Nicholas “Streaky” Dardes

Category
1995
About This Inductee

Streaky Dardes is known throughout the greater Pittston area as a pioneer in the organization and development of organized sports. He organized and formed the Pittston Red Devils Sportsman Club and had initiated youth baseball teams before Little League was ever heard of. He both played and managed the teams, and at one time he ran three baseball teams simultaneously. He had a personal dream of making it in major league baseball. He was signed by the Boston Red Sox at a baseball tryout camp in Scranton. He was drafted as a shortstop and played three years of minor league baseball in Baxley, Georgia of the Georgia State League; Lumberton, North Carolina, of the Tobacco State League; and New Iberia of the Evangeline League. While in Lumberton, he was switched to the position of catcher. He was chosen as back-up catcher in the Evangeline League All-Star Team Eastern Division. Upon returning to the Greater Pittston Area, he managed and played Sunday baseball in local Sunday leagues, retiring from playing manager at the age of forty. He remained actively involved in sports by going on to manage the teeners and senior teeners teams for the next fourteen years. A memorable achievement was when he led the Pittston Teeners League to a 28-0 record, and then went on to win tournaments in Sloan Teeners and Schautz Stadium Teeners Tournaments. In all of the years he managed organized league competition, his teams failed to make play-off only four times. His military service included an assignment in the U.S. Navy during World War II as a gunner’s mate second class aboard the U.S.S. Buckley. He served while the ship was awarded the Presidential Ships Unit Citation. ” Streaky” passed away at the age of 97 in 2022. A native of Pittston, he was the son of the late Paul and Antoinette Dardes. He was married to the former Rosemary Cannon of Pringle who passed in 2004.  He is survived by four children, Maryclare Petrosky, Taylor, Danae Hinsley, Ocean City, N.J., Ruth Ann Dardes, Pittston, and Dr. Nicholas Dardes, D.O., Clarks Summit. He is also survived by eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.