The year was 1940, the place, Yonkers, N.Y., the event, the birth of Will Anderson. Tonight, Will will be admitted to the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame as being one who achieved in, or contributed substantially to, Maine baseball.
Will’s love for the game of baseball began on the streets of Yonkers where he and his neighbors spent hours upon hours like Willie Mays playing stickball. From April to November it was always “baseball” in some form – including card collecting.
In 1951, Will moved to Ardsley, N.Y. – 10 miles north of Yonkers but a more-basketball community. From 1956 to 1958 Will captained and caught for the Ardsley Panthers (“you did a lot of catching because the other team was just about always up”). From 1958 to 1962 Anderson attended Cornell in Ithaca. He tried out for baseball but didn’t make it. He became a softball fanatic and continues to play today.
In March, 1987, Will moved to Portland, Maine to take up his literary pursuits. He is a writer of pop culture books. One of those books is Was Baseball Really Invented in Maine?. The work, published in 1992, includes every native Mainer to ever play in the bigs, plus Maine’s minor league history through and including the Maine Guides/Phillies of 1991-1992. The book ranks with Don MacWilliam’s (HoF ‘90) Yours in Sports as the two best Maine baseball histories.
In January, 2002 Will was elected to the Board of Directors of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance.
In 1998, Will and his wife, Augusta native Catherine Buotte, moved to Bath where they reside today.