A legend remembered

Mourners pack stadium’s Legends Club to honor Morrison

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by GARY SMITH Little League baseball and softball memorabilia and floral tributes lined the side and back walls of Regency Furniture Stadium’s conference room Monday for the funeral of longtime coach Tommy Morrison. St. Mary’s Ryken softball coach Mike Kriner, looking at the displays, and Morrison co-coached on Big League teams in 1997, 1998 and 2003. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Monday, the life of the Little League icon — whose resume includes four World Series championships and 35 years of experience –– was given a kingly reception as hundreds of mourners of all ages filed into the newly constructed Regency Furniture Stadium, the lavish professional baseball home of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, to pay their respects at his viewing and funeral.

The stadium’s Legends Club conference center –– a fittingly named location given Morrison’s revered stature in the community –– hosted the large turnout of family and friends, which included players and coaches influenced by the 66-year-old in the baseball and softball worlds of Little League and College of Southern Maryland.

‘‘His sense of humor, and he always had a comeback for anything you had,” said longtime close friend and fellow Little League and CSM softball coach John Creaturo of those things he will miss about Morrison. Creaturo was among the keynote speakers during the funeral, attended by an estimated 250 to 300 people. ‘‘I think I’ll miss just watching him think, knowing that everything was running through his head. There wasn’t a minute that he was on the field that he wasn’t thinking about what he was going to do next.

‘‘He’s done just about everything you can do. As far as I’m concerned, he should be in the [Washington D.C.] metropolitan softball hall of fame.”

Morrison, the president of Waldorf American Little League at the time of his death and a successful CSM softball coach for 22 seasons before stepping down last year, passed away unexpectedly last Wednesday due to injuries sustained from a car accident in La Plata. According to Morrison’s family, autopsy results did not reveal a heart attack moments before the accident as initially suspected.

Morrison served as Waldorf American’s president or chairman of the board for at least the last 30 years, according to league charter member and 20-year treasurer Barbara Montgomery.

Monday’s viewing featured Morrison in his signature Waldorf American attire that he would don to the fields, sporting the red ball cap with the blue W along with the league’s red polo shirt and navy blue jacket. Along the backside of his casket were medals from his teams’ World Series appearances.

There was also a picture from his younger years displayed above him, while the area around the casket included flowers and an enlarged recent photo of him as the CSM head coach.

Morrison served in the Air Force from 1962-66 and thus his casket was closed and covered by the U.S. flag during the 7 p.m. funeral service Monday. Viewing hours started five hours earlier.

The burial took place Tuesday at Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery in Prince George’s County.

A plethora of photo displays, plaques and other memorabilia noting Morrison’s coaching exploits and contributions lined the walls of the Legends Club on Monday.

Originally, the viewing and funeral were to take place outside on the field of Regency Furniture Stadium.

Morrison was a major proponent for the stadium’s erection in Southern Maryland with hopes of the Little League World Series being played there someday, according to former county commissioner Daniel Mayer, who emceed the funeral.

Morrison’s casket would have been displayed over home plate of the stadium as a form of pomp and circumstance that could no better illustrate his life.

But the heavy rainfall that poured through the area through Monday moved the plans inside to the Legends Club, which became a quality contingency plan.

The idea behind using the professional stadium originated with Michael Raymond, whose funeral home in La Plata handled Morrison’s arrangements.

‘‘[The Blue Crabs brass’] answer was a resounding yes,” Raymond said of the stadium’s desire to host Morrison’s viewing and funeral. ‘‘The family was thrilled that [the stadium] was offered, that he could be at a ballpark.”

‘‘What an appropriate venue,” added CSM athletic director Michelle Ruble, a former Little League player for Morrison. ‘‘I was so pleased to find out [that his viewing and funeral] was going to be at a ballfield. The casket is trimmed with a ball glove and interior is embroidered with that. Everything in this [Legends Club] room encapsulates the spirit of him, I believe.”

‘‘It was very touching to see all the people come out to celebrate his life,” said Morrison’s daughter, Sheri. She has a sister, Susan Kline, and brother, Tommy Jr., who were involved in the funeral as a speaker and pallbearer, respectively. ‘‘He touched so many people on the ball field, so many kids. So many kids.”

Winning, relationships mattered

Morrison’s Little League coaching career was unparalleled. He celebrated four World Series championships – in 1986 at the 13- to 15-year-old baseball level and then three more in the Big League softball ranks (16-18 year olds) during Southern Maryland’s dominant run from 1997 to 2003, when the area claimed an international-best five World Series crowns overall.

During his 12-year tenure as head coach of CSM softball, Morrison’s teams boasted a gaudy 286-133-1 record with three state and three regional titles and finished seventh in the country on three occasions. Morrison and Creaturo traded spots as head and assistant coaches during their accomplished eras atop CSM.

‘‘I think he’s the only coach to win a baseball and softball championship in Little League, in boys and girls,” Creaturo said of Morrison. ‘‘One of our fun times after a game was sitting down and discussing what-ifs and could’ve, should’ve, would’ve plays.

‘‘He was one of my best friends for sure. We didn’t see each other much during the offseason. During the season, we were as close as brothers. He was just a great guy to be around.”

Waldorf American just celebrated its 40th anniversary last month, and the memorable 32-year relationship between Montgomery and Morrison went way back to when the organization was known as the Northern Charles County Little League during its initial existence.

‘‘I would quote somebody else that said, ‘How appropriate that his memorial service would be here [at the Legends Club],’ because he certainly was a legend in Charles County,” Montgomery said Monday as she passed out commemorative Waldorf American pins at the viewing that displayed a back ribbon around a baseball above the words, In Loving Memory of Tom Morrison. ‘‘He just liked coaching kids. He loved them, and they loved him. It was a great relationship.”

To pay their respects to Morrison, an array of little leaguers and coaches from many organizations were clad in their uniforms – reminiscent of an opening day ceremony with a variety of teams on hand.

As the Waldorf American president, Morrison was always a fixture on opening day with a recognizable, friendly face that even the youngest T-ball player was familiar with. Monday, many of the young little leaguers associated the Little League prayer and pledge with Morrison.

‘‘He always used to play with me, because I was short or whatever, and he always used to put his hand up and said, ‘Can you reach this?’ And I always used to jump and could touch [his hand],” 11-year-old Waldorf American player Mark Escanilla recalled of his playful time with Morrison. ‘‘He always asked, ‘Can you beat your [older] brother in a race, because my brother is, like, real fast?’ And I said, ‘Nah, not yet.’”

The fun-spirited Escanilla then quickly changed his tone, somberly adding: ‘‘I talked to him the day before he died at batting practice.”

Escanilla was among the many past and present little leaguers and CSM players with a heavy heart Monday.

‘‘I did not actually know him that much, but it is really nice to be viewing him and to be invited to the viewing,” said 9-year-old Brandon Cundiff of Waldorf American. ‘‘He seemed like a very nice guy.”

‘‘He was really nice,” echoed Thomas Walz, another 9-year-old Waldorf American player. ‘‘He seemed to understand how people felt about him, really, and seemed to understand the way people played. He was really good at explaining to people how to play the game. Everybody that had, like, a connection with him of some sort, they played really well.

‘‘He spoke [in a way] that grownups and kids understood him.”

Josh Waseleski, a Waldorf American 13-year-old, added. ‘‘He was a great, great man. I knew him for a while. I played for him just one [season]. He always taught us to hustle in baseball. He was a very good mentor, great coach. He helped me a lot.”

‘‘Softball, sports – that was just his life – and with [his viewing and funeral] being here, it suits him well, a classy way and Tommy’s style to have everything like this,” said Jamea Waltersdorff, a former CSM player and 2003 Big League World Series champion under Morrison. ‘‘He knew his strategy, and he was going to do it and you were sticking to it – that’s how it was going to be done. He was also the kind of guy that, no matter how bad your day went, the first thing he’d say to you is, ‘You look good, girl.’ He was always positive and always made you feel upbeat because he was happy to see you.

‘‘‘You get prettier and prettier everyday,’ that’s what he would always say.”

That famed line was reiterated during the funeral by Kline, who told of how her father would encourage her and her daughter.

Walz’s father, Thomas, a Little League manager, has been involved in Waldorf American for five years.

‘‘He was very thoughtful and caring,” the minor league manager said. ‘‘You don’t get that kind of person to be there that long without knowing the right things to do with community development. [Morrison’s passing] reminds you to make your time here [in life] feel more important.”

Morrison’s final hourat the ballpark

Morrison’s funeral ended with Joe Gardiner, known as the area’s singing umpire, leading the congregation in ‘‘Take Me out to the Ballgame,” as pallbearers carried the casket out of the building.

Gardiner comprised a cast of funeral speakers that shared their thoughts and memories about the beloved Morrison.

‘‘He was consistent and left a winner,” Waldorf American board member Charlie Brewer told the funeral gathering. ‘‘I’ll miss his counsel.”

‘‘Every person should have a friend in their life ...Tommy was that kind of person,” were speaker Fred Richard’s words.

Army Capt. Mark Kline, Morrison’s son-in-law and husband to Susan, who just returned from Iraq, saluted the casket before and after his address to those in attendance at the funeral. The soldier cited John 15:13 in the Bible about there being no greater love than laying down your life for a friend, as he paid tribute to military personnel of the past and present, which includes Morrison.