Clarence Ruonavaara’s legacy
Clarence Ruonavaara (far right) along with Art McCaffrey and Ed Seghesio at Rec Park in 1964
By PETE FOPPIANO / Healdsburg Correspondent
Healdsburg’s Rec Park has been an integral part of community life for decades, but in recent years it had become frayed around the edges. The bleachers had fallen so far into disrepair that as long ago as 1997 some suggested tearing them down.
That’s when Clarence Ruonavaara stepped in. Perhaps the best baseball pitcher to come out of Rec Park, he joined a community effort to renovate the stands that was completed the day before he died at the age of 92. The Clarence Ruonavaara Grandstand will be formally dedicated in March.
“He attended the meetings of the grandstand renovation committee even though he didn’t know at the time they would be named for him,” said Mayor Gary Plass. “His participation in the community never waned.”
Ruonavaara was an educator, but his passion since childhood was baseball. He played ball at Healdsburg High, UC Berkeley and then for 15 years for the Healdsburg Odd Fellows ball club. In 1950, the Prune Packers began play, and he played until an arm injury forced his retirement at age 39.
Jerry Eddinger sits in the new bleachers at 'the sweetest little ballpark in Northern California.' (Jeff Kan Lee/PD)
In those days, baseball was truly America’s pastime. Since Major League Baseball had no presence in California, ball clubs such as the San Francisco Seals satisfied fans’ craving for baseball. On one occasion, the Prune Packers defeated the visiting Seals, home to players the likes of Lefty O’Doul, Dolph Camilli and, at one time, a skinny kid from North Beach named Joe DiMaggio.
Former Mayor Jerry Eddinger recalls one game in 1952 when the Yakima Bears came to town. They were the farm team for the Seals, and Eddinger was the bat boy. Ruonavaara was coaching the Prune Packers. “Clarence was a teacher and coach,” Eddinger said, “but in addition to sports, he stressed fellowship and a sense of what’s good for the community.”
In 1948, Ruonavaara was instrumental in heading up the Lighting Committee, which brought night time baseball to the town. This was the era when baseball was primarily a daytime game, and the concept of playing at night under the lights, and televising major league games, was just beginning to take hold.
When invited to speak at the Healdsburg Museum Pioneer Award dinner some years ago, Ruonavaara recalled the community effort that resulted in raising $22,000 to install the lights at Rec Park. The Lighting Committee ran the park until 1976, when the City Parks & Rec Department took over management.
Eddinger, whose firm is one of many that helped with renovation work on the bleachers, considers Ruonavaara “like a favorite uncle,” adding that he was “always teaching, always mentoring, in or out of class. In all the years I knew him, I never heard him say a bad word about anyone.”
Ruonavaara toured the completed facilities the Saturday before he died. “Usual city policy,” Plass comments, “is to name public facilities for someone after they have passed on. Facilities such as Giorgi Park, Barbieri Brothers Park, and Langhart Drive all honor important community figures. Clarence got a chance to see the facility named after him before he passed away.”
The ball field itself is named in honor of Art McCaffrey, former high school principal. It was McCaffrey’s suggestion to install lights that led to the formation of the Lighting Committee, which included such community leaders as Quinto Barbieri, Ed Matteoli, Smith Robinson, Ed Demosthene, Ed Seghesio, Felix Lafon, Francis Passalaqua and many others.
The park has for decades been used for football games, the Future Farmers Fair, baseball and events of all types.
The 20-member steering committee worked diligently raising over $500,000 in cash donations, coordinating volunteers and keeping the project on track. Twenty-five local contractors contributed their time and expertise, while another 30 suppliers generously discounted materials.
To date, the project has received more than 7,500 hours of volunteer labor.
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Wouldn’t it be a great tribute to ALL of those on the Lighting Committee if a bronze plaque was installed somewhere appropriate within the Park. Certinally they ALL should have been honored a very long time ago…..
There is a bronze plaque bearing all names that were on the lighting committee. It is on a large stone by the bleachers as you enter the park for football games. Perhaps it should be on the grandstand side of the park.