NIAGARA UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — A pair of former Niagara Purple Eagles baseball alumni are set to be inducted into the Western New York Baseball Hall of Fame this week. Robert J. Tenenini, (’75) and Dr. Timothy J. McNamara, (’75) have been selected as part of the Class of 2018 in the Greatest Teams category.
Tenenini and McNamara were teammates on the 1974 Tonawanda Eldredge Club, which captured three major titles that summer; the top-level Buffalo MUNY “AAA” pennant, the National Amateur Baseball Federation’s Northern Regional Tournament Championship in Cleveland and the NABF best-of-five Championship Series in Buffalo in four games over Southern Regional-champion Louisville.
Tenenini and McNamara were members of the Purple Eagles baseball team the following spring in 1975, arguably the finest team in the 70-year history of Niagara baseball, with a record of 29-13-1 (a .686 winning percentage). A co-captain alongside fellow teammate Kevin Gilman, Tenenini was a hard-throwing, 6’5″ right-hander, who was the ace of the Niagara pitching staff, leading the team in both wins and strikeouts that season. Upon graduation, Tenenini went on to pitch seven years in the Montreal Expos organization. McNamara, a fleet-footed centerfielder who hit .327 that season, stayed in Buffalo to help the Eldredge Club win two additional MUNY pennants (1975,1976) before receiving his first Western New York Baseball Hall of Fame induction honors in 2002.
The induction dinner will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 12 at the Lake Erie Italian Club on South Park Ave. in Lackawanna, N.Y.
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