Less and less familiar faces, more and more friends

Mike Burke

The song remains the same. Each year around December, early-January you find yourself wondering how the Dapper Dan Club of Allegany County is going to do it. How in this day and age of sports banquets being what they’ve become, particularly for smaller communities, saddled even more by the horrible economy, will a volunteer community club such as the Dapper Dans, who are woefully short on working members, produce not only an awards banquet for the community, but an awards banquet that will make all who attend feel so absolutely wonderful about what they were just part of, as well as their community and neighbors?

How will they do it, you ask yourself, because as much as it pains you, in your heart, you’re afraid, actually resigned to the fact, that once and for all, this is the year the annual Dapper Dan dinner, a staple of this community for 62 years, will go fizzzzzzle into the cold January night.

Well, save your worries and your wonders, and your fears and your resignations of doom until next December, because they’ve done it again. With nothing more than the good people of this community to work with, the Dapper Dan Club of Allegany County produced a gem last Sunday evening — a solid gold evening of friendship, congratulations, celebrations and giving that actually made you feel kind of sorry at the end of the four-hour evening that it was time for everybody to go home.

Philadelphia Phillies third base coach Sam Perlozzo, who came home to receive his record sixth top award, best summarized the evening when he said, “It’s always great to come home. I see less and less familiar faces, but more and more friends.”

Two of the new faces I have a feeling will become very familiar and welcome faces for the Dapper Dan were those of the Philadelphia Phillies’ Mick Billmeyer and the New York Mets’ Tobi Stoner. Stoner, of course, is the pitcher from Southern Garrett High who last summer became just the latest young athlete from this high-powered football area to play baseball in the major leagues.

Stoner did a great job speaking to the gathering of 300 or so, as did Billmeyer, the Phillies’ bullpen coach. Billmeyer is from the Hagerstown area, but his father Fred is from Cumberland. Thus, Billmeyer said, he’s been coming to Cumberland with his dad for as long as he can remember to watch Fort Hill-Allegany football games, including last season’s playoff game at Greenway.

“When it comes to sports,” said Billmeyer, a former North Hagerstown football player, “Cumberland is it. Right here. It’s the best.”

J.R. Perdew, of course, was one of the familiar faces of the evening, the Chicago White Sox pitching coach being a product and a longtime friend of the Dapper Dan. J.R. once again delivered one of the most entertaining talks of the evening, telling us of the serious consideration he recently gave to leaving baseball, particulary the baseball lifestyle, to follow his grandfather’s footsteps and join Maryland State Police.

J.R. said he wasn’t certain what he was doing with the White Sox was making a difference or not, and he talked to all of those he loved and respected — in and out of the game — until he was blue in the face. He needed to make the decision himself, though; he knew that. But how would he know what decision to make?

Not long before the holidays, Perdew said he received a Christmas card from White Sox ace Mark Buehrle, a former pupil of J.R.’s in the White Sox system, and last season the author of the 18th perfect game in baseball history. In essence the message from Buehrle was, “Thanks for all you’ve taught me, and for all you’ve done for my career.”

Maryland State Police’s loss, for now, remains baseball’s gain.

Then, of course, we have the three newest faces of them all from last Sunday’s Dapper Dan event: 2010 League for Crippled Children Child of the Year Cheyenne Bosley, and Most Courageous Athletes of the evening, Peyton Penrod and Kaden Sharpless, who flat out stole the show and made the evening their own, lighting up the room by simply being themselves.

Of course, the evening really was their own to begin with. For Cheyenne, Peyton and Kaden are the reason there is a Dapper Dan Club, whose members battle and scrape through the course of every year to ensure one of the many things our community can do is celebrate an annual event like the one we have been celebrating for the last 62 years for the likes of Cheyenne, Peyton and Kaden, whose love, hope and spirit must never go fizzle into the night.

Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.