By Steve Sears

Billy Sisca possesses something special.

The 1973 graduate of Morris Knolls High School and a member of its baseball team, said, “I have the original posted lineup from a guy that was our shortstop the day of the Morris County Tournament championship game. After the game, we went back to Morris Knolls, and the posted lineup was on the wall. He grabbed it and put it in his pocket. He had it for the 50 years, and about four years ago, one day he said, ‘Billy, I have something for you.’ Then he told me the story of how he got it.”

Mark Kanouse was that second baseman, and he gave to Sisca the last written lineup of the retiring, 23-year legendary Golden Eagles head coach, Gene Kelly. It was that day a first ever MCT title for the Morris Knolls High School baseball program when they faced Parsippany High School and their pitching ace and future major leaguer, Paul Mirabella, and won 2 – 0.

Shortstop John Schiffner said of he and his teammates, “It was a talented team, and we had been together for a long time. The senior class,

almost every one of us was a starter as a sophomore. And we were experienced; we had gamers. We just had all the pieces.”

Still few people expected Morris Knolls, who had 16 wins and 8 losses overall, to get to the title game.

Kanouse said, “We were in a conference called the Iron Area Conference, and believe it or not, finished fifth. We were not supposed to be there (the MCT final); not a question about it. The nice story is we wanted to give Kelly a sendoff; we wanted to win it for him.”

Sisca, a left fielder, may have struck out three times against Parsippany in the county final, but contributed in a big way by hitting a grand slam homerun in the bottom of the seventh in the opening round against Mountain Lakes.

Sisca said, “The only thing I remember was hitting the ball, and I knew it was going as soon as I hit it. And I remember hitting home plate and just being jumped on by every coach and every guy on the team.”

Golden Eagles’ pitching ace, Kevin McClain, said, “It was at our home field, and that fence was a long way – 360′!”

The smash turned a 3 – 2 defecit into a 6 – 3 victory, and the Golden Eagles would now move on and play Montville in the quarterfinals, whom they beat, 4 – 2.

Powerful Morristown, the reigning MCT champion, was next up, and the game was tied at 1 – 1 in extra innings. With two out, Mark George sliced a double down the right field line, and moved to third when the throw from the gap sailed over Colonial second baseman Rick Sofield’s head. Art Cougle came to the plate three batters later and hit a shot over the centerfielder’s head, scoring George for the victory.

However, there was some bad news: the Golden Eagles would be minus their talented shortstop, John Shiffner, for the championship game, who got injured in the Morristown contest.

Schniffer said, “I got wiped out in a double play. I was turning a double play at second base, and it was unintentional. The knee went one way, and the body went another.”

Kanouse shifted to shortstop for the Parsippany game, and Lee Seras, who coached the junior varsity team and aided Kelly with the varsity, had received some key instructions during the bus ride.

“Gene said to me, ‘I want you to call signals; this is my last game as coach.’ And I looked at him and said, ‘But I am the JV coach!’ But we had such good athletes, that aside from a couple of bunt and steal signs, I told Kevin, ‘Go out and pitch the game of your life.’

McClain, who was 6–3 in 1973, did just that, pitching a two-hitter and striking out 13, earning the nod as Most Valuable Player of the MCT.

McClain said, “I played for a great coach and program, and had great teammates. And the young guys – they really helped push us over the top and got us the runs to help us win. From my standpoint, I just remember a good group of guys that had a lot of fun playing together, and it was not done by any one person, it was done by a collection of guys who just kept fighting,”