Rec softball community remembers longtime Gamecocks sponsor Malloy
For the better part of four decades one of the most successful and legendary adult softball franchises in this area was the Gamecocks out of Cookstown.
Keeping that in mind, it’s a good time to reflect on the recent death of its sponsor Rick Malloy and all he was able to accomplish with his team based out of Burlington County.
The Gamecocks got their start all the way back in 1978 under the sponsorship of Patrick Malloy, who chose that name for his softball team because he used to raise fighting roosters before it was was made illegal.
As the years went along, Patrick (a.k.a. Ricky) Malloy Jr. took over the sponsorship of the team from his father and the rest, as they say, is history.
By the time the Gamecocks were finished, they had won 58 tournament titles. These included a Class D National in Louisiana, two Class C regionals and three Trentonian Tournament championships, including the inaugural wooden bat bracket.
The Gamecocks also won innumerable league titles. One of those was a championship in the Mercer National, which at the time was the top league in the Mercer County Park Commission program.
Many of the area’s top players were with the Gamecocks at some point, but among the team’s mainstays were Dave “Spoon” Stanton, Bruce “The Moose Davis, John Brown and in later years John Zappley Jr.
The one player, however, who most comes to mind is Tim “The Paper Boy” Malloy, who is Rick Malloy’s cousin and was with the team from 1983 until he retired in the middle of the last decade at the age of 49.
“Ricky was an excellent player himself, but his career was cut short by a construction accident (at work),” recalled Tim Malloy of his cousin who was confined to a wheelchair. “Ricky was a great sponsor. He loved the players. We stayed in the finest hotels and he took care of everything.”
Although it didn’t exactly make them popular with other teams, the fact the Gamecocks were able to attract so much top talent is understandable. After all, who doesn’t want to play for a winner?
“We were controversial because our style was to put together a loaded-up roster,” admittted Tim Malloy. “With us it was all about winning. It was not hard to get the players when they saw the name Gamecocks. It was an easy sell.
“We were also a very busy team. Guys loved playing for us because we played every weekend and we played all over the country.”
You could write a book about all the Gamecocks’ highlights, but one of the most memorable is the year Rick Malloy’s team shared a Trentonian Super D Tournament title with a team put together by Ewing’s Chip “Cadillac” Cregar.
Playing in front of a huge crowd in the rain, the Gamecocks appeared to have won the title when the winning run crossed home plate. Note the word “appeared” because on the play Cregar followed the runner who had crossed home plate towards the dugout and tagged him with the ball.
When the umpire ruled the runner had, indeed, missed home plate, all heck broke loose at Mercer County Park’s Field 3.
As it turned out, Cregar’s team then won the game before rain prevented the tournament from being finished that day. Since they were the winners’ bracket champion, the Gamecocks had to be beaten twice and the teams ended up as co-champions.
“The umpire told us the home plate is slippery so if you just come close (to the plate) it would be OK,” said Tim Malloy. “Chip pulled his trickery and it became a (dung) show. We would have come back to finish the tournament (the next weekend), but they said they couldn’t make it.”
Whatever you make out of that, the straight shooting Tim Malloy is one of the more colorful characters in the history of local softball and is particular proud he got to play softball with two of cousin Ricky Malloy’s sons, Kevin and Sean.
He also made it clear he did not say he had 40,000 career hits, as was recently published in the Trentonian.
“That was a misquote,” said Tim Malloy. “I said I had 20,000 career hits. That I will stand by.”
No matter what the total was, the one thing for sure is Ricky Malloy was there to see nearly everyone of Tim Malloy’s hits and he is deserving of induction into the Trenton Softball Hall of Fame’s Sponsorship Division.
Behind nearly every firstclass softball organization is a great sponsor and Ricky Malloy was among the best.