Boston
Globe, The (MA)
October 28, 2003
Tom Long, Globe Staff
Arnie Allen was a legend in the Cape Cod Baseball League, but he was not a power hitter, a sure-handed fielder, or a hot prospect who went on to the Major League and the Baseball Hall of Fame. Arnold S. Allen, 53, who died of cancer of the esophagus Sunday in his home on Cape Cod, was a bat boy and equipment manager for the Falmouth Commodores for 46 years.
"Baseball was his whole life," Lorie A. O'Brien of Hyannis, said yesterday of her brother, who became the Commodores' batboy when he was 7. Every summer Mr. Allen donned the maroon-and-white uniform of the Commodores and bicycled back and forth to Fuller Field for the home games.He wore No. 30 when he stood in the dugout offering encouragement to the players and criticism to the umpires if a call went against the home team. His high-pitched call of "c'mon kid," was as familiar to players and fans as the umpire's "play ball."
If Mr. Allen was sick and could not make it to a game, the umpires usually asked where he was.Even when the Commodores were playing away games, Mr. Allen would be at Fuller Field a few hours before the bus departed to make sure the equipment was in order.
"He was very passionate about his baseball. His dedication was without equal," said Martha Evans, secretary and housing coordinator for the Commodores."Some of the players from years past couldn't tell you the name of their coach or the family they lived with during the season, but nobody forgot Arnie," his sister said.
A lifelong resident of Falmouth, where he was a special needs student at Lawrence High School until he graduated in 1969, Mr. Allen mowed lawns and performed other tasks for Grafton L. Briggs Landscaping Co. for decades. For several years until his retirement last year, he bused tables and washed dishes at the Quarterdeck Restaurant in Falmouth.A big man, about 6 feet 2 inches tall and 250 pounds, he was a familiar figure pedaling his bicycle around town collecting cans for the five-cent deposit.
"Everybody knew him," said his sister. "The people at the laundromat saved their cans for him."Mr. Allen enjoyed watching baseball games and other sporting events on a widescreen television in his bedroom, where he decorated the ceiling with 600 caps from baseball, football, and hockey teams.
Last year, Mr. Allen was given a lifetime achievement award at the Cape Cod League Hall of Fame induction ceremony."He was known by more major leaguers than anyone," said Chuck Sturtevant, general manager of the Commodores. It was Sturtevant who promoted Mr. Allen from batboy to equipment manager when he took over the team more than 12 years ago.
Last year, when the Anaheim Angels were in the World Series, players Darin Erstad and Adam Kennedy, both former Commodores, sent autographed baseball bats to Mr. Allen, after they heard of his cancer diagnosis.Mr. Allen was more than thrilled. He decided he would never part with them.
Tomorrow, after a 10 a.m. funeral service in Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home in Falmouth, Mr. Allen will be buried in his Commodores uniform, along with his Anaheim Angels' bats and his Hall of Fame plaque, in the National Veterans Cemetery in Bourne.Besides his sister, he leaves two brothers, Keith of Falmouth and George of Mashpee; five sisters, Linda Congdon of Dallas, Deborah Mello of Mashpee, Roxanne Allen and Debbie Baldic Landers, both of Falmouth, and Rosanne Allen of Festus, Mo.