Remick Farm Journal


Spring 2012


www.remicksmuseum.org


Remembering the Tamworth Tigers T


he Tamworth Tigers were a semi- professional baseball team that


formed in the early 1920s. They played throughout New England, and two members, Roland “Boley” Currier and Dana Steele, were scouted and offered tryouts for the major leagues. The team broke up when World War II arrived and reformed in 1958, playing until at least 1974. The original Tigers included three sets


of brothers: Everett and Frank Bunker, Lincoln and Dana Steele, and Wadsworth and Earle Remick and their half-brother Ned Johnson. Our own Dr. Remick (the younger) played for them as well. Bob Ward had this to say about one of the fields upon which the Tigers played:


For a diamond with worse hazards than a golf course, the field . . . was a real chal- lenge. If a player could figure how many bounces a grounder would take, which direction it would go in a split second or whether it would ever get to him eventu- ally, he had it made. The episodes were great fun if you were not in a serious mood. For the fans, they were a comedy and well worth the price of admission. To make it even more interesting for the players, Will Pascoe grazed his cows there, too.


The bleachers, pardon the term, were a piece of first-cut boards on which you sat with the utmost care and no squirming or else. . . .


Dick Stearns, son of Aldo and Postmaster


of Tamworth, in 1975 recalled watching Boley Currier “hit a ball over a pine tree in


center field at Bartlett that was at least four hundred feet from home plate to the base of the tree.” Regarding other players, he remembered his father and Everett Bunker as “very consistent line drive hitters,” while Everett’s brother Frank “was a long-ball hitter and broke up many a ball game for Tamworth to win.” Dana Steele “was a fine fielding third baseman and an excep- tional hitter.” Lincoln “Linc” Steele “was the catcher and always came through with a timely hit when needed.” One thing he always remembered about Linc was that “he wanted to practice most any night to be exceptionally sharp for the next game.”


As for the other team members:


Ned Johnson was a fine pitcher and when not pitching played first base. Earle and Wadsworth Remick were infielders and also good hitters. Paul Twitchell was one of the finest fielding shortstops for miles around. The pitching was excellent with Boley Currier’s tremendous speed, Aldo Stearn’s curves and change of pace, and Ned Johnson’s fork ball. When [an opposing team member] hit Ned’s fork ball, it sounded like a pumpkin and would be popped up for an easy out.


3


He remembered one game in particular:


Wolfeboro hired a professional pitcher by the name of Steve White to pitch for them against the Tigers. The game went sixteen innings. Aldo Stearns pitched eight innings, Boley Currier pitched eight innings, and Tamworth won 1-0.


Finally, Dick had this to say about


Edwin Remick: “Our current town doctor, a very fast center fielder, in fact a track man—fastest man on the team.” One of the founding members not pictured


here, Ernest Angell, was mentioned by his son Roger in a 1992 article for The New Yorker. Not long after a disappointing road loss against a Canadian team, Ernest left Tamworth, but returned for a visit in his seventies.


He found the Remick Bros. General Store still in business, and when he went in, the man at the counter, behind the post- cards and the little birchbark canoes, was Wadsworth Remick. There were no signs of recognition, however, and my old man, perhaps uncomfortable in the role of visiting big-city slicker, didn’t press the matter. He bought a pack of gum or something, and was just going out the door when he heard, “Played any first base lately, Ernest?”


Edwin Remick’s uniform


Tamworth Tigers circa 1929 (back row, left to right): Aldo Stearns, Roland “Boley” Currier, Dana Steele, Ned Johnson, Frank Bunker, Earle Remick, (front row, left to right): Everett Bunker, Lincoln “Linc” Steele, Wadsworth Remick.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8