Advertisemenperfection: 60 Years Later, Liberty's 1961 Baseball Team
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ADVERTISEMENPerfection: 60 years later, Liberty’s 1961 baseball team remembers the school’s finest season Keith Groller Members of Liberty High School's 1961 District 11 championship baseball team include, from left, Bob Muschlitz, Nat Gencarelli, Tom Kelly, Mike Kashner, Bob Zerfass, Norm Koch, Fred McGuiney, and Don Rodenbach. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call) Nat “Junior” Gencarelli insists the record was 18-0. Several of his teammates argue it was 17-0, a fact backed up by Liberty High School’s yearbook. 17-0, 18-0, it doesn’t matter. No one could dispute the excellence of the 1961 Hurricanes baseball team. The talented squad was undefeated en route to a District 11 championship. And 60 years later, the memories bring smiles and pride to those who played together. Many of the teammates gathered recently at the school’s baseball field. And while many things have changed over the years, the team’s camaraderie and chemistry hasn’t been affected by the passage of time. It remains a tight-knit group that can pick right up from where it left off in the spring season that came shortly after the inauguration of John F. Kennedy as president. Former Liberty pitchers Norm Koch, foreground, and Bob Zerfass show their grips on the baseball. Members of the Hurricanes' 1961 District 11 championship team met to talk about that season 60 years later. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call) That’s why Gencarelli’s insistence of an 18-0 season (when everyone said it was 17-0) was met with laughs rather than consternation. “OK, Junior, whatever you say,” said teammate Don Rodenbach. The school yearbook reveals a team’s dominance. In the same year that Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris would stage their remarkable home run race to top Babe Ruth, the Hurricanes pounded the baseball as well, scoring seven runs or more eight times. They enjoyed wins of 13-4 and 12-4 over rivals Easton and Phillipsburg in the regular season and beat the Red Rovers, Stateliners, Allentown Central Catholic, Allen, Notre Dame-Green Pond, Reading and Dieruff twice apiece. The Hurricanes then posted lopsided 9-0 and 13-5 wins over Catasauqua and Pen Argyl in the District 11 tournament before edging Ringtown 1-0 for the championship. Back then, there was no state tournament so being district champs was the highest attainable honor. “We look back now and think we could have done so much more, but at that time the end was District 11 and that was it,” said Bob Zerfass, who has remained involved with local baseball for 60 years after his graduation and is still managing a team in the Blue Mountain League. Does it rank as one of the best teams in local high school baseball history? Shown is a 1961 Liberty High School yearbook page. The Hurricanes' 1961 District 11 championship baseball team met to talk about that season 60 years later at the high school. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call) “I don’t think anybody is going to go 17-0 again,” Zerfass said. “I was talking with Andy Pitsilos [the current Liberty coach] and we talked about how difficult it is to go undefeated in high school. You play into the state playoffs and you’re going to pick up a loss somewhere.” The 1997 Catasauqua squad, the lone Lehigh Valley scholastic baseball team to win a PIAA title, went 25-4 and lost to Southern Lehigh in the Colonial League championship game. The ‘61 Hurricanes, with players now in their late 70s, don’t dwell in their place in local baseball history. They prefer to just think about all the good times they had. “1961 was truly happy days if you remember the TV show with that name,” Gencarelli said. “That’s how I remember that year. We had a great time and baseball was an important part of our lives.” Gencarelli, who later became Liberty’s athletic director, said the team’s greatness began in the pitching mound. “Pitching is so important and we had two of the best with Norm Koch and Bob Zerfass,” Gencarelli said. “Mike Kashner also could pitch. It was a great pitching staff, but we were also very good at defense. We were trained in fundamentals.” “We played a lot of playground baseball before we ever got to this team,” Rodenbach said. “We had so many games, so many hours together before we ever got to this team.” Tom Kelly agreed, saying: “It was a different atmosphere back then. The community was totally behind us and you look at the facilities we had at Liberty. No other high school had the football stadium we had or the gym we had at Liberty.” But more than the venues, the team thrived on its friendship. Members of Liberty High School's 1961 District 11 championship baseball team include, from left, Norm Koch, Bob Muschlitz, Nat Gencarelli, Tom Kelly, Mike Kashner, Don Rodenbach, Fred McGuiney and Bob Zerfass. (April Gamiz/The Morning Call) “We grew up together,” Kelly said. “We played little league at North Central, [and played] Babe Ruth ball together. And the playgrounds were more active back then and we were always playing pickup games.” While many of the athletes played multiple sports, Kelly said the biggest challenge was just making a Liberty varsity squad because it was the biggest school in the area after the Allentown School District was split into two schools with the opening of Dieruff in the fall of 1959. Freedom didn’t open until 1967. “My mother collected newspaper articles and one of them said that 90 kids tried out for this team and we only kept 20 or 25,” Rodenbach said. “It was tough to make any team. People ask me all the time what was the biggest thrill in my career and I would say just making a team at Liberty High School.” Rodenbach said Liberty’s athletic program was excellent that year. “I’d love to have another year like 1961 when the soccer team I was on went 10-0 and the basketball team was 22-1 ... and only lost to Pete Carril and Reading in the first round of states. And this team went 17-0,” said Rodenbach, who set an East Penn League and school scoring record with 59 points in a game. That’s why just making the cut was special. “That’s why sitting the bench didn’t matter to me,” said Fred McGuiney. “I got into some games, but just to know I made the team was an honor.” Being on the bench gave McGuiney a front-row seat to the fabulous career of Koch, who would go on to reach the Triple-A level of the Dodgers organization before a shoulder injury ended what looked to be a certain career in the big leagues. “I had a major league contract for two years and I was playing with guys like [Ron] Perranoski, [Johnny] Podres, [Sandy] Koufax, [Don] [Drysdale], Maury Wills, I played with all of them,” Koch said. “For a young kid, it was a thrill. But this was one of the greatest teams I’ve ever played on. I got a lot of accolades because of my wins and losses, but I wouldn’t have those wins without these guys. You need fielders to field the ball, and these guys did a great job with that.” Zerfass disagreed with Koch. “In most cases, pitchers need fielders to field, but in Norm’s case you really didn’t many fielders,” Zerfass said. “It’s a fact. I’m not embellishing anything. I played shortstop in a night game against Easton at Cottingham Stadium and I could have taken a lawn chair out there and just watched the game because Norm struck out 25 of 27. I was just happy to be there.” Zerfass credited the team’s coach, Bernie Fritz, for getting him into Moravian College, which led to a teaching career. “I basically owe my whole, entire career to Bernie Fritz,” Zerfass said. “They didn’t think I was prepared for college, and they frankly didn’t think I’d make it, but the director of admissions told me that because of Mr. Fritz’s influence they were going to give me a chance.” Fritz won 287 games between 1960 and 1983. It was the school record until Pitsilos topped him this year. “Bernie won the East Penn League title in his first two years with us,” Rodenbach said. “I never thought coaching was important when I was a player. I’ve since learned otherwise as an adult. I now know what coaching can mean and I’ve had bad coaches ... but Bernie was a good one.” “Bernie definitely knew his ABCs because he’d yell out ‘Buddy’ if he wanted you to bunt and ‘Harry Romeo’ for the hit and run,” McGuiney said. “Bernie also bought us a 42-inch bat out of his own money and when he wanted us to steal, we’d lay that bat out there and we would move the catcher toward the backstop because he’d have to throw it much farther to second base,” Gencarelli said. Fritz’s tactics drew laughter, but through his emphasis on fundamentals, he was also to command respect. It was all a part of a special era for the Lehigh Valley, for Bethlehem, and local baseball. “It was a much simpler time,” Kashner said. “We’d wear our varsity sweaters and go play miniature golf. That was a big thing. Or we’d go to the Hi Spot dances at the Bethlehem YMCA or Notre Dame bandstand.