As a former high school and college quarterback, Babe Ruth League Inc. commissioner Robert Faherty couldn’t help but use a football analogy Saturday night when describing the special relationship between his organization and the city of Jamestown.
“An old high school coach [told me], ‘You go to the well until the well runs dry,’” he said.
In other words, run the play until someone can stop it.
In Babe Ruth League’s eyes – and Faherty’s, in particular – nobody executes better than the Jamestown Babe Ruth World Series Committee. To that end, host president Russell E. Diethrick Jr. and his board of directors entered into a contract that will bring the 13-year-old tournament to Jamestown in 2008.
The agreement, which was signed following a dinner at the Holiday Inn, marks the 14th time that the city has been awarded a World Series since its inaugural tournament in 1980.
“Not only does this not get old, they get better,” Faherty said. “The Jamestown community gets more enthused as they rack up success.”
Faherty, who works out of BRL’s corporate headquarters in Trenton, N.J., explained that he called Diethrick earlier this year and asked when a World Series could return to Jamestown.
“That’s a great comfort for Babe Ruth to know we can come to Jamestown when we need to,” Faherty said.
The local committee hosted World Series in 1980, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003 and 2005, but apparently has no designs on taking much of a break in the future.
“It’s a thrill to know that they’ll pick up the telephone when they’re looking for a site and have Jamestown on their mind, and we’re able to react to that,” Diethrick said.
Being able to react positively in all ways has put Jamestown on the map not only for 10 days in August, but also as it relates to teaching other communities how to run successful tournaments.
Representatives from Murray, Utah; LaPorte, Ind.; Appleton, Wisc.; and Glen Allen, Va.; completed a two-day stay in Jamestown during which they attended a World Series training center conducted by the local committee.
It was the first time Jamestown had hosted such an event since 1998.
“I knew I had some real good groups that could benefit from what Jamestown had to offer,” Faherty said. “I was very pleased that we were able to do this. We just put four sites on the road to being successful by being here. My feeling here is as long as Russ will have us, we’d like to keep coming back.”
Added Diethrick: “I had one of the (out-of-town) folks tell me today that they’re going to go back home now and make some adjustments on what they were planning on doing. I told them that’s why the training center was created.”
In some respects, Diethrick and his veteran committee has already earned a save.
When it was mentioned to Faherty that Jamestown’s “Mr. Baseball,” could be compared favorably to Mariano Rivera’s ability to come out of the bullpen and make the figurative “save,” he smiled.
“By bringing groups in here and challenging them to take those ideas and really letting them come to some conclusion of (how to run) better World Series, we’re benefiting all over the country, but I also think Jamestown gets stronger.”
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