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Page 10 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2023 “The Old Sachem” Two Baseball Greats By Bill Stewart T his week we lost two baseball greats. Frank Thomas was 93 and Sal Bando was 78. Thomas was born in Pittsburgh on June 11, 1929, and his parents sent him to a Roman Catholic Seminary in Ontario, Canada, because they wanted him to be a priest. He played baseball in Canada and was signed by the Pirates. Thomas was a power hitter for the Pirates in the 1950s. He was an all-star for the National League in 1954, 1955 and 1958, belting 35 home runs and driving in 109 runs for the Pirates, while batting.281. He was often traded during his career: moving to the Cincinnati Reds, the Chicago Cubs and the Milwaukee Braves before he was traded to the Mets in 1961. The Mets at that time were assembling a team to appear in the National League under Casey Stengel — building a franchise for the 1962 year. He was an outfi elder, mostly in left during his career. Under Stengel’s leadership the team set a record of losing 120 games that fi rst season. Thomas set the team record of 34 homers with 94 runs driven in that fi rst season. The record was eventually broken by Dave Kingman in 1975. The Mets played in the Polo Grounds for their fi rst two seasons, and Thomas was prone to pull the ball very often, which upset Casey. Thomas once told a reporter that he was happy to make it to the Big Apple because he expected to make a lot of money between salary and endorsements; outside of salary he made about $2,000. He was traded to the Phillies in 1964. Thomas later played for the Houston Astros and then back to the Braves, then back to the Cubs. He smashed 286 home runs during his career and drove in 962 runs. After his playing time was over, he liked to say that his name is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and it is, only it refers to a later Frank Thomas who made the Hall in 2014. Sal Bando was born in 1944 in Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated from Warrensville Heights High School, where he played baseball, football and basketball and also ran track. His next station was Arizona State University Sun Devils, where “The Old Sachem,” Bill Stewart he became the MVP of the College World Series in 1965 when the Sun Devils won the championship. Drafted by the Kansas City Athletics, he became a captain of the squad at the early age of 25. The team went on to win three consecutive World Series on a team loaded with talent; in addition to Bando it included Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, Catfi sh Hunter, Vida Blue and Joe Rudi. The As beat the “Big Red Machine,” the Cincinnati Reds that had Pete Rose and Johnny Bench in 1972. They beat the Mets in 1973 and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1974. He played third base during his career and missed very few games while with the Athletics, averaging more than 20 home runs and 90 RBIs per season during his time in the majors. Bando was selected to the All-Stars four times, and the Society of American Baseball Research found that between 1969 and 1973 his “wins above replacement” figure (which estimates the total contribution of a player to a hypothetical replacement) was the highest in baseball at the time, beating out Jackson, Rose and Bench. After the 1976 season, Sal Bando became a free agent and signed with the Milwaukee Brewers. He retired after the 1981 season and became a front offi ce administrator in the Brewers organization. He was the General Manager for most of the 1990s. These two contributed much to the game of baseball during their time on the fi eld. (Editor’s Note: Bill Stewart, better known to Saugus Advocate readers as “The Old Sachem,” writes a weekly column about sports — and sometimes he opines on current or historical events or famous people.) ~Letter-to-the-Editor~ Why We Won’t Join “Friends of Breakheart” D ear Editor: We were recently asked to join the Friends of Breakheart Reservation (FOB). We love Breakheart, which is why we wrote a book (actually, the book) about it. However, we will not join because the group’s president, Peter Rossetti, Jr., is in favor of a plan that would destroy 13 acres of forest that were formerly part of Breakheart. These 13 acres are on an elevated part of a 60-acre parcel that the state MDC (now DCR) transferred to Metro Tech in 1965 to build a school. (If you’re asking why a single school needed 60 acres, you’re asking a good question.) The school district built the current Metro Tech on the 30 lower acres, still a generous area for a school. Now that the Metro Tech needs to be rebuilt (few would disagree!), there is plenty of space available within the 30 developed acres. There is no need to destroy a beautiful forest. This forest, up to 60 feet above and to the right (facing the entrance) of the existing Metro Tech parking lot, has been a haven for wildlife, native plants, and hikers for over 50 years. It would also provide a wonderful natural classroom for Metro Tech students, many of whom will need training in natural systems as we move into a greener, more environmentally sustainable future. Just check out the offerings at award-winning Minuteman Tech in Lexington — their Environmental Science & Technology program is attracting students! At a time when we need to do all we can to protect our air and water resources and address climate change, the decision to build a school in the middle of a forest is incomprehensible. What a horrible message to give our kids. It is hard (no, impossible) to understand how someone who considers himself a “Friend of Breakheart” could think that it is okay to destroy the adjoining forest, which is not visually separate from Breakheart. Not only will 13 acres of forest be destroyed, but the downstream wetlands and waterways within Breakheart will become polluted with nitrogen, phosphorus, and chloride (and likely pollutants from vehicle oils, tires, and brakes), which cannot be removed by stormwater fi ltration systems. The stormwater system will also not be designed to handle 25year or 100-year storm events, which are expected to occur more frequently. Seeking exemptions from these basic design requirements means that the project proponents accept environmental degradation as the price of development. Mr. Rossetti has helped organize many activities that benefi t the community, but his position on this school project is the antithesis of FOB’s goal to “preserve and improve” Breakheart Reservation. In addition, it’s curious that Mr. Rossetti supports a project that his own community (Saugus) voted against. How did we end up fi ghting for a forest that many assumed was already protected? The answer is that the elected and appointed officials that ran the process of selecting a site for a new Metro Tech care about getting money from the state, playing fi elds, and access roads, but not a scintilla about the natural environment. They see our forest as a piece of real estate covered by replaceable trees. They know nothing about the beauty and functions of a forest or the reverence that a mature forest deserves, or the increasing rarity of areas not contaminated by urban development. When people voted for the school, did they vote to destroy the forest? Of course, they didn’t, as over 4,300 signatures on an on-line petition demonstrate (available on the “Save the Forest and Build the Voke” Facebook page). The site information was carefully hidden behind the popular question of whether we should build a new school. Now that they have the goahead to build the school, they are trying to control the growing protests against its location. Time to line up the contracts and move forward! The pre-feasibility study, however, rejected site C-3 (the forest) as too costly and diffi - cult to develop and recommended sites C-2 or C-1, each of which has an area equal to C-3 and is in already developed land. Somewhere along the line, the building committee decided to favor site C-3. (See the strong reaction of Wakefield architect Brian Thomson to this decision on the “Save the Forest and Build the Voke” Facebook page.) It appears that the committee kept the change of site close to their vests because they knew there would be resistance to destroying the forest. A strategy emerged of keeping protest to a gentle murmur until the public process was over, the votes counted, and they could declare that “it’s too late to complain.” But these “complaints” are actually pleas to listen to reason. Why would we spend millions of additional dollars on a site that is diffi cult to develop, requires months of blasting and rock-crushing, and that will result in a school with severe accessibility and safety issues (steep and long stairways, high ledges), loss of endangered-species habitat and vernal pools, and potentially destroy Native American sites when there are two alternative sites available? The rising costs of blasting and preparing site C-3 alone should give project proponents pause, but apparently not. Are we sacrificing a forest so that students will not have to use available temporary playing fi elds while the new school is being built? Is it too much to wait until the old school is razed and a new playing fi eld built at that location? When we have a public process where a bad decision cannot be revisited, we have a fundamentally broken system. In this case, the process is working only for the developers and Town leadership who have their eye on a large pot of money and no interest in environmental protection. If this decision holds, citizens of 12 towns will be paying for this mistake for decades to come. So when we were asked whether we would like to join the “Friends of Breakheart,” we cannot do so in good conscience, not as long as its president is in favor of this truly heartbreaking plan. Sincerely, Alison Simcox and Douglas Heath Wakefi eld, MA

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