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Phil Niekro remembered by family, friends, teammates

Bridgeport graduate was Major League Baseball Hall of Famer

Members of the Dillmore family gather in front of The Niekro Diamond Memorial in Brookside following a memorial service for the late Phil Niekro on Saturday. From left are P.T. Dillmore, John Guiher, Ed Dillmore, Phyllis (Niekro) Dillmore, Paula Dillmore, Eddie Dillmore and Michael Dillmore.

BROOKSIDE — Family, friends and former teammates of the late Phil “Knucksie” Niekro gathered Saturday to honor the Major League Baseball Hall of Famer one last time, appropriately enough on the sun-blessed Niekro Diamond. Niekro died at the age of 81 on Dec. 26, 2020, of a rare type of cancer.

Approximately 75 individuals sat in the bleachers behind home plate as several dignitaries were seated between home plate and the pitcher’s mound on the very same baseball field that Niekro grew up playing on — then known as Perkins Field. It was dedicated to Phil and his late brother, Joe, on June 22, 2007. Among those who reminisced about one of “Lansing’s Finest” was longtime friend and former teammate Dr. Joe Maroon.

“I am fortunate enough to be able to reflect on the remarkable lives we lived,” Maroon said of Niekro, the late John Havlicek and himself. “I can still look back with the deepest of gratitude for coaches like Dick Byrnes and Johnny Blatnik, who unselfishly and without pay, gave so much of themselves to mold character in their young charges.

“When I thought about Phil, I couldn’t help but to think about John and the days we spent together and the days we played American Legion baseball together on this very field,” Maroon continued. “In 1957, Dick Byrnes, a former WWII veteran, and Johnny Blatnik, the first Major League Baseball player from Bridgeport, gathered up 13 rag-tag guys who lived in Lansing, Blaine and Bridgeport, and we all somehow melded into the Post 227 (American Legion) baseball team.

“John played shortstop and second base, Phil was the pitcher and I was the centerfielder,” Maroon recalled while pointing around the diamond. “It was amazing because all I did was, basically, watch the game. Nobody could hit the ball from the pitches that Phil threw, and if they did, John scooped them up any place in the infield.

“It was an incredible experience.”

The 1957 Post 227 squad won the state championship.

Maroon recalled the day that Niekro signed his first professional contract.

“Phil had such a passion for baseball that he forbode a chance to play in college to sign a contract with the then-Milwaukee Braves for $250. It took him 10 years before he was a starter.”

Maroon also called Niekro the ‘Tom Brady of baseball.’

“After age 40, Phil won 121 games before retiring eight years later. That is still a major league record.”

Maroon said he spoke to Niekro a few weeks before his passing. Maroon said the rounds of chemotherapy had robbed his friend of the use of his greatest talents — his hands.

“I know what the situation is like. I know what is up and what is going to happen. The thing that hurts me the most is I no longer can grip a pen to sign my Hall of Fame baseballs for my loyal fans,” Maroon recalled of Niekro saying. “Even until the very end he was a giving man, a mentor, a leader and a kind man.

Also speaking were Niekro’s sister, Phyllis Dillmore, and her son, P.T.; Bridgeport Exempted Village School District Superintendent Brent Ripley; and board of education president Don Cash.

Phyllis Dillmore enlightened the crowd when she made her way to the podium with a baseball in hand.

“I came to throw out the first pitch,” she said.

Longtime friend Gordie Longshaw also spoke and recalled a few memorable stories from his years of hanging out with Niekro.

Niekro played 24 seasons in the ‘bigs,’ with 20 of them in the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves organization. His 318 career victories are the most by a knuckleballer and rank 16th on MLB’s all-time wins list. He won the National League Gold Glove Award five times, was selected to five All-Star teams, led the league in victories twice and earned run average once. He was a key contributor to the Braves winning their only two division titles before 1991. Niekro was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997.

He and his younger brother Joe amassed 539 wins between them, the most combined wins by brothers in baseball history.

Phil remains the last MLB pitcher to win and lose 20 games in the same season. With the 1979 Braves, he was 21-20. It was his third and final 20-win season and his second and final 20-loss season. That season, Brothers Niekro were NL co-leaders in wins.

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