It’s Sunday afternoon at the Dust Bowl Brewing Co., and, as usual, the place is packed.

Off to the side of the main dining room, near the door that leads to the patio, is a table where eight or nine gentlemen are gathered, with a few wives sprinkled in. They’re enjoying carne aside fries, Okie nachos, and, naturally, a round of beers. Above them is one of Dust Bowl’s many large-screen televisions, on which the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies game is being shown. The Giants are leading 3-2, but nobody at this table is paying any attention to the game. Everybody’s attention is fixed on a baseball game that occurred 50 years ago, in the summer of 1974.

These fellas were members of the Turlock National All-Stars, who, during that long-ago summer, captured the imagination of the city as they won the District 10 12-year-old title and came as close as any Turlock team to claiming the state championship.

“We were big league,” says Brett Tate, founder of Dust Bowl Brewing and a catcher on the All-Stars. “We were Little League, but we were big league.”

The All-Stars clinched the district crown with a 6-1 win over Scandinavian North of Fresno — the Yankees of Little League baseball back in those days — and advanced to sectional play.

But that’s where the season would come to an end, with a 3-2 loss to Stockton. 

“Ray Mendonca was up with runners on base and he smashed one toward second,” says Tate. “They had this really tall kid playing second. Who puts their tallest kid at second base? But this kid reached up and snagged it. And that was it.”

Assistant coach Don Pedretti, the son of legendary Turlock High coach Atch Pedretti, confirms the story.

“You’re a sports guy,” says Pedretti. “You’ve got to remember Willie McCovey … ‘’62 series … line drive to second.”

He’s referring to the line drive off the bat of Willie McCovey in Game 7 of the 1962 World Series between the Giants and New York Yankees. Big Mac smashed a screaming line drive that, had second baseman Bobby Richardson not gloved it, easily would’ve scored two runs and delivered the Giants the title. 

“I remember just being heartbroken,” says Pedretti. “We were that close. Stockton won, I think, four one-run games to advance out of that bracket. Obviously, we could’ve been right there with the kids we had. That would’ve been pretty darn special.”

Just as Pedretti finishes telling his story, Mendonca walks by and the story is recounted again for him. Before the first sentence is concluded, Mendonca knows where it’s headed. His chin drops into his chest. His knees buckle slightly. He is 12 years old once more.

“Do you remember me just dropping to my knees and crying?” Mendonca asks. You can tell that 50 years later he’s still not over it.

One player that could not join the reunion was Gary Rogers. There’s a Gary Rogers type on every team. A kid who’s more physically mature than the rest of the boys. The type of kid who shaves and has hair on his chest before he’s a teenager. The kind of kid opposing parents torment with cries of “Baby Huey!”

“Gary was a man at 12 years old,” says Tate, who was 1-for-2 with a run scored and an RBI in the title-title-clinching win. “I saw him put one over the street at Turlock High as a Little Leaguer. Honest to God. And when he was pitching? Forget it.”

Mendonca told the story of a Rogers clout that not only cleared Marshall Street, but hit the house on the opposite side of Marshall. It was the loss of Rogers, and other members of the ’74 All-Stars, that prompted the reunion.

In addition to coaches Gomes and Pedretti, and Tate and Mendonca, Jeff Gomes, Greg Couchman, and Don Kelso were also in attendance.

“We wanted to do it a few years ago because there’s a lot of guys still around,” says Mendonca. “Gary Rogers, the main guy on our team, passed away last year. And then Joe, our coach, is in his 90s. So, we wanted to make sure we did while he’s around and can enjoy it. We’ve been wanting to do it for a long time and we thought, hey, 50 years, this is a perfect time to do it.”

Back then, however, they didn’t give much thought to the notion that they were doing something special.

“It was just baseball,” says Couchman, who played right field in the win against Scandinavian. “It’s just what we did. All the time.”