Goodall-Sanford’s one year in the Downeast League
The Rochester and Sanford’s rivalry brewed and stewed all season. Paul Demers, the ever agitator, would start a brouhaha, and then stand back and watch. Hot summer days and evenings, wearing woolen uniforms and the umpires in their dark blue wool¿ surge suits; patience grew thin and tempers flared leading to many player and manager ejections, fisticuffs and protests. Local umpires included Min Desmarais, Freshie Hammond and Joe Nunan, Mike Twomey from Biddeford and John Michaels from Kennebunk.
During the Great Depression, baseball flourished in Sanford. The four-team Velmos Twilight League and the Velmos travel team played in the Ossipee Valley, Saco Valley and Southern York leagues. They formed a friendly rivalry with the Kennebunkport Collegians that featured Yale’s first baseman, George H.W. Bush and was managed by his grandfather, Herbert Walker.
The Goodall’s rival and nemesis, the famed Worumbo Indians, hired Freddy Parent away from Sanford and he brought speedy centerfield Henry “Min’” Desmarais with him in 1936.
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