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Major Leaguer buried in New Gloucester
Did you know? A major league baseball player is buried in New Gloucester?
Ben Houser was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania in November, 1883, and he died in Augusta in 1952. He played three seasons in the Majors, but Houser was one of only 224 Major League players who hit an inside-the-park home run while the bases were loaded. He did it on October 9, 1911.
Houser is buried in the New Gloucester Cemetery, New Gloucester, Maine because it is a local family plot. Houser was married to local girl Gladys Guptill Houser, and her folks were Daniel and Alice Rollins Guptill.
Houser played in 1910 for the Philadelphia Athletics, in 1911 for the Boston Rustlers and in 1912 for the Boston Braves.
Houser's stats:
College: None Attended
Bats: Left
Throws: Left
Height: 6-01
Weight: 185
First Game:
05-02-1910 (Age 26)
Last Game:
10-05-1912
1910-12 Athletics, Braves
Games 162
Average .267
HR 9
RBI 68
According to "When Towns had Teams" by Jim Baumer, available in New Gloucester's Pineland Visitor's Center, "as communities recovered after the Second World War, normalcy returned with the homecomings of their young men.
Local baseball again became the focus in many small towns across the state, providing Mainers with entertainment on warm summer nights and quiet Sunday afternoons after church. Ask anyone who might have lived in a small Maine town or even one of the few cities in the state and they'll tell you that during the 1950's and 1960's, the local baseball team was afforded a prominent place in their parochial pecking order."
The interest in little, local teams in days gone by is also attested to in the book, "History, Records, and Recollections of Gray, Maine, Volume 1" by George T. Hill.
Hill wrote, "Baseball was developed in the United States around the middle of the last century. It soon became popular, and teams were formed in Gray and surrounding towns; there were probably two or three teams in Gray in the 1870's.
"A news item printed in 1881 reads, 'The Cumberland base ball club play at North Gray today against the North Grays.' An item that appeared in 1886 reads, 'On account of the weather the past week, the boys were unable to complete their grounds on the park, and the return game with the Raymonds was played at Dry Mills. The pitcher of the Grays not being there, his place was filled by McConkey; he did well, considering it was his first game of the year, and was well supported by Morrill. The score at the close of the game stood 14 to 15 in favor of the Grays.'
"The town continued to field one or more baseball teams well into the twentieth century. Pennell Institute organized a baseball team soon after it opened in 1886. Games were played on the field back of the school."
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