
Today Mr. Conroy is not so youthful anymore. He’s celebrated his 75th birthday and lives Conway, South Carolina, but the connection to the school he graduated from in 1949 is still there, and for good reason. He won 10 games on the mound as a senior to help lift the Blue Devils to the county title and he developed some lasting friendships.
“Golf has been my game for the last 50 or so years,” Mr. Conroy said in a letter to Jack Abrams, curator of the School Heritage Museum. Along with the game ball was a photo of that splendid Blue Devil team, wearing its crisp white uniforms while posing in a set of bleachers in Heckscher Park, site of Huntington’s home field in those days.
The ball and photo are the last mementos in Mr. Conroy’s possession from his high school career. “That’s all I have left, my other baseball stuff is from college, the minor leagues and the U.S. Army,” he said.
Although several names have faded on the ball and are no long legible, others remain including the team’s coach, William Class and players Billy Class, Frank Roschnotti, Bill Hartman, Charlie Johnson, Joe Williams, Charlie Modjewleskie, Bob Buttner and John Howell. “The rest are too far gone,” Mr. Conroy said.
The historic ball’s journey to the School Heritage Museum began in 2006. “During a phone call with Joe Dionne (Huntington ’51) about a year ago, I asked him if what used to be Huntington High School had any sort of a memorabilia room for past athletic teams,” Mr. Conroy wrote in a June letter to Mr. Abrams. “He said you were putting one together.” (Mr. Dionne is the retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the McGraw-Hill Companies. He, too, was a member of the 1949 county championship baseball squad.)
Actually, the Museum has been in existence for about two decades and it is housed at the current Huntington High School located at the intersection of Oakwood and McKay Roads, not the former high school site on Main Street that is now used as Town Hall.
The no-hit ball and photo will be on display this fall. Those wishing to donate Huntington school related items to the School Heritage Museum should call Mr. Abrams at 673-2048 to make arrangements.
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