REMEMBERING SNEAKER McDONALD: Retired FRPD officer was heart and soul of Twilight League baseball

Story updated with quote from former Fall River CYO director, the Rev. Jay Maddock

FALL RIVER — It was, perhaps, possible not to like George “Sneaker” McDonald. Of course, that would have required not knowing him, at all.

He was a dedicated police officer, a beloved and perpetually upbeat longtime youth sports figure in the Spindle City, and a dedicated husband. And in a city known for its great nicknames, he had one of the best.

Perhaps best known as the heart and soul of Fall River Junior Twilight League baseball at Lafayette Park, where the field is named for him and his late wife Evelyn, Sneaker McDonald died late last week. He was 94 and had lived his final few years sharing his exquisitely corny jokes at Clifton Rehabilitation Nursing Center in Somerset.

“He was a perfect gentleman,” retired Fall River Police Detective Tom Chace said on Monday. “He was like a father to me.”

A high school baseball umpire, Chace spent a decade or so volunteering his umpiring services for Twilight, the baseball league which never charged registration or playing fees and used volunteer umpires, who happily gave of their time for the Monday and Friday night games out of respect for McDonald and his wife. A multi-million-dollar winner in the Massachusetts lottery, Chace picked up the tab for one of the Twilight League’s final awards banquets, annually held at White’s of Westport. “I did it because of him,” Chace said of his friend.

A 31-year (1957-1988) member of the Fall River Police Department, McDonald, according to a delightful 2016 FRPD historical Facebook post by now Deputy Chief Wayne Furtado, earned the Sneaker nickname for his uncanny ability to approach bad guys without detection and make the apprehension. For the last 13 years of his FRPD career, his assignment was the Walking Beat 1A, downtown. He was commended seven times for alertness and efficiency.

“There will never be another walking beat (officer) like him,” Chace said. “He could be out there in a snowstorm and he wouldn’t jump in a (squad) car. All the business people downtown knew him. He was a great cop. He was a policeman by the book.”

"He was one of a kind, a true gentleman who lived his life for God, his beloved Evelyn and family and our community, especially the young," the Rev. Jay Maddock, pastor of Holy Name Parish and former longtime director of the Fall River CYO, wrote in an email. The CYO Hall on Anawan Street is a Fall River landmark. "In his years walking the downtown beat," Maddock continued, "he always had a key to the CYO and would stop in on a regular basis when we were there and always kept 'an eye on things' when we weren't."

Sneaker and Evelyn McDonald became synonymous with the Junior Twilight League, serving as officers and performing tasks beyond the scope of those offices. Sneaker might be serving as president one second, umpire the next, and then groundskeeper the next. When umpiring, generally on the bases, he small-talked with the players, always uplifting.

McDonald was also Twilight’s media relations director. Pounding away on his typewriter into the second decade of the 21st century, he dropped off heavily stuffed envelopes at The Herald News. Enclosed would be rosters, schedules, banquet announcements. Also enclosed would be two, three or four pages of typed jokes, most corny as can be. So corny they were hilarious.

George and Evelyn never had children of their own. But that just made them all the more available to their Twilight League family, which grew and grew over the decades.

“The guy was just a fantastic human being,” said Furtado, whose FRPD career overlapped two years with McDonald’s. “He did so much for the youth of the city.”

Before health challenges required his move to Clifton, McDonald in his latter years established a rock-solid daily routine, Chace said. He’d go from his longtime home on Gagnon Street in the Flint to Valcourt’s Variety Store for his newspapers and then to St. Patrick’s Cemetery to Evelyn’s grave.

“Every morning,” Chace said. “He would never miss a day.”

Email Greg Sullivan at gsullivan@heraldnews.com. Follow him @GregSullivanHN.