Cadillac Cregar still going strong at 70
Just when you think you are running out of words to describe the remarkable softball career of Chip “Cadillac” Cregar, another adjective comes to mind. Ageless.
Yup, the life-long Ewing resident may now be 70 years old, but Cregar’s softball career is still very much alive as a member of the 29 Investment team in the Mercer Over-50 League and Prince Plumbing in the Mercer County League.
“I just like being out there with the guys and still being able to compete,” replied Cregar when asked what motivates him to keep playing softball. “I have had some health issues, but I still have the drive.”
Among those health issues is a recent hip transplant, but this hasn’t stopped Cregar from doing what he has always does best.
Namely, collect hit, after hit, after hit.
In a career that is now approaching 50 years, Cregar easily has the most hits in the annals of local softball. According to Trentonian calculations he must surely be near 20,000 — if he hasn’t pass that total already.
Along the way he has played on so many league and tournament champion teams it would be futile to even begin to list them here.
Cregar, of course, has also long been a member of The Trenton Softball Hall of Fame and it’s been quite a ride in a career that first started to blossom at Ewing High.
After spending a post graduate year at the Bordentown Military Institute where he earned All-Area honors in football, Cregar’s athletic abilities were reflected in what happened during a road trip with friends to Florida.
Along the way Cregar somehow ended up at the University of Tennessee and for fun participated in a pickup basketball game. After watching him put on a longrange shooting display that would make Larry Bird jealous, the Tennessee coach offered Cregar a basketball scholarship on the spot.
It was a tempting offer, but it wasn’t for Cregar, who shortly thereafter launched his ultra-successful softball career.
“I’m not a braniac; I’m a jock,” said Cregar of his decision to turn down Tennessee’s offer. “I don’t know how I would have done in the Southeastern Conference, but college was not for me. I hate books.”
Cregar first started really making a name for himself in softball as a member of the Pep’s Steakhouse team that won the Mercer American League and then surprised many by stepping up to the Mercer Major and beating Zip’s Steakhouse to capture the title.
More recently, Cregar had been on two powerhouse seniors teams. These include Connecticut’s Sports Plex, which has won over 20 national titles, and a Hollis Rose team based out of Florida that has six national championships on its resume.
The fact Cregar was a member of squads like those tells you all you need to know about how highly his hitting skills were regarded. On the local front he was on many of the greatest teams in the history of the area and New Jersey, but the one he rates the best was from none other than his home town in Ewing.
“I would say Larkin’s Gulf,” said Cregar, who was a pitcher for much of his career. “We didn’t have a lot of competition (in the Ewing A League), but we had a lot of great players like Bunky (Miller), Jerry (Reeves) and Ricky (D’Angelo). Artie (Kearns) was the (player)/ coach. Artie and (John) Zappley (Jr.) were the best coaches I ever played with.
“It was a great time with Larkin’s. We had a lot of fans and the players were like a family.”
Much like all the team titles and individual honors that have come his way, Cregar naturally has a plethora of memorable anecdotes from his distinguished career.
“I remember one time I was playing with Tommy (“Chicken”) Krenchicki in a tournament in Easton (Pa.),” began Cregar. “People think I’m cocky, but Tommy was even more so. He didn’t like a call that went against us at second base so to get even the next time he got up he hit 36 straight foul balls to the left of third base. That’s not easy to do; it requires amazing bat control.
“This was before there were foul ball rules, but the tournament director came up and told Chicken if he hit one more foul ball he would throw him out of the game. Tommy then hit another foul ball and refused to get out of the batter’s box. What a scene that was.”
Those early years with Pep’s will also always stick out in his mind.
“We had a fierce rivalry with Zip’s,” said Cregar. “Zip’s had guys like Chunky (Serenelli), who I played against in high school and American Legion. There was a lot of hatred and trash talking between the teams. I didn’t get along with Chunky, but I have all the respect in the world for him.”
It’s respect, after all, what it’s really always been about.
“I will always have memories of all the great guys I played with,” said Cregar. “It’s not just of how they were as players. I have so much respect for them as people.”
As his fellow competitors have for Cregar.
“Nobody has worked harder on his craft (hitting) than Chip,” said Kearns. “I was there the time Krenchicki hit all those foul balls and the only one I ever saw who also could have done that was Chip.
“Chip always said Tommy Krenchicki and me were the best hitters he ever saw. I say Chip is the best hitter I have ever seen.”