Executive Director

KENNY JERKINS, Las Vegas, Nevada kennyjerkins@aol.com

Deputy Director
DAN CUNNINGHAM, Greencastle, Pennsylvania cunnidan@wcps.k12.md.us

EX-EASTERN SHORE LEAGUE PRESIDENT IS DEAD

TOM BROWN: ALL-AMERICAN

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL AND THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE

SALISBURY - Former Eastern Shore League President Tom Brown has died at 84 in Palm Harbor, Florida. Born on December 12, 1940 in Laureldale, Pennsylvania, Brown graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring in Montgomery County in Maryland. The First-Team All-American batted .449 as a Junior for the University of Maryland in the Spring of 1962 before the Terrapins' wide reciever and defensive back both caught 47 passes and corraled six interceptions as a Senior in the Fall. 

   Brown was the Washington Senators' Opening Day starting first baseman in 1963 - they're Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers today. The National Football League second-round draft pick signed with the Green Bay Packers and left the Senators in July in 1963. He was the first athlete to both hit a home run in a Major League Baseball game and play on a Super Bowl-winning team and he's the only athlete other than Deion Sanders to do so. He started both in three consecutive NFL Championship Games in 1965 through 1967 and in Super Bowls I and II. The highlight of his career was his game-saving interception in the end zone of Don Meredith's pass in the closing seconds of the Packers' 34-27 victory visiting the Dallas Cowboys in the 1966 NFL title tilt. Brown finished his career playing for his Green Bay Head Coach Vince Lombardi on the Super Bowl Trophy namesake's final team in Washington in 1969. 

Sources: umterps.com and wikipedia.org and eyewitnessed 1966 NFL Championship Game CBS broadcast   

LAIRD FARMS NIX NATTY BOHS FOR STATE CROWN

FIRST-YEAR FRANCHISE OVERCAME OAKLAND FIRST

WESTERN CHARLES WON AGAINST HAGERSTOWN

GAMBRILLS - Starting pitcher Connor Smith worked seven innings for the win as the Eastern Shore League's top Maryland-based team, Somerset County's Brian Laird-managed first-year Laird Farms franchise floored the Charles-Saint Mary's League's first-place Western Charles Natty Bohs 5-3 to win before 172 witnesses the 2025 Maryland Semi-Pro Baseball State Championship on Saturday, August 9 at Arundel High School in Gambrills in Anne Arundel County. Brian was managing in his third straight State Finale, his having taken the Tri-County Twins to the State Championship contests both in 2023 and in 2024. The eight most recent Maryland Semi-Pro Baseball State Champions have emanated from eight different of Maryland's 23 counties. Laird Farms is the second Eastern Shore League squad to finish as the Free State's finest and the first to do so in 15 years. First baseman Gavin McIntyre got three hits including a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth that gave Laird a 2-1 lead. Maryland Semi-Pro Baseball State Championship Game XXIX Most Valuable Player shortstop Bobby Stewart cracked a two-run homer that capped a three-run inning in the bottom of the fifth after the Natty Bohs had knotted the score with a sacrifice fly. Gus Croll was stranded after he'd followed with a triple. Cole Swift converted a six-out save. Laird had leveled the Fayette County League's Oakland Oaks 12-7 in the second of the Eyewitness News one-day event's Semifinal contests. Manager Craig Bosley's Garrett Countians are the sole Maryland-based team in that Pennsylvania County-based circuit. McIntyre was the semifinal starting pitcher and helped his own cause with a triple but he gave way to winning reliever Danner Swift after three innings plus four batters. Danner didn't down either of the two batters that he faced in the top of the ninth but Croll struck out the next three hitters after his three hits had gotten him within a home run of hitting for the cycle. Charles County's Natty Bohs had beaten Washington County's Hagerstown Braves 9-6 in the earlier preliminary play that had been promoted pregame as 2025 Maryland Semi-Pro Baseball Manager of the Year-determining. Tony Stefko's Western Charles squad frolicked for 15 stolen bases in building a 7-1 lead. Five errors flummoxed Dan Cunningham's South Penn League finalists. Connor Wilkerson and Tyler Quade swiped three bags each for the winners and winning pitcher Wilkerson worked six-and-two-thirds innings. Catcher Cam Bailey banged a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh that brought the Braves within one but a pair of scores in the eighth eased Ben Jarboe's braving of a seven-out save. 

WESTERN CHARLES TAKES CHARLES-SAINT MARY'S LEAGUE TITLE

NATTY BOHS NIP INDIAN HEAD 17-16

INDIANS HAD CLOBBERED CHAMPS 14-3 IN PRIOR POSTSEASON PLAY

LA PLATA - The Western Charles Natty Bohs withstood the Indian Head Indians 17-16 to take the 2025 Charles-Saint Mary's League Championship on Saturday, September 6 at Rainbow Construction Field in La Plata in Charles County. Indian Head had hammered Western Charles 14-3 on Sunday, August 24 to force the league's double-elimination postseason play format's finale. 

A BETTER ANSWER - WITHOUT A QUESTION

SUPPORTED SEMI-PRO BASEBALL FOR 22 SEASONS

410-879-8600 or 1-800-346-2517

BEL AIR - A Better Answer provided the Maryland Semi-Pro Baseball Information Line as a courtesy from 1991 through 2012 inclusive, helping to create the statewide semi-pro baseball network that we enjoy today. A Better Answer provides 24/7 telemessaging services for the business, commercial, industrial and medical communities. Please consider A Better Answer if in need of such services and contact A Better Answer either at 410-879-8600 or at 1-800-346-2517 or via www.a-better-answer.com - why wait when there's A Better Answer? 

RIPKEN FOUNDATION / FEEDING AMERICA

HONOR CAL BY HELPING TO STRIKE OUT HUNGER

410-952-7920

ABERDEEN - Launched by the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation www.ripkenfoundation.org , the purpose of the Strike Out Hunger campaign is to raise funds that will provide food to people in need. Together with Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, Niagara Cares, Group1001 and the Kevin Harvick Foundation, the Ripken Foundation partnered with Feeding America, their 200 local food banks, 60,000 food pantries and meal programs across the country to help address the issue of food insecurity for underserved kids and families. If you have any questions or need assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact Jennifer Dansicker at 410-952-7920 or jdansicker@ripkenfoundation.org  

GET A GUARANTEED MORTGAGE

50-PLUS YEARS OF FINANCIAL EXPERIENCE

REACH TO ROGER DAWSON FOR DOLLARS

BRUNSWICK - Consider the Brunswick Orioles' four-time Maryland Semi-Pro Baseball State Champion Roger Dawson for your Guaranteed Mortgage. Re-financing, purchases and consolidations all are available through Guaranteed Mortgage, a company with more than 50 years of experience. Call Frederick County-based Guaranteed Mortgage Loan Specialist Roger Dawson at 301-834-8068.

PERSONAL BEST HAS BASEBALL PRODUCTS

CUMBERLAND COMPANY CAN DELIVER STATEWIDE

RUSSELL AND RINEHART ARE READY TO SERVE

CUMBERLAND - Personal Best Athletics is offering deals on balls, bats, spikes, helmets, gloves and catchers' equipment. Custom jerseys and hats can take roughly six weeks. Contact either Ben Russell directly at 301-338-0974 or Dave Rinehart Jr. at 301-729-8711 extension 105 in Cumberland.

POINTSTREAK WORKS, YOU JUST PLAY

905-731-9867

THE LEADER IN REAL-TIME SPORTS STATISTICS

TORONTO - Pointstreak.com, the leader in real-time sports statistics offers technology and products designed to save sports organizations time, money and effort. Contact Kael Herman via either kherman@pointstreak.com or 905-731-9867.

BOARD CAN INTERACT VIA THE INTERNET

ADVISORS MAY MULL ADVICE FROM ALL

YEAR-ROUND FORUM IS OPEN AND ONGOING

BALTIMORE - Judge Kent Boles is chairing Maryland Semi-Pro Baseball Advisory Board open discussions online monitored by Maryland Semi-Pro Baseball Deputy Director Dan Cunningham. Input is to be accepted from the public. Maryland Semi-Pro Baseball Advisory Board members Judge Kent Boles's, Gary Bennett's, Steve Hastings's, Bob Schnebly's and Maryland Semi-Pro Baseball Deputy Director Dan Cunningham's respective e-mail address links
Brewer15@aol.com,
garyb320@gmail.com,

stevehast@comcast.net,
Starlyrara@aol.com,
cunnidan@wcps.k12.md.us

may be copied and pasted to contact them collectively. Consistent with Maryland State open government "sunshine" laws and transparency ideals, effective immediately, any correspondence sent to the Executive Director that is either pertinent to Maryland Semi-Pro Baseball or peripheral to Maryland Semi-Pro Baseball will be shared with the Deputy Director and there should be no expectation of confidentiality in such communications.

Sources: Internet and other media and eyewitness reports