Nineteen Seasons at Oxford and Wakeling
Bob Peffle's Frankford High baseball classroom sat at Oxford Avenue and Wakeling Street, a few blocks from the stadium where Al Angelo had won 10 Public League football titles. Peffle — himself a Frankford class of 1965 infielder who went on to Temple and spent a few summers in the Houston Astros farm system — took over the baseball program in 1989. For the next 19 years, he built a consistent winner that produced five Public League championships, 15 Daily News All-City honorees, and one umpire's tearful autograph request.
2000 — Ending the 19-Year Drought
Peffle's first championship arrived in 2000, ending Frankford's 19-year baseball title drought dating to 1981. Senior lefthander Ed Durfor allowed seven hits, reached base three times (two walks plus a hit-by-pitch), and stole three bases as the Pioneers won 6-0. Jim Connolly drove in two on a groundout and a double; Russ Pizzo and Mike Tritz added RBI singles. Durfor, named that year's Daily News Player of the Year, would later earn a significant place in Peffle program lore for reasons that had nothing to do with baseball.
The Joe Farina Era — 2003 and 2004
The defining stretch of Peffle's coaching career was the Joe Farina years. Farina, a 6-1, 220-pound righthander, arrived at Frankford after transferring from Northeast (where his brother R.J. had been a PL champion starter), and spent the next three years collecting championships across three sports. By the time he graduated, he had won seven Public League titles: two in baseball, three in wrestling, and two in football. Only his sophomore baseball season — a 2002 semifinal loss to Girard Academic Music Program — left an empty finger on his championship hand. In overall PL play across all three sports, he finished 97-2.
The first baseball title came in 2003. Frankford ran the table, finishing 17-0 in the Public League (one league game canceled) and 19-0 overall. In the championship game against Northeast at La Salle University, Farina threw a four-hitter with six strikeouts. Matt Colon doubled and scored in a two-run third. Adam Hartman doubled in a run. Cory Shaeffer tripled in an insurance run in the sixth. Final: 3-1.
