PORTLAND, Maine – The Maine Baseball Hall of Fame will increase it membership by 13 at its annual induction ceremony and banquet at the Holiday Inn by the Bay.
Hubert “Billy” Shaw and Ron Staples, both of Presque Isle, will be inducted posthumously at the July 25 ceremony.
Other inductees include Jeff Paul of Orrington, Patrick Sockabasin of Old Town, Clayton Sockabasin of Princeton, Leonardo “Leon” Buck of Bath, Charles “Marty” Roop of Lisbon Falls, Kevin Joyce of Standish, Pat Feury of South Portland, George Ferguson of Sabattus, Gary Dube of Gorham and Tim Curley of Sanford will be the newest members. Norman White of Dover-Foxcroft will also be inducted posthumously.
An outstanding student athlete at Presque Isle High School, Shaw was born January 23, 1916 and his parents were Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Shaw. He graduated from Gouldville School before entering Presque Isle High School, where he was an active member of the student body, including membership in the band, orchestra, glee club, debate team and student council. He ended up as his class valedictorian.
He participated in track and football for two years, but he was outstanding in baseball, playing an excellent defensive second base as well as the team’s offensive catalyst, developing a reputation as a dangerous and timely hitter.
Shaw, along with Hal Cheney, Verdelle Clark and his brother, Walter Shaw, led the Wildcats to the Aroostook League Baseball Championship with a 9-1 record. He continued his outstanding baseball play in the Junior American Legion Baseball League, performing for the Presque Isle Midgets. The team was built around Shaw and Jack Goldstone, with Shaw dividing his time between first base and the pitcher’s mound.
At the conclusion of his senior year he competed, through a competitive exam process for the $500 Maine Scholarship offered by Bowdoin College. The state was divided into eight regions and Shaw was the winner for the Aroostook Region.
Shaw entered Bowdoin College in the fall of 1932. While there, he played halfback on the football team for two years and was a four-year member of the baseball team, serving as captain his senior year. He figured prominently in leading Bowdoin to Maine’s intercollegiate baseball championship. During the summers of his college years, he played for the Presque Isle Indians in the semi-pro Aroostook League.
He was rewarded for his excellent play by being selected as one of the players in the state to play against the Boston Red Sox in Bangor in June, 1935 and was also one of the Aroostook All-Stars that played against the Boston Braves the same summer in Houlton. He and teammate Hal Cheney played like seasoned veterans against the two professional teams. During his four years with the Presque Isle semi-pro team, Shaw had a career batting average of well over .300 and was selected to the Aroostook League All-Star team four times.
In the summer of 1936, following his graduation from Bowdoin, Shaw and Clarence Keegan of Robinson were invited to Baltimore to try out for the U.S. Olympic team. Amateur baseball stars from all sections of the country invaded Baltimore for the final tryouts. Selected players would represent the United States in the Amateur Baseball Olympic demonstration games in Berlin, Germany. After the Olympic games, the team then traveled to Holland, Belgium, Paris and London for exhibition games. When tryouts were concluded, Linn S. Wills, Maine representative for the United States Amateur Baseball Congress, announced that both Shaw and Keegan had been selected to the U.S. Olympic team. Keegan played at third base and Shaw manned the first base bag. Fourteen players were selected from this group. They then traveled to New York, where they were joined by another five players who were affiliated with Philadelphia’s Penn Athletic Club. The team embarked on the SS Manhattan on Wednesday, July 15.
On Aug. 12, 1936, the largest crowd ever to see a baseball game in Europe or the United States, 100,000, jammed the Olympic Stadium to watch two American amateur teams play a demonstration game. The two teams were named the “World Champions” and the “U.S. Olympics.” The left-hand hitting Shaw batting third, had the honor of hitting the first home run in Olympic play. He struck for an inside-the-park homer with a man on base in the first inning of the game, giving the U.S.A. Olympics the early 2-0 lead in a game which the “Olympics” eventually lost 6-5.
Shaw returned home from Olympics play in late August, 1936, arriving in New York on the U.S. Roosevelt. Upon arriving home he immediately joined his Presque Isle Indian teammates for a game against the Danforth A. A. whom they defeated with Shaw collecting two hits, including a double. A “Bill Shaw Day” was planned to welcome home the local Olympic hero.
Shaw then entered Harvard University and received a Master of Arts Degree in Biology in 1937. That fall, he accepted a teaching position at St. Albans School in Washington D.C., where he taught chemistry and biology and also coached football and baseball. The chemistry laboratory at St. Albans School was dedicated in his name several years ago.
Shaw played semi-pro baseball for St. Albans of the Northern League in Vermont during 1937 season. The league developed many players who went on to play in the major leagues. He finished the 1937 season 17th in the league with a .326 batting average, was eighth in the league with a .415 slugging percentage, third in fielding average at .987 and played in all 59 games. He led the team in fielding, hitting and total bases. He signed to play with St. Albans again for the 1938 season and had a .271 batting average with 26 RBIs and displayed his usual outstanding defense at first base.
During the summer of 1939, he married Eleanor French of Somerville, Mass.. and while playing for the Lancaster Pilots of the Twin State League, sustained a separated shoulder which essentially ended his semi-professional baseball career. He did play in 45 games that summer finishing the season with a .213 average. His .988 fielding average placed him third in the league in fielding.
After a two-plus year stint in the U.S. Navy, he returned to St. Albans to teach. In 1947, he accepted a position at Bowdoin College as the Assistant Director of Admissions and he became the Director of Admissions two years later. He served in that position until 1967, when he retired from Bowdoin.
Shaw held positions as the Chief of Policy and Regulations for Federal Student Aid Programs in the Department of Education and later served in the Bureau of Student Financial Aid in the Department of Education in Washington, DC until his retirement in January of 1982. Shaw died on July 13, 1985.
Baseball for Ron Staples started in Presque Isle, as a catcher for the Presque Isle High School Wildcats. He lettered four years there, played summers for the local American Legion team, and when the semi-pro Presque Isle Indians learned what he could do with a baseball bat, they put him in their lineup, as well.
In a four-year, teenage batting spree, he hit as many as 10 home runs in a high school season, led the Wildcats to a 54-12 won-loss record (including an appearance in a Class A state championship game) and sparked the semi-pro Indians to the 1953 Maine-New Brunswick League championship.
Staples left Presque Isle in the fall of 1954 for Colby College and acclaimed baseball coach John Winkin. Winkin named him starting catcher for the Mules’ varsity his sophomore year. It was during Colby’s baseball heyday, when they went up against such first-rate teams as Connecticut, Boston University, Georgetown, and Villanova. Staples hit .338 with four home runs with 16 runs batted in and threw out 14 would-be base stealers from behind the plate.
Neil Stinneford (Maine Baseball HOF 2009) played on that Colby team. He remembers Staples: “A leader on the field. A forceful ballplayer,” Stinneford says. “He controlled the game. Handled pitchers as well as any catcher I ever saw. A real good player, great arm.”
Though Colby didn’t participate in post-season games then, the Mules and Staples were considered by many the number one collegiate team in New England.
Staples continued to play semi-pro baseball. In the summer of 1956, he caught for the Kentville, Nova Scotia Wildcats. The following season, back in Presque Isle, he hit .415 for the Indians, and was the most valuable player in the prestigious North East Invitational Tournament, hitting a home run at Presque Isle’s Mackin Field they still talk about up there, a drive that reports said “cleared the light tower in left field and crossed the race track in the air.” Following the tournament, Boston Red Sox scout Larry Goodall signed him to a professional contract.
The Red Sox sent Staples to Lexington, Neb. in the Class D Nebraska State League. There he averaged .250, hit three home runs, caught the offerings of future major leaguer Bill Spanswick and was selected as the league’s all-star catcher. Lexington finished fifth, three games behind the Kearney Yankees, and Staples was promoted to the Corning Red Sox in the New York-Penn League.
When 1959 came, Staples was assigned to the Alpine, Texas Cowboys in the Class D Sophomore League along with future Red Soxers Chuck Schilling and Don Schwall. But he spent the baseball season in the Army completing an ROTC active duty requirement. In 1960, however, he reported to Corning, hit .267 over the season, clubbing four home runs. Corning finished third behind the Auburn Yankees. The Geneva Redlegs, with Pete Rose and Tony Perez in their lineup, finished last. Staples was sent up to the Midwest League’s Waterloo Hawks. In Waterloo, again an all-star catcher, he batted .282, hit eight homers, and drove in fortyseven runs.
Staples’ professional baseball career ended in the Carolina League catching for the Winston Salem Red Sox. Eddie Popowski was manager there, Rico Petrocelli shortstop, and Jerry Stephenson on the mound. Staples hit 13 home runs, drove in 56 runs, and the Red Sox finished third behind the Durham Bulls and the Kinston Eagles. But Staples had played his last professional baseball game. Twenty-seven years old and five years traversing the minor leagues, he had reached the conclusion of a praiseworthy baseball career. He went to bat close to 1,000 times in the minor leagues, accumulating approximately 250 hits, 50 doubles and 30 home runs. And he had been named to two minor league all-star teams.
At the end of the 1962 season, he and his wife Jeanne, who had traveled with him for four years, returned home to Presque Isle. During the ensuing years, Staples worked at the C.W. Staples potato-supply business, guided hunters and fishermen out of his camp on Munsungan Stream and honed his swing at the Presque Isle Country Club.
Staples died in 1977, the result of an accident. Jeanne still lives in Presque Isle; Nancy, his daughter, in Caribou. Two grandsons, Chad, a starting first baseman at Lewiston High School, and Carter, a third baseman in the Caribou Little League, carry on his baseball legacy.
Those seeking to obtain tickets for the induction ceremony, may call Sonny Noel at 232-8356, Brian Gordon at 883-0154, or Don Douglas at 846-3460.
Jim Carter contributed to this article.
