A two-time All State catcher for Warren High School’s nine, Ed Polak later starred for the National Military Service Baseball Champions and Holy Cross’ New England Baseball Champions.

Ed received Class C honors as a freshman in 1941.  In 1943 he was named an All Suburban and All State catcher.  And in 1944, when Warren was upset in the Class C championship game by North Providence, he was again designated All State, as well as a unanimous All Class C selection.

Warren High nominated him for the Journal-Bulletin Honor Roll Boy designation in 1944.

Three weeks after the Class C playoffs had been completed, Ed was catching for Holy Cross in a contest against Brown.  After entering the Army Air Corps, where he was a member of the Boxdale Field base champions who competed for the Military Service Championship, he returned to Worcester, Massachusetts and hit .321 as the catcher for the Crusaders’ 1947 New England Baseball Champions. 

He was the Holy Cross baseball captain in 1949, and, according to their sports information department, “was one of the best baseball players in school history.” At the end of this senior season, Ed was voted third team All American by the College Coaches Association.

Ed competed in the Warren versus Bristol Baseball Little World Series from 1947 to the final year of 1949, and in the first of those years was featured in advertising for one of the games.  He also played in the Tim O’Neil Providence Amateur League.

He played semi-professional baseball in the late 1940s and competed in the St. Louis Cardinals minor league baseball system in 1950 and 1951.

(A younger brother of fellow Hall of Fame member Ben Polak, Ed was “chastised” by the local press in 1936 for having been thrown out trying to steal home as St. Casimir’s lost to St. Mary’s of Bristol.)

Picture from Hall of Fame archives