Robert Dillion
The Oldtimers Bats and Balls Association last week honored four people with the William “Pickles” Kennedy Award.
The honorees were:
• Bob Dillon, who played baseball and basketball at Father Judge High School. He later played softball and officiated football. A retired mailman, he works the game clock for high school and Division II football and Holy Family University basketball.
• Wayne Cunningham, an Abington High School graduate who was an All-South and All-Atlantic Coast Conference soccer player at Duke, where he also wrestled for a year. He coached soccer at Campbell College, Kean College and Jersey City State College. He also coached softball at Campbell and Jersey City State. He’s participated in adult softball and basketball competitions and officiated soccer and wrestling.
• Dennis Primavera, a Rhawnhurst native who played baseball and basketball at Holy Ghost Prep and collegiate baseball at La Salle. He is the baseball coach at Springfield High School in Montgomery County. He was an assistant baseball coach at Chestnut Hill Academy for 16 years. He’s coached for 26 years with the Chestnut Hill Youth Sports Club and served as president of the club for 17 years. He is a lawyer with an office in Mayfair.
• Rickie Ricardo, a 94 WIP host and the Spanish radio play-by-play voice for the Eagles and New York Yankees. He formerly broadcast Phillies games on Spanish radio. Ricardo is growing a mustache this month for the Movember Foundation, which is committed to improving men’s health. He is also part of an effort to get former Phillies slugger Dick Allen into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Longtime sports radio talk show caller Baseball George presented him with his plaque.
The Oldtimers group consists of former athletes and officials. Members meet four times a year at Randi’s Restaurant & Bar, 1619 Grant Ave. in Grant Plaza II in Bustleton.
The William “Pickles” Kennedy Award is named in memory of a former star basketball player at Abraham Lincoln High School and Temple University. Kennedy spent a year with the NBA’s Philadelphia Warriors, then played minor league baseball for several years in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization.
Among those attending the Nov. 12 luncheon were Bobby Shantz, a former American League Most Valuable Player; Joe Scarpati, a former pro football player best known as the holder for Tom Dempsey’s then-NFL-record 63-yard field goal in 1970; Doug Clemens, a former Phillies outfielder; Dick Richards, a star football and baseball player at West Chester who is best known as the ori-gin-al drum-mer for Bill Haley & His Comets, whose smash hit was Rock Around the Clock; and Sean Landeta, who punted for the Philadelphia Eagles and Philadelphia Stars.
The 2015 Oldtimers luncheons will be at noon on the following Wednesdays: Feb. 11, May 13, Aug. 12 and Nov. 11. Lunch costs $11.
For information on the group, call Chuck Newns (215–612–0476), Ron Fritz (215–491–9380), Jack Purdy (215–968–0404) or Ron March (609–209–0849), or visit www.batsandballs.org ••
Dennis Primavera
Wayne Cunningham
Quite an honor: Rickie Ricardo, a 94 WIP host and the Spanish radio play-by-play voice for the Eagles and New York Yankees, was one of four recipients of the William “Pickles” Kennedy Award. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA /TIMES PHOTOS
