Dear Al,
It is not often that the Fastball world sees a cornerstone call it quits. For our sport, Rod Peterson, The Farm Tavern and Charlie the pig are all icons who have been around since perhaps Jimmy Carter. For crying out loud, i don't think Andy Rooney was doing sixty minutes when Rod was playing or sponsoring The Farm Tavern! It probably goes back even further than that.
Hearing the Farm has folded, means one of the most, if not the most stable, reliable, "count on" teams will be no more. The Farm was a team you compared your own to, if you were a sponsor, how much like the Farm could you be?
First of all, they went to every major tourney, and could be counted on to attend, for example, the ASA whether or not it was fashionable. If they allowed foreign players, the Farm was there. If they only permitted Americans, the Farm still attended. If there was a limit, The Farm was in attendance. Even if the players had ISF committments, the Farm fielded a team for the ASA. The only way for the Farm not to be in the ASA was to beat them twice. If their attendance record was not amazing, with all the economic ups and downs this country, even North America has seen, their resilience in the ASA was, nonethless, amazing. They might have players coming in late, lose their opener, and then rattle off eight consecutive wins and play in the final, seeing a couple of 13 inning games along the way, that was the Farm. This same scenario was replayed with boys of Summer, Perth, Monkton, North American Challenge, Pioneer Days, Eau Claire you name it! They even had their own tourney.
The Farm bred warriors. Even though i have only been around the game since 1993, some 16 years, Rod Peterson has had most likely the greatest set of pitching one has ever imagined. Meredith, White, Piechnik, and many many more. Personally, i think Paul Algar most likely best typified the Farm's competitive ethic, no disrespect to others, but he threw every pitch in the 1999 ISC and won it for the Farm. They were always there and always competing.
They would go to every ISC, never an excuse, never a no show. You could always notice their navy blue heavy bomber jackets in the crowd if they were not playing. The Farm was just there for you in everty way every season, i do not think i can contemplate their not being there.
I do not know anything about Rod's playing days, so i think it is appropriate for someone else to chime in on that. But ever since 1993, when i first saw Jody Hennigar pitching for them in Kimberly, i was taken with the "country style" name, their unique hard brand of play, unpretentious and tough.
In 1994, when i desired to put the Smokers on the map, Rod brought the farm to Vinoy Park, in St. Pete, giving us instant credibility. Rod was inducted into the Hall of Fame that year. how many people sponsor a team for fifteen consecutive years AFTER they make the Hall of Fame?
In 1996, the Smokers battled with the Farm in the winners bracket semi-final to a 2-1 score and put on a show, maybe one of the best games in the tourney, could have gone either way.
In 1997, they blew away the field in Victoria, setting record after record, but by then the team had been around over twenty years. Maybe their first World Championship, but everybody had known them for years and I think everyone was happy for them. But the fact they ate up the competition, made it not just a sentimental win, but an overwhelming culmination of softball achievement.
In 1998, the Smokers faced the Farm in the Jack Grafmeier and beat us, I was despondent. Rod gave me his famous, "you got to have amnesia"...talk. We lost no less then three major tourneys to the Farm that year, all in the final. Pioneer Days was the closest we got at 2-0, before finally winning the Halifax tourney just before the ISC. When we were solicited to attend, we asked the sponsors why they were so sure it would be a credible tourney. Their reply was simple, Rod had committed to it. We did immediately. When The Farm attended, other teams did.
In 1999 The Smokers played a game in Central Park in New York City, headlining the action and cordoning off the park, even playing a double dip with The King and his Court entertaining between games. Guess who the Smokers faced? The Farm Tavern, world champs two of the three previous years. But it was not their championships alone that gave them credibility. It was what the Farm stood for, reliability, consistency, competition, war, talent, world class play, world class players, classy ownership and sponsorship, and most importantly of all, great sportsmanship. How many of the top players in sports today and how many teams calling themselves elite, can truly be thought of by the multitudes as Great Sportsmen? The Farm is all of that.
I could go on. I already have gone on. But can you ever say enough about the Farm? Every player who has spent any real time in our sport counts their time with the Farm as very special. That goes back to the title of this story.
Charlie the Pig...how many teams have mascots? The Smokers had Smokin' Joe. But Charlie was known for years before. Rod did not have to bring a mascot to the team, he was not a showman. But Charlie's departure, four years after Smokin' Joe hung 'em up, represents the last of the great mascots. Now i do not know of any. There are logos, but no mascots...
So we bid farewell to Rod, The Farm and Charlie. Let's hope the remnants of The Farm still are seen at the park....hats, jackets, various ex player uniform parts.... But let us also hope that what the Farm stood for, stability, credibility, great competition, and great sportsmanship still is an inspiration to other organizations..
I have only touched on the Farm's Rod's and the players who have worn Charlies image. That is how monumental an institution has departed. Let's hope what they showed by example is something teams of today and tomorrow, in fact, try and emulate.
Respectfully,
Peter J. Porcelli, II
PeterJPorcelli@Aol.com
