Who: Baseball historian Roger Spear

When: Monday, Sept. 8

Where: Henderson Memorial Baptist Church

Man donates baseball memorabilia

FARMINGTON – A local man with a longtime passion for America’s favorite pastime has donated his collection of baseball writings and memorabilia to the Farmington Historical Society.

Roger Spear has donated old uniforms and other baseball memorabilia including photographs of various town, high school, college and Little League teams to the historical society. The items have yet to be unpacked and displayed but are being stored at the Titcomb House on Academy Street, he said.

He will share his research and discuss the memorabilia at the next meeting of the society on Sept. 8 after a potluck supper at 6 p.m. at Henderson Memorial Baptist Church. The public is welcome to attend.

Spear has spent years collecting history and writing columns about baseball on the local level.

“The national pastime finally made its way to Farmington with the first game of baseball played in Farmington in 1865,” Spear said Wednesday. Before there was even a high school in Farmington, a team at the Abbott School, known as Little Blue, played against a town team, he said.

The information was gathered from resources at the University of Maine at Farmington’s Mantor Library and stories in a former town newspaper, The Farmington Chronicle, he said.

There was also an era of semi-pro baseball with the Farmington Flyers playing organized teams from within the state and from out of state. The team played from 1948 to 1956 and drew large crowds of fans. Sometimes as many as 2,000 people went to Hippach Field to watch the games, he added.

“Hippach Field has been an important part of the history of local baseball,” he said. The field dates back to the 1920s.

Spear played baseball from Little League through high school and his children also played. He began writing a weekly column for the Franklin Journal in the 1980s that centered on the local history of baseball in the 1980s and ’90s. This was in addition to his position as a University of Maine at Farmington vice president from which he has retired.