Richard (Cuffy) McLaughlin

If you want to talk about power and home runs in senior baseball in New Brunswick, Richard (Cuffy) McLaughlin is your man. McLaughlin was the Babe Ruth of the NB Senior Baseball League. He hit them hard, he hit them long, and he hit them often. From the mid 1960s to the 1980s McLaughlin was one of the most feared hitters in NB Baseball. He played intermediate and senior ball with the Ironmen for 22 years.

Not only was he a power hitter, he also hit for average, was an excellent clutch hitter, a good fielder and was very speedy for his size. He could beat out a bunt for a single.

"I had good wheels for my size and could beat out a bunt when I had to" said McLaughlin.

McLaughlin was born in Chatham July 16, 1946 and has spent his life there. He first played minor ball when he was eight or nine years old.

"My father along with Jackie Stevens and Joe Cook started a midget team in 1955 or ’56. I was nine at the time, but Dad wanted me to play so I did. The next year the Chatham Rec Council was formed and I went back to peewee and we won the Maritime title that year. From then on it was non-stop baseball for me" said McLaughlin.

In his earlier days McLaughlin pitched and played outfield, but that changed one night with the Chatham Ironmen.

"Josie Flanagan was our catcher, but he got hurt so our coach Willie Jardine put me in there and that’s where I stayed for 15 years" recalled McLaughlin.

The other place where he was a fixture was in the fourth spot in the batting order. McLaughlin hit some of the more memorable long shots in NB baseball history. Although no exact tape measures exist, descriptions abound.

"I think the longest one I ever hit was at Fisher Field in Fredericton. It was 385 feet to center. Then there was a hill and at the top was a tree. The ball went into the tree" said McLaughlin.

He recalled another in Sussex where a ball sailed over the fence and landed in a tree top well beyond the fence. A third story comes from Grand Falls, NB where McLaughlin launched one over the fence. A story in The Miramichi Weekend described it as follows:

"This was a relatively quiet Sunday afternoon, and an elderly lady was sitting in her backyard beyond the outfield fence, but Cuffy’s mammoth shot cleared the fence, hit her apple tree, shook down about two dozen apples and scared the hell out of her. The poor soul thought it was the end of the world. A lot of opposing pitchers who faced Cuffy thought, or feared, the same thing."

The same article quoted Fredericton-Marysville’s Scotty Harvey, a former pro baseball player and certainly one of the best in the province, as saying that Cuffy "could DH (designated hitter) in the senior league until he was 50!"

I remember playing third base against Cuffy in the Miramichi Valley Intermediate Baseball League when he turned on a ball and it came screaming towards me. Fortunately, it was slightly above my head. I reached to grab it, but it literally tore the webbing out of my glove.

I can also remember playing against Cuffy when we were both bantam age. He batted right and I was playing right field in Chatham Head. He clouted one to the opposite field and I was on my horse. I saw the fence, jumped and came down with the ball. A vanilla cone gleamed out of my webbing. It was headed out of the park. Even at that age Cuffy had the power to put the ball where grown men had trouble hitting it.

Greg Morris was a teammate of Cuffy’s and coached him for many years on the Ironmen.

"Cuffy was a laid back individual with great strength, particularly in his forearms. He had a good eye for hitting and he was a lot faster than most people thought. He had great skills as a catcher and if he were young today, he would be signed by some Major League team. He was always a power hitter. I remember one year when Cuffy was in bantam and Chatham was hosting either the Atlantic or Maritime championship. They had put up a snow fence inside Ironmen Field with the proper dimensions for bantam aged players. Cuffy came to bat and hit the ball not only over the snow fence, but over the Ironmen Field fence as well. People there were amazed" said Morris.

But that was not unusual for Cuffy. After playing midget ball, he went directly to the Chatham Ironmen.

"I was not quite 15 years old when I started playing for the Ironmen, and that’s where I finished my career. I played with the Ironmen when they were intermediate and senior. It was the only place I played other than being picked up by teams going to the nationals" said McLaughlin.

And picked up Cuffy was. As close as he can recollect, he attended seven nationals and has a bronze and silver medal to his credit. In addition McLaughlin was a perennial All-Star selection to the NB Senior squad. He was a lifetime .400 plus hitter.

McLaughlin has twice gone to the NB Baseball Hall of Fame. He was inducted as a player in 1995 and again in 1999 as part of the 1975 Chatham Ironmen. McLaughlin played into his late 30s before retiring in the mid 1980s.

Cuffy was also a pretty good hockey player. He helped lead several minor teams to provincial titles and played with the Chatham Ironmen and Newcastle Northmen in the North Shore Senior League.

McLaughlin has worked as a policeman since 1975, first with the Town of Chatham and presently with the City of Miramichi.

McLaughlin will still suit up for the odd Miramichi Valley Baseball League Oldtimers Tournament held each August in Chatham Head.

"Baseball has given me some of the best times of my life. It kept me and a lot of others off the street and out of trouble. There was not a minute of it I didn’t enjoy. Win or lose."

His plaque at the NB Baseball Hall of Fame in Fredericton reads "One of the most fearsome hitters they had ever seen" and one who had "the ability to deliver a key hit" and a player with "extraordinary eye-hand co-ordination."

Cuffy McLaughlin was "Mr. Home Run" on the Miramichi.

AB R H D T HR RBI SB BA
1970 67 18 27 3 1 5 20 3 .403
1971 79 31 37 5 0 13 44 5 .468
1972 61 23 25 4 0 10 32 2 .410
1974 92 23 33 9 31 .359
1975 94 22 35 7 0 2 28 0 .372
1976 68 20 28 3 1 6 11 2 .412
1977 87 20 28 5 0 5 22 2 .322
1978 99 23 32 6 1 6 26 1 .323
1979 94 16 33 7 0 8 25 2 .351
1980 76 16 27 5 0 3 16 2 .355
1981 33 6 12 1 0 4 8 0 .364
1982 46 13 22 4 0 2 14 0 .478
1983 22 5 7 1 0 1 3 0 .318
1984 13 4 8 1 0 1 2 0 .615
14 Years 931 240 354 52 3 75 282 19 .380