OBITUARY Lawrence Babich November 26, 1935 – November 16, 2018 Larry Babich, a longtime Jersey Journal reporter and columnist and inductee in three athletic halls of fame, died Thursday night at his home. He was 82. Born in the Bronx, he starred in baseball and basketball at the University of Bridgeport, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism.
He was an Army veteran, serving in Germany with the 1st Battle Group, 26th Infantry Division. Babich joined The Jersey Journal in 1960 and was a reporter and columnist for more than 30 years, most notably as the newspaper’s police reporter. His weekly column, The Coach’s Corner, was a popular weekly feature in the paper’s sports section for many years.
“While Larry was an award-winning news reporter, he also had a passion for sports writing and it was evident in his weekly “Coach’s Corner” column that took readers back in time to a bygone era of sports,” said Ron Zeitlinger, The Jersey Journal’s managing editor. “You may have known the story, but Larry would tell it in a way that made it as fresh and interesting as the initial reporting of the event”. Babich combined his news and sports writing skills in 1996 for an award-winning week-long series on the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier and first game in professional baseball in Jersey City in 1946.
A year later, when other media outlets were looking back at Robinson’s first major-league game, Babich beamed that he had “scooped” them all by a year. Babich began his coaching career as baseball coach at New York Institute of Technology. In his seven seasons there (1966-72), he developed the program from scratch to a perennial NAIA power.
He later became baseball coach at Jersey City State College (now New Jersey City University), where he won 128 games in his 13 seasons there and was the winningest baseball coach at the school until his total was surpassed by Ken Heaton. He guided JCSC to Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division II-III tournament berths in 1978 to 1980. Babich led the 1978 team to its first New Jersey Athletic Conference tournament berth.
“He was an outstanding baseball coach and a very, very good friend,” said Larry Schiner, former JCSC athletic director. “His baseball knowledge was incredible”. Babich also coached for 19 seasons in the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League (ACBL) where he became the all-time winningest coach in the league with the Jersey Pilots, recording 427 wins.
The Pilots won league titles in 1973, 1984 and 1990. With the Pilots, Babich sent more than 100 players into professional baseball. Fourteen of his ACBL players reached the Major Leagues, including former New York Yankee and Met catcher Rick Cerone, former Met pitcher Charlie Puleo and Eric Young Sr. “Larry was a great baseball man and a gentleman,” said Fred Cambria, a former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher who was commissioner of the ACBL when Babich coached there.
“Everyone who played under Larry loved him and respected him because of his baseball knowledge and the person he was”. Babich also coached the boys basketball team at Rogosin High School of Jersey City to back-to-back Metropolitan Yeshiva High School Basketball League championships in 1974 and 1975. Combined, his teams won more than 800 games.
Babich was a member of the Hudson County Sports Hall of Fame and he was co-author of the book Sports Films: A Complete Reference and was a consultant for the HBO documentary “Sports On the Silver Screen”. Babich also served as sports information director at JCSC for 10 years. He was also a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
“Larry was a good father and husband. When his wife Ellie was sick with cancer, he devoted himself to taking care of her,” said long-time friend Rich Freeman, “he was proud of his sons and grandchildren and loved his daughters-in-law”. He was pre-deceased by his wife Ellie.
He is survived by his three sons — Rory, Marc and Rick — and daughter-in-laws Kim and Heather and four grandchildren: Chloe, Bryce, Elana and Grayson. A funeral service will be held Sunday, November 18, 2018 from 1:30 PM at Bloomfield-Cooper Jewish Chapels, 44 Wilson Avenue, Manalapan, NJ 07726 followed by a burial at Beth Abraham Cemetery, 617 Cranbury Road, East Brunswick, NJ 08816. A period of mourning will be observed at the late residence on Sunday after the burial as well as Monday and Tuesday.
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