Steve Barlow Article from Waterbury Republican-American

FALLS VILLAGE — All that’s missing are rows of corn at the outfield’s edge.
The baseball diamond at Housatonic High was dedicated Saturday to the memory of legendary coach Ed Kirby, a man who jammed more into his 92 years of living than the rest of us combined.
Kirby, who died in 2021, was a coach, a teacher, a principal, a geologist, a historian and such an expert on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid that the Discovery Channel sought him out for its documentary on the rascally outlaws.
But we’ll agree with his most famous pupil, former Pittsburgh Pirates ace Steve Blass, that baseball was Kirby’s first love.
If you visit the “Field of Dreams” movie site in Dyersville, Iowa, the best part is that you can step on the field, have a catch (ideally with your dad), run the bases and, naturally, walk out of the corn stalks.
Last Saturday morning, people were invited to do the same at the emerald field that now bears Kirby’s name. All that was missing was the corn.
Under a brilliant blue sky and with the buzz from Lime Rock Park wafting over the hill, about two dozen former Mountaineers spent an hour before the dedication ceremony rapping liners, shagging flies and snagging hard-hit grounders … and maybe a few that weren’t.
The oldest in the outfield was John McGuire, 74, who graduated in 1965 after three years under Kirby. In 1963, he was on Kirby’s Babe Ruth team that won the state championship. Two years later, he was on Kirby’s Housy team that reached the state semifinals. McGuire, the school’s now retired golf coach, remembered Kirby’s practices were always efficient with “more drills than we did in college. He stressed fundamentals. ”Even rainy days weren’t wasted. “We’d throw a base down and learn how to slide — both ways,” McGuire noted.
Kirby was a zealot for fundamentals. In fact, he wrote a 2-inch-thick book on the topic, starting with how to stand during the national anthem.
“That damn handbook,” chuckled Blass, now 80, the pitching star of the 1971 World Series and one of seven Kirby proteges signed to play pro ball. “He told me to learn this by heart. It may weigh more than you do, but you’ve got to learn this if you want to play.” Blass not only learned it, but he always kept it. The book now resides with his grandson.
Willy Yahn graduated in 2014, long after Kirby’s coaching career in the 1950s and ’60s, but even he benefited from the old mentor’s passion for the game.
Yahn, a recently released Baltimore Orioles farmhand, interviewed Kirby a few years back for an article in the local Lakeville Journal. His notepad was crammed with Kirby’s personal memories of witnessing events like Babe Ruth’s final home run in 1935 and Ted Williams’ farewell homer in 1960.“(Kirby) spoke about the game reverentially,” said Yahn, 26. “That’s the way I feel, too. He knew how much I loved the game, and he wanted to share as much as he could.”
Ed Kirby Field sparkles after $112,000 worth of renovations paid for by the school’s alumni association. And there may be more to come.
“Slow runners like me,” said former athletic director Dave Bayersdorfer, “want a home run fence so you don’t get thrown out at second base.”
Which brings us back to the corny idea we started with. Nowadays, the soccer field occupies right and center fields in the fall, so that’s not practicable. But during Ed Kirby’s years, before anyone ever sat in a theater watching “Field of Dreams,” there was, believe it or not, a cornfield in left field at Housatonic.
“The ball was in play there, too,” McGuire explained. “Of course, it was about 400 feet out.”

Reach Steve Barlow at sbarlow@rep-am.com.