Chief Nadriczny and Former Teammates to Celebrate 40th Reunion of Darien All-Star Team

Jim Costello, the captain of the Darien baseball team that advanced to the 13-15-year-old Babe Ruth World Series in 1970, was determined to not let another five years pass without getting as many of the old boys back together as possible.
 
Ten of the 14 living members of that club - one is deceased - will gather this weekend at the Piedmont Club in Darien for a 40th anniversary celebration. A formal dinner is planned for Saturday evening.
 
"The Piedmont Club was kind enough to give us a gathering point," said Costello who will be taking a red eye in from California on Thursday night and have free room and board for the weekend at the home of his 87-year-old mother who lives
in the area.
 
The team staged a 25th reunion at the Woodway Country Club in Darien in 1985 and a 30th reunion in 2000 as part of a Darien Old Timers' dinner. However, there was no reunion in 2005 and Costello admitted that "we dropped the ball."
 
As the players got older and started their own families, they scattered to different parts of the country. This weekend, two will be coming from California and others will be traveling from Texas, Michigan, Florida and Baltimore. 
 
One former player who won't have to travel too far is  New Canaan Police Chief Edward Nadriczny. For the out-of-towners, the reunions represent the only chance to see each other and reminisce. 
 
The Darien squad, which won the state and New England titles, was managed by the late Jack Seyferth and coached by the late Al Vasone and Mike Tracy Sr.
 
Other team members were Steve Seyferth, Jim Case, Mike Tracy, Steve Wright, Scott Risola, Tim McAuliffe, Scott Harrington, Jeff Bruno, Steve LaCount, Bill Harford and Bill Zech. Ron Austin has passed away.
 
In the Connecticut state tournament, Darien defeated Ridgefield, Stamford National, Stamford American, Westport, North Haven and Vernon to win the title. Four more wins followed in the New England Regionals in South Burlington, VT, with Darien besting Puerto Rico, 8-55 in the final to punch its ticket to the World Series.
 
"That team was so successful that it spawned a Senior Babe Ruth team  -- formed in Darien in 1971 -- that kind of replaced the American Legion team," Costello said.

The team almost didn't make it to the regionals. Nadriczny recalls the team having to rally from a two-run deficit in the seventh inning against North Haven. Unlike today, when most tournaments use an Olympic pool play format, one loss would
have sent the boys home.
 
"We were down 2-0 in the top of the seventh,"  Nadriczny said.  "We scored two runs and won in the eighth inning, 4-2. That's like building the Great Wall of China in one day."
 
None of the team members went on to a professional sports career, though many played baseball in college and a few received minor league tryouts. One is currently employed by the Chicago Cubs as a scout. 
 
"We weren't overwhelmingly strong in one area," Costello said. "We just had a good nucleus of kids."
 
Costello remembers the constant practices that summer and working out with players anywhere from two to 10 years older.
 
"We did two-a-days, morning and night, throughout the summer," he said. "I don't know how the coaches did it and still managed to hold down jobs."
 
The keynote speaker for the 1970 Babe Ruth World Series banquet in Brawley, California was an actor turned politician by the name of Ronald Reagan, who would go on to become the 40th president of the United States. The players also got to meet
the wife of Babe Ruth.
 
"For a group of boys 13 to 15 years old, actually meeting her was more impressive than meeting Ronald Reagan (then the 
governor of California)," Costello said. "Of course, we didn't know where he was going at the time."
 
Then there was the overbearing heat in Brawley, located 126 miles east of San Diego and just 30 miles north of Mexicali,
Mexico.
 
"We practiced and played games at night because the temperature dropped to 108 degrees," Costello said. "The temperature
was 120 degrees during the day in August."
 
Boasting a 10-0 record in state and New England play, the Darienites won their first game in the World Series with a 2-1
victory over host California, but then fell to Pine Bluff Arkansas, 3-2.
 
After rebounded with an 8-4 victory over Centralia, Wash.,to advance to the semifinals, Darien was eliminated by
eventual champion Ewing Township, N.J., 3-2. The defeat left the squad with a 2-2 record in the World Series.
 
"The two games we lost were by one run," Costello said. "We went out there on the strength of two pitchers. That was a
lot to ask. Back then, there were no pitch counts. You just kept going."
 
For Nadriczny, the trip to California marked the first time he had ever been on an airplane. 
 
"When we lost it was like the floor dropped out of our world,"  he said.  "Over the years we've realized our coaches weren't coaching
us about baseball but about teamwork." 

After returning home, the team was honored by the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, where it got to shake hands with
Baltimore Orioles third baseman and future Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson.
 
Nadriczny suspects that his trophy might be tucked away in a box in his mother's attic.

"There are a lot of trophies, for road races, golf tournaments," he said.  "That one was special but, boy, it was a long time ago."

A long time, to be sure, but the memories will never fade.