Dateline: September 1978. A sunny day at the long ago-demolished Jersey City Roosevelt Stadium, the home field for Hudson Catholic Football and Baseball (and for many other Jersey City high schools).
Filming of the famous Willie Mays Schaefer Beer Circle Of Sports commercial that ran for two years on local TV stations. Beside the Baseball Hall of Famer, two other individuals featured in the commercial were both local, both having Hudson Catholic connections. Mays had already been retired since 1974, but stayed with the New York Mets organization for a number of years after that.
You can see it for yourself on You Tube at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP40WdUWvG4
The pitcher featured grooving the ball into Mays for his home run swing is Bob Kelly, then a senior at St. Mary’s, who had attended Hudson Catholic for his first three years, before transferring.
The centerfielder in the ad, seen mainly with his back to the camera chasing the home run ball in vain until it drops over the 410’ sign is Andy Darpino, at the time a teacher, head football coach, and assistant baseball coach at HC.
The story behind what appeared on film starts with two Hudson County coaching legends: Rocky Pope and ‘The Faa’, Eddie Ford, who got wind of the plans to film the commercial at Roosevelt Stadium. Faa tipped Kelly, and Rocky tipped Andy, and somehow they found themselves on the field when the production truck pulled up.
Kelly was having quite a month for himself, filming a TV ad and signing a professional contract with the Milwaukee Brewers as an unrestricted free agent. In his freshman year in ’75 he pitched two innings in relief in the County Championship Game lost to Memorial at Veterans Stadium Bayonne. Bobby had been recruited by Rocky and played for three years at Hudson. He joined a stacked team at St. Mary’s, with righty Kelly and lefty Tom Caulfield on the mound, and the wily Ford at the helm. Kelly’s signing by the Brewers was pure coincidence -- the Brewers scout in attendance to see Caulfield wound up seeing Kelly instead. Kelly promptly threw a no-hitter that day to get on the Brewers’ radar.
Andy, a 1973 Marist graduate, was in the midst of a four year run on the Hudson faculty, while coaching two sports.
The commercial took several hours to film. Both Kelly and Darpino got to meet Willie and remember him as very nice, personable and welcoming. Willie asked Kelly about himself and complimented him for his pitching ability, and signed a baseball for Andy, reading “Willie Mays, New York Mets”.
After the scenes of Kelly pitching to Willie and Willie taking his home run swings, Willie cleared out for the filming of the ball going over the wall. That was left to Bobby and Andy, who claimed they were worn out from the work. Darpino was filmed mainly with his back to the camera as balls went over the wall, having been hurled by Kelly from a cherry picker stationed in centerfield! From Darpino: ”Let’s just say we didn’t get it done on the first take.” From Kelly: “My arm was hanging at the end of the day.”
Perhaps the most asked question of Kelly and Darpino about their experience is about what they were paid. Both said they would have done the ad for free, just to be in it. Their memories are quite clear and consistent, each recalling payment up front of $350, and then having checks show up every month for about two years, the length that the commercial ran on TV. Their royalties would vary between $60 and $120 from month to month, surpassing $2,000 in total. Small, in comparison to the bragging rights they held among the local crowd, and the experience of meeting the great Willie Mays!
