State champ LL manager recalls Canton days

By Jay Turner

Late last month, with his team vying for the state title at the Taunton West Little League complex, Andover Nationals manager Paul Finn spotted a familiar face in the crowd — one that brought him all the way back to his playing days as a Dodger in the Canton Little League.

It was Jerry Delang, Finn’s former Dodgers manager and one of a handful of Canton “legends” who cultivated his talents and inspired a lifelong love of the game.

“It was pretty touching, pretty cool,” said Finn of seeing Delang, one of his personal heroes, in attendance at a couple of the games.

For Finn, it was yet another special moment in a summer that had already been filled with them — from his team’s 7-1 run to the District 14 championship to its thorough dismantling of all three opponents in the Section 4 tournament.

And it continued down in Taunton, where the Nationals defeated teams from Wellesley, Braintree and Worcester, then Braintree again in a 7-6 nail biter to capture the Massachusetts Little League title.

“You don’t realize how hard it is to get out of Massachusetts,” said Finn, a former baseball star at Canton High who went on to pitch at Boston College. “There are so many good teams.”

Yet it was Finn’s Andover squad, featuring his youngest son, Jack, that proved to be the best of the best, and the magical ride continued at the New England Region tournament in Bristol, Connecticut, where the Nationals went 2-2 in pool play before knocking off New Hampshire 9-4 in the tournament semifinals.

The victory avenged a previous 5-2 loss to New Hampshire and brought them within one win of reaching the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. But it was not meant to be, as the team fell to Rhode Island 13-7 in the New England Region championship game on Saturday, August 13.

“It was disappointing,” said Finn of the season-ending loss. “To be that close — to be one game away — it was bittersweet.”

At the same time, Finn described the entire run from late June to mid August as “unbelievable” and even “surreal.” Most of all, he said, it was a testament to the players’ talent, hard work, and positive attitude that they were able to advance as far as they did.

“The kids could not have worked harder, and they couldn’t get enough of it,” said Finn, whose team played or practiced almost every day for two months straight.

Overall, Andover finished 18-4, including a stretch of 15 wins in 16 games en route to the state championship. The team was so dominant in the sectional tournament that it won every game by the “mercy rule,” tallying 62 runs in four games while allowing just 15.

Through it all, Finn was reminded of his childhood in Canton and all the valuable lessons he had learned on the diamond from people like Delang, Ed Dockray, and his father, the late Paul Finn Sr.

“I was channeling all those guys when we were going on this run,” said Finn. “They had built up such a great tradition of giving back to these kids and teaching them to play the game the right way, and that’s what I’ve tried to do with my players.”

As for performing the dual functions of parent and coach, Finn said he always tries to “err on the side of not favoring [his] kids” — something he learned from his own father, a longtime coach who had served on the Canton Little League board of directors.

His father had also taught him another important lesson — to win with class — and on the night before his dad’s birthday, with his team holding a big lead against New Hampshire and all but assured of heading to the regional championship, Finn reminded his players to “handle it like gentlemen.”

And to a player, they all responded — personifying their coach’s philosophy that “it’s not about winning and losing, but about how you handle winning and losing.”

“I think it really goes back to my roots in Canton Little League,” Finn insisted, recalling not only the life lessons but the innocence of baseball at that age.

He also has great memories of his high school days and the Bulldog teams he played for under coaches Don Smith and Tom Healy at CHS.

He even got his coaching start in Canton, taking over for his father’s senior league team when he was only 18. And while he only coached for one season, it was an impressive debut as his team won the league championship that year.

Finn later went on to BC, where he pitched for a “fledgling” Eagles team for four seasons before eventually settling in Andover, his home for the past 15 years.

Now a father of four, Finn has coached various youth teams over the past ten years, including the district Little League team for the past three and a youth football team (grades 4-7) that starts practice next week.

However, even after all of these years spent in Andover, Finn’s hometown has never been far from his mind. “Canton meant a lot to me,” he said, “and it still does.”

And it shows in his actions, too, like the time he implemented a new Little League team and named it the Dodgers.

It was, after all, the name of his own team when he was 12 — a name that, for Finn, evokes memories of raffles and parades, of endless summers and boyhood bliss.

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