Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part series highlighting local baseball players who live in the publishing area of Valley Community Newspapers.

For a group of mostly Sacramento natives who grew up playing baseball in this very rich baseball city and a few other places, a tradition was born about five years ago.

It was around this time that a group of seniors calling themselves the Noah’s Bagels Baseball Gang began meeting once a week at Noah’s Bagels in Town and Country Village.

Continuing their weekly gatherings since this time, this social group has grown to include 18 members.

The very first members of the group were Jim Westlake, Dick Alejo and the late Danny Mooradian, who are considered the founders of the group.

In speaking about the formation of the group, Dick said, “We just felt like every time we would go out and see some guy, we would say, ‘Hey, we meet here for coffee. Why don’t you join us.’ Pretty soon, here we are (as a large group).”

Joe Duarte, one of the earliest members to join the group, said that there are various ways that one can be eligible to become a member of the group.

“(To join the group, one should) know somebody, played ball with somebody (or) went to school with them and played ball with them,” Duarte said. “Some of these guys played minor league baseball. Only one – Cuno Barragan – played in the big leagues. He caught for the (Chicago) Cubs for (three) years. Almost all of them, except for two or three, played high school baseball. I never played high school baseball, because I went in the merchant Marines in 1944, when I was 15 years old.”

Duarte said that he eventually became a baker, but chuckled when asked about bagels, saying (back then, in the 1940s), I’d never heard of them.”

During one of the group’s recent gatherings, the following members of the group in attendance shared information about their connections to baseball.

Barragan: “I was born (on June 20, 1932) and raised in Sacramento. I graduated from Sacramento High School in January 1950, and I played football and baseball at Sacramento Junior College. I signed a contract with the Sacramento Solons in 1952, and I played my first year of professional baseball in 1953 for Idaho Falls and then came back and went in the service in 1954 and 1955. I did two years of active duty in the Navy. I went to spring training with the Solons in 1956, was optioned to Amarillo, Texas, Western League, and had a reasonably good year there, and played with the Sacramento Solons in 1957.”

Barragan added that after a brief retirement in 1958, he eventually was drafted from the Solons by the Chicago Cubs in 1961.

“My first at bat was (at Wrigley Field on) Sept. 1 against the San Francisco Giants and I hit a home run off of Dick LeMay on the first pitch. It was pretty exciting.”

Dick Alejo: “I was born in 1936. My professional career was not that big. I just went down to Mexico and played for a team, called Puebla, with Cuno Barragan and Sparky Anderson (who later played and managed in Major League Baseball). Besides that, I played for the American Legion Post 61, McClatchy High School and in the Winter League and at Sacramento Junior College. I did well, but I’m not going to (the National Baseball Hall of Fame in) Cooperstown!”

Nick Capachi: “I played on all the city leagues growing up – the 125-pound, 75-pound leagues – then I played for (American) Legion, high school, county leagues, the Placer-Nevada League and the KFBK all-star team,” said Capachi, who turned 77 last April. “I also played on the (Sacramento Junior) College team. We won the state championship in 1953. We beat Long Beach for the state championship right here at (William) Land Park. I also played in the Army, while I was stationed in the Presidio (in San Francisco).”

Augie Amorena: “I went to Sacramento High School and graduated in 1948. My parents (Amelia and Augustine Amorena) were immigrants from Spain. I started playing baseball when I was about 14. I played Summer League in the different weight divisions. I played (American) Legion, Sac JC and local Winter League, Spring League. We had a team in the Winter League, Julius Style Shop, and Joe Freitas was the manager. We were all young kids, just out of high school. The enthusiasm, the fun, we could hardly wait until Sunday to play ball. We did okay. We won a championship one year. And I played minor league baseball four years (including his time in the International League with the Edmonton Eskimos). I also played in the service for the Army team (in Hawaii).”

Mike Bakarich: “I was born on Mother’s Day, 1944, at Sacramento County Hospital. When we were younger, there was no Little League. You played in the 100-pound league, got weighed.  I grew up in West Sacramento and I had to take the Gibson bus and the streetcar to go to McClatchy Park to play baseball. They couldn’t remember my name, so they called me ‘the kid from across the river.’ I played with these guys since I was in the 7th grade, probably. I went to Grant Tech (College, which was located across the street from Grant High School) and I played all three sports there. Then I played baseball in the Winter League, in the National Division, played in the County League and the Rural League and I quit playing hard ball in 1960 or 1961, because I like to play fast-pitch softball. We were playing maybe 75 or 80 ball games a summer, and trying to play baseball and softball was kind of tough. With the fast-pitch softball, I’ve been to two world tournaments and two national tournaments. I played all over the United States. I’m in the fast-pitch hall of fame and the baseball hall of fame in Sacramento.”

As Sacramento once again prepares to come alive with a variety of activities to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, one local organization believes in making the celebration of Irish heritage and traditions a yearlong activity.

This organization, The Shamrock Club of Sacramento, is dedicated to its mission of “fostering and preserving the traditions of Ireland for the people of the greater Sacramento region.”

The club is also very well connected with the Arden, Carmichael and Land Park areas of Sacramento, explained Chris Brown, a South Land Park resident, who grew up within a lion’s roar of the Sacramento Zoo.

“We have about 15 members from the Arden and Carmichael areas and about a dozen more from the Land Park area,” Brown said. “Our many valued members span from Grass Valley to Lodi and areas throughout Sacramento. We couldn’t expand our club into the future without our founding and new members. But we also have plenty of room for more members who have interests in things Irish.”

Shamrock Club member Jane Lamborn, a 25-year resident of Carmichael, said that the club is a very enjoyable and educational organization.

“I joined the club three or four years ago and it’s just a lot of fun,” Lamborn said. “It’s a great group of people. They have that quick wit when you’re with the group and they’re friendly and open and welcoming. They promote Irish culture and Irish history, so you get a chance to learn about it, to enjoy it and they’re just a great group of people.”

Lamborn added that much of her interest in the club derived from the fact that her mother is half-Irish and her stepfather is 100 percent Irish and that she enjoys learning about Irish music and dance.

“They (her mother and stepfather) traveled extensively in Ireland, they lived there for a short period of time and growing up with her, I really learned about Ireland and that background,” Lamborn said. “I discovered the club when I went to the Scottish games in Woodland and they were there with some of their members playing music and I stopped to listen to the music and learned about the club. A lot of the enjoyment in learning (through the club) is with music and dance, so you’ve got bagpipes, fiddles, flutes, drums and they really promote music, which I particularly enjoy and that caught my attention.”

 

Putting on the parade

As the capital city’s only Irish club, the Shamrock Club is presently working with the Old Sacramento Business Association to bring the city’s 14th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade to Old Sacramento on Saturday, March 13 at 1 p.m. Other sponsors of the event are the Historic Old Sacramento Foundation, Fanny Ann’s Saloon and radio station, Mix 96.

The family-friendly event, which was designed to celebrate the diversity and richness of the community, will feature Irish dancers, costumed marchers, floats, military regiments, school bands, police and fire representatives and various cultural organizations.

Participants in this year’s parade will include the White Hackle Pipe Band, the Sacramento Fire Department Pipes and Drums corps, the Ophir Prison Marching Band, Irish dancers in Celtic costumes, tartan-clad Highlanders and Gold Rush re-enactors.

The Shamrock Club, which selected Kitty O’Neal of radio station KFBK 1530 AM as the parade’s grand marshal, encourages parade participants to “Go Green by Wearing Green.”

Lamborn said that the parade is a fun celebration of Irish history and culture.

“It’s a chance to experience Irish music and dance, to see the people in the community who participate in those activities and to learn a little bit about it,” Lamborn said.

Additional information about the parade can be obtained by calling the Old Sacramento Business Association at (916) 442-7644.

 

 

Hearts in Ireland

Emphasizing that Irish heritage is mostly recognized one day per year in the United States, Shamrock Club Vice President CJ Kennedy said, “Everybody wants to turn Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, but we’re active preserving the heritage of Ireland the whole year round.”

Kennedy, who comes from both Irish and Scottish heritage and is very knowledgeable about Irish history, added that although the club takes its position as an Irish heritage preservation group seriously, its members never forget that they belong to a social club.

“We want to be known as a well-known, nonpolitical and nonreligious club in Sacramento and the Northern California region that is serious about Irish heritage, but we also want to just kick up our heals and have a good time, too.”

In addition to meeting on the second Wednesday of every month, the group also makes sure to work the attendance of live performances of Irish music and various Irish-related field trips into its schedule.

Activities of the club have included social nights at de Vere’s, the Fox and Goose and the Streets of London pubs in Sacramento, an annual Christmas party and a trip to the United Irish Cultural Museum in San Francisco.

Upcoming club events will include Celtic Heritage Night at the Sacramento River Cats game on July 1 and a “Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day” party in September.

The organization, which has met in Sacramento at SMUD and de Vere’s Irish Pub, began in 2005 through the efforts of its founder Chris Brown and about 15 other founding members.

Brown, who is serving in his fifth term as the club’s president, said that his idea to establish the club derived from his love for his own Irish heritage and the fact that Sacramento was without an Irish club.

“There was an Irish club in Sacramento that failed and there was a point in time that there was no Irish club (in Sacramento),” said Brown, who is a member of fourth and fifth generation Irish families in Sacramento. “So, we founded the Shamrock Club in late 2005 and built it from the ground up.”

 

Historic and honored

Unlike many Irish clubs, which were established in and around the political difficulties in Ireland, the Sacramento club, Brown explained, took a different route in its formation.

“A lot of the Irish clubs 10 to 15 years ago were sort of formed (in connection) to the troubles in Ireland,” Brown said. “We’re just not fostering any of that political stuff and in essence, Ireland is at peace right now and it’s doing well with peace.”

Sacramento’s Shamrock Club, which is affiliated with about seven Shamrock Clubs throughout the nation, patterned itself after The Shamrock Club of Columbus, Ohio.

And because of its growth, Sacramento’s club, which consists of about 100 members, reached a level and ability to assist a group in New Jersey in its efforts to form a Shamrock Club.

Brown, who graduated from Bishop Armstrong High School in 1965, said that the Sacramento club is on a course to grow extensively during the next two years.

“We have survived the test of time and we’re into our sixth year and we have been continually growing,” Brown said. “We’re gathering more and more kindred spirits, but not just kindred spirits, but people who are willing to take an active part in ensuring the longevity and the expansion of the Shamrock Club.”

Brown said that 80 percent of Sacramento’s Shamrock Club members are of Irish heritage and the remaining 20 percent of the club members “just enjoy things Celtic and want to be a part of the group.”

“It’s just a fun group of people,” Brown added.

For more information regarding The Shamrock Club of Sacramento, including how to become a member, call Brown at (916) 447-6511 or visit the Web site www.shamrocksac.com.

 

E-mail Lance Armstrong at lance@valcomnews.com.