It was the Brooklyn Dodgers that inspired Noyac resident Gerry Hamel to pursue his childhood passion of baseball, but it is with the Boston College Eagles that he will always be remembered.
On Saturday, October 31 Hamel, a collegiate baseball star and summertime Sag Harbor resident since 1946, was inducted into the Boston College Varsity Club along with seven other athletes. The induction took place at the halftime ceremony during a Boston College football game as part of a weekend of celebration in honor of the athletes. Hamel joins sports luminaries Doug Flutie, Steve De Ossie, Bob Cousy and Frank Leahy, to name a few of the all-star athletes the college has graced with such an honor.
Hamel grew up in Brooklyn rooting for the Dodgers, but spent every summer in Sag Harbor, where the 70-year-old learned to play baseball at Mashashimuet Park and behind the old Noyac School House in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
“I used to ride my bike from Millstone Road to the park with my dog Mickey, and would you believe it, only one car would pass us on our way,” said Hamel.
Hamel played on the 1954 Sag Harbor Lions championship baseball team and was named an All-Star for the East End Babe Ruth League Suffolk County champions.
“We beat Carl [Yastremski] in 1954,” remembered Hamel. Other local teammates of Hamels included Paul Schiavoni, Denny and Eddie Early, Jimmy Lattanzio, Billy Stravropoulos and Merritt White.
“His father was a better baseball player than he was,” remembered Hamel of Yastremski. “When Carl was signed by the Red Sox his father used to go to spring training and play in the games and his father was so good, the scouts used to joke that they signed the wrong Yastremski.”
At 16, Hamel played for the local team, the Sag Harbor Whalers as one of its youngest players, continuing his love for the game during the school year at Wantagh High School and was named an All-Scholastic and Most Valuable Player for the Nassau County High School League in 1957. Hamel has already been inducted into the Wantagh High School Baseball Hall of Fame.
“My father wanted me to be the first in the family to go to college and the Dodgers had visited us and the Milwaukee Braves had visited us, but he said, ‘No, you are going to college’,” said Hamel.
His father turned down Yale, wanting his son to attend a Catholic college and after being turned down by Georgetown University, he ultimately decided on Boston College after flipping a coin.
Hamel was a three-year starter for the Boston College Eagles, batting third and playing right field. He led the team in RBIs twice and in runs scored once, and earned the Greater Boston League all-star honors twice and MCAA Tournament all-star honors in 1961. The Eagles went to consecutive College World Series, in 1960 and 1961, during Hamel’s collegiate career.
Hamel said over the weekend, 22 of 25 surviving members of that team attended the weekend festivities.
“There are only 100 of us inducted into the sports hall of fame,” said Hamel. “Fourteen of them are baseball players, 11 off that team alone.”
All of those players signed professional contracts with Major League baseball, including Hamel who signed with the San Francisco Giants in 1961 before retiring from baseball in 1962.
A retired college professor in business management, now Hamel lives full time in Noyac with his wife Mary Jane. The couple had four children, including son Jay, who owns Murf’s Tavern on Division Street in the village. Jay joined the couple’s other children – Liz, Suzanne and Tricia – at the weekend ceremony, which Hamel said is something he will never forget.
“I am 70 years old, and let me tell you, this just turned my life around,” said Hamel. “Life is good. I am exhilarated.”
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