A tribute to two men & a woman who helped mold Berkshire Baseball...

~By Dan Clouser

It was a shame that our two Hall of Fame inductees were unable to attend our banquet this past Sunday. The attendees missed the opportunity to meet two of the men who helped shape this organization into what it is today.

Rick Dunnum and Tim Brill were two of the first professionals to wear a Berkshire uniform, albeit after their days of professional baseball had ended.

Dunnum was released by the Philadelphia Phillies on the final day of spring training in 1992. His original reason for contacting us was in hopes to keep throwing for a little while and then get signed by another professional club.

Immediately upon meeting Rick, you knew that he was different. He was incredibly grateful to us for "allowing" him to keep playing, which I thought was amazing right from the start. I mean here he was with four years of professional baseball under his belt and fighting to get another shot at pro ball and all he did was thank us for letting him play with us. He was our staff ace the minute he put our uniform on and when you spoke to him, he was reacting as though we were doing him a favor.

Rick's professionalism and class helped bring this organization to a new level. At no point in Rick's career with Berkshire did he ever make those around him feel inferior because he had played professionally and they had not. He was involved in the organization off the field from day one, helping with fundraisers and always just wanting to be "one of the guys."

In 1993, he once drove from Southern Maryland to Berwick, Pennsylvania to pitch in a tournament for us, not knowing if we'd still be in contention when he arrived. Fortunately, we were and Rick ended up pitching back-to-back complete games for us in the semi-finals and finals to help bring home the first of many tournament championships for Berkshire Baseball.

The Rick Dunnum era ended after just three seasons in a Berkshire uniform when he decided to move back to his native Wisconsin, however the mark that he had left on this organization remains today. His number 13 was retired in 1995.

Tim Brill also started his Berkshire career after his professional career had ended. Unlike Rick though, who started his Berkshire career just a week after his professional one had ended, Tim's professional career was over for 16 years before he strapped on a Berkshire uniform. Tim originally came on board to play on our 30-Over team, but early in the spring when our Optimist team would need some help filling out the roster while our college players were still at school, Tim decided to help out a little and was able to compete against players 20 years his youth just fine. Tim double-rostered on both the Optimist team and the 30-Over team in 1995 and 1996 before just playing on our 30-Over team until 2001. Just like Dunnum, Tim's class and professionalism made an indelible mark on the organization. Tim was a quiet leader who let his play do the talking, he led by example and also never made his peers feel as though he was any better then they were because he had played professionally.

As Tim's coach when he played on our Optimist team, it was quite overwhelming at first to coach a man who was literally a legend in Oley where we lived when I was younger. This was a man who my family and I would drive to Municipal Stadium to watch play when the Jersey City Indians would come to town when I was 8 years old and now I was to coach him? As a true professional, Tim treated me with the respect that he would any of his managers and I would constantly be picking his brain about baseball and how the game needed to be played at every level, just as I did with Rick for the three previous seasons.

So what I learned in the five seasons that I had spent with Rick Dunnum and Tim Brill as their "coach" is something that has helped shape and mold me as a coach and a person, but even more importantly, has shaped and molded what the foundation of this organization was built on.

The line in our mission statement that states, "Our organization shall strongly encourage our beliefs of good sportsmanship, honesty, loyalty, dignity, humility, class and respect for authority." came directly from traits and ideals that these two individuals lived by both on and off the field.

The values that they led by are values that we try to instill in every young player that puts on a Berkshire Baseball uniform today.

What Berkshire Baseball has become today was largely influenced by the mark that two former professionals left on a young baseball coach some 15 years ago.

Due to their absence, we will present them with there Hall of Fame plaques at some point in the future, but their official induction date will remain November 13, 2011.

When our board elected them into the Hall of Fame earlier this year, I thought to myself that things were just a little bit backwards in the fact that myself and Kevin Kantner should have been joining them in the Hall of Fame when we were inducted as opposed to them joining us.

This evening will also mark another milestone for Berkshire Baseball when we present the inaugural Loretta Magary Community Service Award. Just as Major League Baseball presents the player who has shown exemplary community service every year with the Roberto Clemente Award, we felt that as an organization that believes in teaching the young people who are involved in it that getting involved in the community and giving back is vital piece of our existence here on Earth that we also needed to recognize the player within our organization who has shown exemplary community service as well.

The award is named after a woman who dedicated her life to helping others. Loretta Magary could always be found helping someone right up until the day that she died when she started getting chest pains while baking cookies for an Ala-non meeting. Whether it was in a concession stand at a youth sports game, delivering Meals on Wheels, helping with hurricane relief efforts through the Salvation Army in Florida, helping a friend stay sober, leaving her job for over three months and driving over 1,200 miles to volunteer in a Salvation Army Relief tent at Ground Zero or just being a shoulder to cry on, she was always helping someone.

She was also my mother, and has had a greater influence on what Berkshire Baseball stands for today than anyone else has ever had.