years scraping a team of just Marlborough players. "The kids don’t have the commitment anymore," says Bennett. "They go on vacation and take weekends off. Last year we were using charter school kids and JV players. " The losses piled up, 44 against five wins during the final two years.

"It was a battle," says Bennett. "It was time to end it. We couldn’t compete anymore."

Bennett hated to break the news to the Post 132 board. "They were always supporting us financially. I never had to beg for money."

The late Ted Rolfe, a Northborough legend, was the first Post 132 coach, 1980-84. Ken Giardina, Bill Rigney, Brian Davis, Joe Apicella, Paul Duplessis and Bob Wood followed, with Bennett assisting on the field while still wearing the GM hat.

Although Marlboroughand Hudson are archrivals at the high school level, their American Legion teams competed in different zones. Now, Hudson can take Marlborough players. "I’ve already heard from a couple of them," says Hudson manager Blair Brissette. "It opens up our recruiting area. But I feel bad for Art and those guys. They put a lot of time into it. But there are fewer and fewer kids interested in baseball now."

Brissette only had 18 players try out last season. He kept them all. The team went 8-12 and hasn’t finished over .500 in years. Brissette only took Hudson players for a while, then the Clinton Legion program closed down a couple of years ago. Hudson had one player from Clinton and two from Nashoba Regional last season.

"We put a