I wanted to finish my rant on baseball and several other things I mentioned earlier. I was always interested in the Editor’s baseball career, mentioned many times, as well as Candlestick Park, etc.
I left off about our high school baseball team traveling to Hawaii and what a great experience that was. There was much more that Coach Berger did for his teams in those days. One of the really memorable things was each year we took the team to the Bay Area on a Friday, stopping first at the Exploritorium so the kids could see all the really neat stuff there. Then it was on to lunch at Pier 39 after which we hopped on a ferry to Alcatraz. It was funny how the kids would say “Wow, I never want to have to be here.”
After that we went to Piedmont in East Oakland to play their high school in a double header on Saturday. Coach Berger had friends in Piedmont, the Humphries, who arranged for the kids to stay at one of their player’s home on Friday night. Mr. Humphries was also the Piedmont baseball coach and housed all of us coaches. So there was always the back and forth of the competition. Bottom line it was fun and a great experience for the kids. For some just seeing and crossing the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time was something.
I should add that those ten years I was a part of the baseball program were some of the best ever for me. When I earlier said Coach Berger knew little about baseball, I also need to mention he had a longtime friend Billy Pavioni, then in his 70s, to bring his extensive knowledge to the team. Bill was an old timer who played ball in the 40s and 50s with some very good teams from Fort Bragg. Bill brought with him the “inside” game of small ball — bunting, stealing, etc. Berger picked up on that and came up with a play that worked almost every time it was used.
With a man on second and one or no outs a squeeze play (bunt) was called. When the bunt was down the second base runner never stopped at third but kept right on going and almost always scored. Other teams never picked up on that especially teams we had never played before. Overall that time period with Coach Berger and Mr. Pavioni resulted in nine out of ten years as league champions including three California Interscholastic Federation titles the only ones Fort Bragg High School baseball has! While the field at Fort Bragg is named Patton Field, it should be named Berger Park after the person who built the park and turned out to be Fort Bragg’s best baseball coach ever.
Enough baseball! How did Anderson Valley Way get its name?
I have read where you walked along this roadway on a daily basis. But I bet you never knew how it got named. One of my jobs when I worked at the Department of Transportation (DOT) was to keep track of all the county road mileages. When a road was added or deleted from the system the mileages were changed accordingly. There was no board action, no community participation. When the new alignment bypassing the old Highway 128 in that area was abandoned by the state the county took over that old portion of the highway. I added it to our list, but it had to have a name as a name was needed for obvious reasons. But also to identify it for future matching funds from the state for maintenance. So why not Anderson Valley Way? That was my thought and felt it reflected the area.
Another road change was the abandonment of the Old Highway 1 around Point Cabrillo on the coast. Point Cabrillo Drive seemed appropriate, so there it is!
Finally, I want to mention that I spent alot of time during summer vacation from high school stomping wool at my uncle’s ranch at the West end of Anderson Valley. It was and still is considered the “Holmes Ranch.” We would get inside the eight-foot long hanging sacks and as the fleeces were cut from the sheep they were thrown into the sacks, and we had to stomp them down until the sack was very tight. A very messy job, hot, greasy, sheep crap — but what an experience. The ranch was subsequently sold to the Bonanza guys who split it up into 20-acre parcels. It’s sad to see what happend to so many farms and ranches in those days.
Be First to Comment