It was still in the early innings of a Saturday morning baseball game at Town Field when Jim Collyer – Dorchester’s answer to Johnny Pesky – went over to the first base line and opened up his fold-up chair. Soon after, one of the players, a five-year-old T-baller, came over to Collyer and said, “You got old. How come you got old?”

The question drew a laugh from the 84-year-old Collyer, who has been playing or prowling the coach’s circle in this Fields Corner yard for more than six decades. He has seen and heard a lot.
“It made me feel good,” he said, “because I’m thinking, ‘Hey, I was old last year too!’ But I guess I didn’t look old then. Kids have such wisdom at that age.”  Read more

Like father, like son: Gerry Grealish, left, and his father Martin Grealish pack a one-two training punch at their family’s Freeport Street gym. Photo by Bill Forry

Two years after their well-respected boxing gym was abruptly displaced from its Uphams Corner home of 12 years, the Grealish family is back in Dorchester with a new space on Freeport Street. The gym, which shares space with another fitness club in a second-floor walk up at 79 Freeport St., has been open for about two months, but is already buzzing with activity.

Martin Grealish, a 66-year-old native of Co. Galway, Ireland, and his son Gerry, a Boston firefighter, lead the daily training sessions at the gym. Nikki (Grealish) Dillon, Martin’s daughter, also helps teach the sport to kids — some as young as five. And Martin’s wife Yvonne, who grew up with a boxing pedigree of her own, is also a big part of the family business.  Read more

U11 Soccer: The Under 11 Dorchester Force team includes: front row (l-r)Eric Barrios, Ideal Lobo, Oliver Culliton; middle, Soree Kaba, Clayton Rodrigues, Eben Butler, Dana Monteiro; and back row, Coach Phil Keane, Andrew Wong, Finn O’Brien, Radley Theolien, Owen Smyth, Owen Murray, Isaac Gebrewolde, Coach Dan Murray.

After going undefeated with an 8-0 record during the regular season, the Dorchester Youth Soccer U11 boys’ travel team won the Boston Area Youth Soccer league Division 1A last month, garnering a first place trophy.

“It was brilliant,” Coach Phil Keane said. “To go undefeated in the league, it doesn’t happen that often. To be at the top level for their age group is a great achievement.”  Read more

Most football fans know New York Giants Coach Tom Coughlin, the winner of two Super Bowl games against the New England Patriots of Bill Belichick, as an intense, no-nonsense guy who brooks no dissent from his autocratic, perfectionist ways of running his team. He’s the man who is known for fining his players when they arrive for a 9 a.m. meeting at 9 a.m. To him, 9 a.m. meetings apparently begin no later than 8:50 a.m.  Read more