LYNN — Paul Hartford has been a mainstay in the fabric of Lynn Little League for parts of five decades. Now, he’s created a book that is a complete guide to the history of Little League baseball in the city.
Hartford and Lynn Shore Little League president David Dorgan collaborated to produce a book that details the history of the Lynn City Series, which began in 1951. The book originally included the year-by-year scores and champions, but Hartford and Dorgan went to work on an expanded version which now includes the names of almost 4,000 Lynn Little Leaguers who played in the annual series.
“We’re really interested in preserving the history of Lynn Little League,” Hartford said. “It was a labor of love for Dave and I.”
In 2014, Hartford compiled the original version of the book. His Lynn Shore Giants had just won the City Series title for the first time since 1989, and the idea of putting together a book about the history of the series was an idea Hartford had been toying with, but he wasn’t sure anyone would be as interested in it as he was.
“But then, I was talking to (fellow Lynn Shore coach) Mark Sullivan about the City Series, and he was interested in the history of Lynn Shore,” Hartford said. “And I was interested in what had happened in the other leagues as well, since I’ve been involved in all of the other leagues too.”
That was the spark Hartford needed to take the idea to Dorgan.
“He looked at me like I was crazy, but said ‘if you want to do it, go ahead,’” said Hartford.
Hartford spent the next six months of his life pouring over Daily Item and Lynn Sunday Post newspapers from 1951 to 2014.
“At the time, my first instinct was to get everything I could get. Every player’s name, every score,” Hartford said. “But then I thought, I can’t. The newspapers don’t put everyone’s name, and you’re going to miss some. I eliminated the players names except for the current year.”
The original version of the book was 60 pages, and included the Lynn City Series champions by year and the managers and coaches of each team, as well as the complete game-by-game results for every City Series from 1951 until the present.
But once the book started selling, the same questions kept cropping up.
“The biggest questions were ‘is my name in it? Is my kid’s name in it? So I was kicking myself for not including that,” Hartford said.
So it was back to the library for Hartford to round up as many names as he possibly could. He thought the task would go quicker than the original research; after all, he knew what editions of the paper to look in, and that would give him a head start. He was wrong.
“That took me about eight months of research,” Hartford said. Eight months of spending 2-3 hours a night at the library after work, and eight hours on Saturdays. Hartford calls his wife, Leesha, a ‘baseball widow,’ and credits her for her encouragement and patience while he took on the tall task.
“There were days when I thought ‘why am I doing this again?’ Hartford said. “The first book I did, I was so focused because I thought it would mean something to a lot of people. But knowing how important it was to people…I think Dave feels the same way, like we’re leaving a legacy for Lynn Little League.”
While Hartford put in the legwork on the research end, Dorgan was just as instrumental in putting the book together. He created the format for the book, and took the microfilm photos that Hartford had collected from the archives and scanned them in, working to improve the quality for print.
“I was amazed at how good the photos look,” Hartford said. “I can’t give (Dorgan) enough credit for making this book the success I think it’s going to be.”
The two collaborated on editing 136 pages, which include 370 teams, 111 photos and 3,839 player’s names. The typing and editing took another three months to complete.
The book was a labor of love for Hartford, who coached in his first City Series in 1976. Hartford has been a coach for West Lynn American, West Lynn National and now Lynn Shore, and has been involved in some capacity with every league in the city.
Every penny made from the book is donated back into Lynn Shore Little League, so the only compensation Hartford gets is the satisfaction that he’s put the work into creating something that holds a lot of meaning for many people.
“Even today, someone said to me ‘this brings back so many memories,’” Hartford said. “I had someone who started to tear up when I showed it to him. It just brings back pleasant memories for so many people.
“I think because I’ve been involved for so long and I know history means so much to Dave, we wanted to create something that meant a lot to Lynn Little League. It’s gone on for so long, and no one knew the history. I thought what a perfect way to make a lasting impression for Lynn Little League.”
The book is still a work in progress, in a sense. Since the new book was printed, Hartford has gotten people contacting him to add their names to the book. The ever-growing list of additions will be added when the first batch of books is sold. Hartford, who is striving to make the book a complete, perfect record of the series, says he always welcomes the additions.
One of the most interesting parts of the book is seeing generations of families come through Lynn Little League. That’s the case for the Hartford family as well.
“My father is in this book, my brother is in this book and I’m in this book, so it’s kind of like a family legacy of coaching in the City Series,” Hartford said.
That legacy is especially important to Hartford, since it was his father that sparked his passion for coaching early on in life.
“I’ve loved baseball since I was a child. When I first signed up as an eight-year-old, my father was an avid softball player and coach,” Hartford said. “When I signed up, the league said we don’t have enough volunteers, and if they didn’t have enough, I couldn’t play. So he gave up playing softball to coach me. That made such an impression on me, and from then on I thought ‘I am going to teach the kids that need to be taught. I want to be a baseball coach.’ My dad gave up what he loved to do to coach, and there’s such a shortage of coaches who get the kids to enjoy it, so I made up my mind then.”
To purchase The History of the Lynn City Series book for $15, contact Paul Hartford by phone (781-842-2858, home, or 617-840-3822, cell) or by email ([email protected]). Books will be delivered in person or through the mail, and can also be purchased at the Lynn City Series at Kiley Playground this week.
