My Biggest Omission: Peabody's 1999 Babe Ruth world champions

By Matt Williams
staff writer

August 19, 2008 12:10 am

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While it doesn't get the same spotlight as Little League Baseball and the showcase it puts on each August in Williamsport, Pa., the Babe Ruth World Series is nothing to scoff at. Winning the title is most certainly an amazing accomplishment.

If I had my way, Peabody's 1999 world title at the 14-year-old Babe Ruth World Series held in Clifton Park, N.Y. would have been among our top 10 most amazing sports accomplishments from the past 25 years. After all, how often are North Shore folks recognized as the best on the planet in any field?

Led by Jeff Allison and Mark Shorey | who both went on to play professional baseball | the youngsters from the Tanner City cruised to state and New England titles before going 4-0 in World Series play, beating their oppponents by a 40-18 aggregate score. Shorey and Anthony Palmieri still hold the series record for RBIs in a game with seven each.

This was a team for the ages that saw Palmieri, Matt Mello and Bobby Celentano go on to star at Salem State College, while Mark Sakelakos played at UMass-Lowell. Stars such as Hector Arias, Chris Shambos and Tyler Pyburn played big roles, as did Kevin Shelgren, Mike Girolomo, Artie Generazzo and Marc Goncalves.

The core group won three consecutive New England Babe Ruth championships from 1998-2000.

The 1999 Peabody squad is the best youth baseball team the North Shore has ever seen. They had three legit aces in Allison, southpaw Shorey and Arias. Every kid on the team could hit, from the top dog to the last man off the bench. You never knew who would be the hero at the dish on a given night | just that someone would. Manager Gary Palmieri made sure each of them had a chance, seeming to tab the right players at the right times with ease.

Other omissions that tugged my heartstrings were 2002 Marblehead High girls soccer goalie Ali Shube's national record 21 straight shutouts and, of course, Peabody High's titanic upset of then-nationally ranked St. John's Prep, 36-0, in the 1993 Super Bowl.