Lambertville Native Double Inducted Into MCCC Athletics Hall Of Fame

LAMBERTVILLE, NJ — Hopewell resident Randy Voorhees spent his childhood growing up on Elm Street in Lambertville where his summer vacations pretty much mimicked the 1993 baseball coming of age movie, “The Sand Lot.”

Voorhees remembers it like it was yesterday, playing pickup baseball games with the neighborhood kids at Ely Field on North Main Street. The field is now a basketball court and parking lot.

“The guy who ran the league would put up a snow fence when the season started and dismantled it when the season was over. We didn’t have snack shacks or anything like that,” he said.

Lambertville was a lot different back in the 70s. It was a decidedly blue collar town. Most families had one car or no cars and many of the dads worked for light industry in the area.

“In today’s vernacular, we were free range kids," said Voorhees. "Everyone just met over at the field. One guy tossed the bat to the other guy and you did the hand-over-hand thing. You then chose up sides and you played until you got tired of playing.

“If you played the infield you might field 50 ground balls live off the bat that day or a dozen fly balls and you run the bases. It was really good stuff,” he said. “One of the great by products of that is you’re learning without knowing that you’re learning.”

That experience learned on the sand lots of Lambertville propelled Voorhees forward in life and in baseball leading to his eventual double induction this year into the Mercer County Community College’s Hall of Fame for his contributions to MCCC sports.

“You don’t see sand lot games anymore. I lament the fact that today’s players don’t get the opportunity I had," he said. "Now the kids have individual lessons and group and travel ball. You can develop a great swing and pitching mechanics, but you don’t necessarily know how to play.”

That’s what you learned on the local sandlot playing countless pickup games with the neighborhood kids.

Daniel Klim, Randy Voorhees and Joseph Claffey. (Contributed)

Randy Voorhees with his family at the MCCC Athletics Hall of Fame event. (Contributed)

Randy with his daughter, Sarah, at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. (Contributed)

After graduating in 1977 from South Hunterdon Regional High School where he spent four years on the high school’s baseball team, he worked briefly at a plastics manufacturing facility.

“That convinced me that school was a better option,” said Voorhees, who enrolled at the Mercer County Community College in the fall of 1979. At Mercer, he returned to the baseball diamond in 1980 and 1981 as a member of the college’s baseball team.

He pitched for the 1980 team, compiling a 4-2 record and the second most appearances (10) on staff. MCCC's 1980 team won 31 games and qualified for the regional tournament.

In 1981 he was part of a team that swept through the regional and district tournaments undefeated becoming the first MCCC team to qualify for the National Junior College Athletic Association World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado. Mercer defeated Seminole Junior College (Oklahoma), the top-ranked team in the nation on its way to a third place finish in the series.

The MCCC team finished the season with a 39-7 record that year, but what made their World Series finish even more impressive is that they were playing against schools much larger then theirs (there were no divisional break downs back then) and against some of the top community college players in the nation.

Voorhees, who co-captained the team, hit .317 for the season, including four home runs and 21 stolen bases.

To this day, Voorhees keeps in touch with practically all of his former team mates. “We’re a pretty tight group,” he said.

After Mercer, Voorhees transferred to the Penn State University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history.

In 2000, Voorhees returned to baseball, this time as a pitching coach at his alma mater under former teammate and former Major Leaguer Dan Gallagher. That same year the team again qualified for the National Junior College Athletic Association World Series in Division 2.

In 2003, Voorhees was named head coach and took the team back to the World Series. With that trip, he became the first in MCCC history to attend the National Junior College Athletic Association World Series as a player, assistant coach and head coach.

For his accomplishments, MCCC double inducted Voorhees into its Athletics Hall of Fame this past June, both as a member of the 1981 Mercer Baseball Team and for his individual accomplishments, both as a player and as a coach.

“Mercer changed my life,” said Voorhees. “I was sweating in a factory one day. The next day I found a place to call home. I enjoyed every minute of my time there as a student and later as a coach. Some of the administrators and teachers there had a profound affect on me. And I remain friends with many of them.”