“As president of Babe Ruth Baseball and according to its policy, I take great pleasure in officially announcing that Jamestown, New York has been awarded the first Babe Ruth 13 Year Old World Series to be held in 1980. This is based on the favorable recommendation of the Babe Ruth Baseball on-site inspection team comprised of Commissioner Ron Tellefsen of Trenton, New Jersey and board member Bill Smith of Chickasha, Oklahoma.”

Richard W. Case, President

Babe Ruth Baseball

The telegram above arrived at the City Parks Recreation and Conservation Department office of Russell E. Diethrick Jr. on Aug. 6, 1979.

In this August 1980 file photo, Miami’s Kirk Dulom belts a home run during the Babe Ruth 13-year-old World Series at College Stadium. P-J file photo

The word count was 72.

The Babe Ruth World Series memories generated since?

Beyond measure.

For when Diethrick opened that Western Union missive from Case that afternoon, it not only affirmed Jamestown’s relationship with Babe Ruth Baseball through World Series week in August 1980, it also began a partnership that has lasted, and will likely last for years to come.

“We had no idea in 1980 that we’d be doing it again,” Diethrick said.

In this August 1980 file photo, a base runner from Miami tries to avoid the tag of the New Orleans catcher during the championship game of the Babe Ruth 13-year-old World Series at College Stadium. P-J file photo

Yes, it’s been nearly four decades since Jamestown was the host for the first-ever 13-year-old World Series.

A lot has happened since then, but the attitude and the attention to detail that the local committee first demonstrated in the late 1970s has not wavered.

“The tribute to the community is that the Babe Ruth League officials from Trenton (N.J.) and the Babe Ruth community outside of Jamestown want and desire to come back to Jamestown,” said Diethrick, the host president for all but two of the World Series. “That’s probably the most satisfying thing.”

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Babe Ruth International had been watching Jamestown from afar for a number of years before that first World Series in 1980.

The city had been the site for state and regional tournaments as far back as the early 1970s and, because of the success here, officials in Trenton, particularly Tellefsen, then a Babe Ruth commissioner, wanted Jamestown to do more.

Tellefsen, the chief executive officer of Babe Ruth League Inc. for 25 years before his death in 2005, began suggesting to Diethrick that Jamestown would be a good candidate for a World Series some day.

In July 1979, Jamestown was one of three cities — Charlotte, North Carolina, and Glasgow, Kentucky, were the others — still in the running for the 13-year-old World Series. Tellefsen and the late Bill Smith, who was the chairman of the board for Babe Ruth League Inc., were given a tour of the city. At a dinner at the Ironstone Restaurant on July 10, 1979, the Babe Ruth officials said a decision on a site would be made by Aug. 6.

At precisely 1:13 p.m. that day, Case sent off the telegram to Diethrick.

Twenty-four hours later, then-Mayor Steven B. Carlson held a press conference at City Hall to formally announce Jamestown as the site for the 1980 13-year-old World Series.

In attendance, among others, were Diethrick; George Mathews, sponsor of the Mathews and Miller Athletic Club; and Dennis Ewing Sr., president of the Jamestown Babe Ruth League.

“The selection of Jamestown as the site … I think is a tribute to the leadership and dedication of these three men and many more people like them in our community who volunteer their time, talent and money to help the young people of this area grow and mature through the learning experience known as organized baseball,” Carlson said at the time. “And now, through their efforts, not only will our young people involved in Babe Ruth Baseball have an opportunity to experience first hand a Babe Ruth World Series, but the entire area of Western New York state and the more than 5,000 expected visitors can join with us in the thrill to be experienced in Jamestown next August.”

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Carlson’s comments were on the mark.

Soon after his official announcement, area residents began lining up to help.

“Leading up to it, the excitement of the community was instant,” Diethrick said. “Help was coming from all over. The community was excited because it was unknown to us, most certainly.”

Armed with a committee that numbered in the hundreds, Jamestown began the task of putting together the 13-year-old World Series. As it turned out, it was an unqualified success.

During that eight-day span, Jamestown played host to Dorothy Pirone, Babe Ruth’s daughter, and Hall-of-Famer Ernie Banks; and attendance totaled 40,915 for the 17 games, including 6,895 who jammed College Stadium for the final two contests between teams from New Orleans and Miami. The final day also brought a fledgling cable network, known as ESPN, to town.

For the record, Miami downed New Orleans twice, 7-3 and 4-3. The title game was decided by an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh inning. Kirk Dulom of Miami was selected the World Series Most Valuable Player after belting three home runs and driving in 13 runs.

Dulom went on to play collegiately at the University of Miami for Coach Ron Fraser. Fraser was the speaker at the Banquet of Champions at the 2000 Babe Ruth World Series in Jamestown.

Diethrick spoke to Dulom that year and he said that Dulom had many memories of his visit to Jamestown.

“He remembers Babe Ruth’s car (which was owned by the late Les Ostrander, an area resident), the Babe Ruth parade, he remembers his host family and he remembers the stadium,” Diethrick said. “He also has a little bit of a memory about hitting those home runs, but he just remembers all the other excitement about the World Series.”

It was indeed a show.

Jamestown, as Babe Ruth officials quickly learned, knows how to do the job right.

“After the first day in 1980, the Babe Ruth officials came to our committee and asked if we’d consider doing it in 1981,” Diethrick recalled. “I’m not sure that gave us an indication we’d be doing it (all these years later), but you get a chance to look back on it and see the product that the people of Jamestown and Chautauqua County were able to put together as far as World Series happenings are concerned. You can see it was normal and natural that Jamestown would be considered to have more and more World Series.”

“The attitude at that time wasn’t to make a lot of money, but to do what is good for Jamestown and Babe Ruth Baseball,” Tellefsen said. “I could see once the World Series was under way that we had strong visions that we wanted to come back here. Once we made that known to Russ, it was a good partnership right then and there. It was a partnership where you didn’t need a contract. That’s a good relationship.”

World Series followed in 1981, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2015. The first 12-and-under Softball World Series was held in 1999 at Bergman Park. Adding 2018, 2021, 2023 and this year’s tournament brings Jamestown’s total to 20. One doesn’t have to check with Elias Sports Bureau to determine 20-for-45 is a pretty fair batting average.

“Once we got into Jamestown, the backbone was there,” Tellefsen said. “The host families, the World Series parade and the banquet. Everything was first class.”

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Why have Babe Ruth officials in Trenton returned to Jamestown so often?

Diethrick believes he knows why.

“Many of the things we started in 1980 and continue to do … are items that surface in the World Series program throughout the nation,” he said.

In other words, Jamestown has become the blueprint for other host cities to follow. Not coincidentally, it has been the World Series Training Center since 1986, meaning that any city that wants to host a World Series must come to Jamestown to learn the ropes.

“As this developed, Jamestown and Chautauqua County took it to the next step,” Diethrick said. “We’re always adding concepts and ideas and parts to the program. We signed that first contract, but we had no idea (about how to run a World Series). We had some thoughts, we had some maybes, but we had no idea what we were getting into. It was just that skill and willingness as a team to approach the unknown and react to what we had to do at that time.”

The innovations the local committee initiated included: providing meals for the teams upon their arrival at JCC, courtesy of the East Side Fellowship Club; conducting an ice-breaker picnic at Bergman Park the day before the World Series starts; and holding a home-run derby.

“The money in the bank in Jamestown is the players are guaranteed to be well taken care of,” Tellefsen said. “Here you have all the ingredients.”

In fact, Tellefsen said, Jamestown is held in the highest regard by those who have visited the city during a World Series, including residents of Moses Lake, Washington, the 1995 16-year-old champions.

“I went to Moses Lake to sign the contract (for the 16-year-old World Series that was played there in 2000),” the Babe Ruth CEO said, “and the natives there said the finest World Series site you could ever go to is in Jamestown. They are super ambassadors for Jamestown.”

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By the conclusion of the World Series next weekend, the total number of tournament games played in Jamestown in the last 45 years will number well over 350. But for Diethrick, the final scores aren’t what he remembers most.

“What I like about the World Series is that I’m able to bring friends that I’ve made in the Babe Ruth International organization to meet the friends that I’m on the street with every day,” he said. “The nice thing about those friendships and relationships that I’ve developed in the program is I’ve been able to share with other people. When a Babe Ruth official comes to Jamestown sometimes Russ Diethrick is the last person they talk to because they have hundreds of other friends on the street. Now that’s a good feeling. I’m proud of that.

“Those … teams that are arriving in Jamestown, it’s the first time for them,” Diethrick said. “When they see the World Series played at the stadium, when they see the parade, when they meet their host families, when they go to the ice-breaker picnic, that’s the very first time for them. It’s not the (20th World Series) for them, it’s the first. The committee has kept that in focus. They’re not relaxing and they’re not saying that’s good enough. It’s only good enough when it meets the highest level.”