Amisha KumarTake a stroll through Waverley Square, and you might notice a green line running down Trapelo Road and green plaques on stands along the sidewalk, telling the history of Belmont. There are stories of the Waverley Oaks, the transit system and a black and white photo of a baseball team, where the players are all wearing neckties.
“Wearing neckties on a baseball uniform looks a little funny to us, but I guess that’s the way they did it back then,” said Jim Levitt, chair of the Waverley Trail Advisory Group, the organization that curated these plaques.
The team came from the Waverley Square neighborhood and according to “Belmont (Then and Now),” by the Belmont Historical Society, it was one of many teams representing the different neighborhoods around town.
“Over the years, the rivalry was intense, as championships were decided and bragging rights awarded,” the book notes.
If you look closely at the bottom of the photo, you’ll see a catcher’s mask, which has a long history connected to Belmont.
Belmont native Frederick W. Thayer, who was baseball manager at Harvard, first invented this version of the mask for the school’s catcher, James Tyng. Thayer called Tyng “the best all-around natural ballplayer of my time.”
The mask was adapted from a fencing mask that Thayer invented and patented in 1878. It became popular by the 1880s and is still used today.
Thayer’s legacy lives on today, not just in the catcher’s mask, but on the streets of Belmont where two roadways bear his surname: Thayer Road and Street.
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