By Ashley St. Michel
Staff Writer
    “Knowing a major league pitcher was special, but having two is even better,” Donald Wentworth said. “It’s something special to have two major league pitchers in one family.”
    Wentworth was referring to his two uncles and major league pitchers John and Bobby Coombs. The brothers are at the centerpiece of an exhibit at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk titled “The Big Leaguers.” With the help of a few family members, the museum chronicled the baseball lives of the two Philadelphia Athletics players. Their careers were divided into four sections, each one appropriately labeled first, second, third and home base.
    “All these things were in a room called, Uncle John’s room,” said Nelson Wentworth, great grandchild to John, referring to the items on display for the exhibit.
    “We’ve had a really good turnout for this,” Brick Store Museum Executive Director Tracey Baetz said. “People are really excited when they see it.”  
    The first base, in the “Round the Bases” themed exhibit, highlighted John and Bobby’s high school and college achievements.
    “John went to Freeport High School,” Donald Wentworth said. “In his senior year a lot of places were interested in him but he still wanted to go to Colby.”
    Before John was in high school, his family moved several times. Born Nov. 8, 1882 in Le Grand, Iowa, John moved back to Maine with his mother in 1885. Wentworth said he had family members in Durham, “so they came back to Durham.”
    When John attended Colby College, Wentworth said he met a girl and “for the next two to three years they became close, perhaps dating.”
    The “mystery lady,” as Wentworth and the exhibit named her, was a young woman who may have been named Nellie Barton. She was pictured wearing what Wentworth said was John’s fraternity pin.
    “She kept a clipping of every single athletic event he was in,” he said. Wentworth said when he was a freshman at Colby College he was in the library and a young girl approached him and handed him a fraternity pin. He said she told him that her mother would want him to have it. Wentworth never found out her name.
    Bob had a very different story, Wentworth said.
    Born in Goodwins Mills, Feb. 2, 1908, Bob attended Kennebunk High School and immediately started breaking records. Wentworth said Bob had what is believed to be a high school and world record of a 26 strikeout, one homerun game against Sanford in 1925.
    “That’s a pretty major accomplishment,” Nelson said. “It’s not everyday that a high school pitcher possibly breaks a world record.”
    Bob went on to play for Duke University’s men’s baseball team.
    “He played for his coach and his uncle John Coombs,” Wentworth said. “In 1933 when Bob graduated John called Connie Mack (the Athletics’ coach) and told him what kind of player he was and Mack bought him,” he said.
    John’s history with Mack was showcased on the second base part, titled “The Big Leaguers,” of the “Round the Bases” exhibit.
    Wentworth said John did very well in college and his victorious state championship didn’t do him any harm in catching the Athletics eyes.
    “Baseball people were really interested in getting John after graduation,” Wentworth said. “The day after he graduated he went out to the Athletics training camp. Mack came up to get him.”
    Wentworth said the first year John pitched a game against Boston at Fenway Park.
    “He got the first out at 1 p.m., he went 24 innings, pitched the entire game and won it,” he said.
    Wentworth said the excitement didn’t last long and John didn’t do well for a couple of years.
    “In 1910 he went crazy again and won 31 games, had 13 shutouts and won three World Series,” he said. “That’s an incredible record.” The 31 games, 13 shutouts became the American League record.
    Wentworth said that was probably the high point of his career.
    After approaching Mack about a possible raise and getting turned down, John went on to help the Athletics win 28 games the next season. For one year, John was paid $4,000 as part of his contract.
    John didn’t play many games after that, instead he was plagued with injuries and infections, and Wentworth said he even had to spend a short period of time in bed with weight restraints on.
    In 1914, after John tried to make a comeback and failed, Mack traded him and John signed on with the Brooklyn Dodgers. John stopped playing baseball in 1918.
    “Uncle John had big hands to wrap around the ball,” Wentworth said. “He had these long fingers. Bob wasn’t big, he just had a really good arm.”
    “Uncle Bob was sent in to relief for the Yankee’s “Murderer’s Row” June 8, 1933,” Wentworth said. “The first guy he faced was Babe Ruth.”
    He said Bob struck him out, but the umpire called it a ball because, back then, the umpires were told not to let Ruth strike out on a call.
    “So Ruth got a homerun, the only one in the game,” Wentworth said.
    “He made sure to get the next three guys, like one, two three,” Neslon said, “and they were out.”
    Wentworth said Bob’s career was cut short after he went to Mack and said he needed a rest. He never pitched for Mack again.
    Bob went to the New York Giants a short time later and played his last major league game June 6, 1943.
    The third base, titled “Coaching and Legacy,” showcased both pitchers accomplishments after their major league finishes.
    John coached baseball at Williams College after leaving the Dodgers in 1918, and then moved to the head coaching position at Duke University in 1919 according to Wentworth. He stayed at Duke until 1952.
    “Uncle John was a baseball legend. He was a grand old Quaker from Maine,” Wentworth said. “He wasn’t happy with Duke and eventually he had to retire. He was pretty bitter for a while about that.”   
    Wentworth said his biggest hope for the exhibit was to showcase the accomplishments of both the family members.
    “They wore the same uniforms,” he said. Wentworth said he had talked with a few other museums about the exhibit but no one else wanted to showcase both members “evenly.”
    “The stadium at Duke was named after John, but the stadium at Williams was named after Bob,” he said. “They both had their time.”
    “The Big Leaguers” will be on display until Dec. 29 at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk.