Healdsburg Prune Packers schedule Alumni Night

The Healdsburg Prune Packers always have honored their past.

The team name is a throwback to the minor-league Prune Packers who competed here in the 1920s and again the 1950s. The club was re-formed in 2011 with nods to the older teams in its logo and uniforms.

Next Friday, in another tribute to history, the Packers are hosting what the team is calling its 95th Anniversary Alumni Night. A dozen players from the 1950s and ’60s teams will appear, said Laurie North, a board member for the nonprofit that runs the team.

“When I first called them, they were like, ‘What?’ Now they’re into it,” she said. “They’re looking forward to it. They said, ‘Have you called so-and-so?’ ”

North was able to gather a dozen former players to come and be recognized before Friday’s game.

The Prune Packers are part of the California Collegiate League and typically pull their players from Division I colleges.

So while the players in the 6 p.m. game against the West Coast Kings are fresh-faced, the small-town club wanted to honor the older players who form its storied past.

“They will not play, because they’re all in their 70s and 80s,” North said, “but we’ll have fun. We’ve always wanted to do this, to honor them in some way.”

The board had a poster printed to promote the event with the players’ names and positions, as if it was the night’s lineup:

Cullen Wilder 2B

Ron Puccioni SS

Ed Pisenti 1B

Ed Perotti 2B

Rich Domitilli SS

Joe Rochioli LF

Duane Herman RF

Ed Millerstrom P

Lee Walker P

John Williams 3B

Ed Seghesio 3B

Ron Barbieri batboy

In addition to the alumni night, the weekend Prune Packers games will have a guest star, former major leaguer and Petaluma native Jonny Gomes. Gomes will be in the dugout for games Saturday and Sunday, and may sign autographs, North said.