On February 1, 2025, New York State American Legion Baseball lost a great friend in Gilbert “Gilly” Wood. At a very personal level, I lost a loyal and trustworthy friend as well.
I have always thought of Gilly as a Picasso painting. His colors were bigger than life, his moods were as mixed as the many shapes that made Picasso’s paintings so confusing, yet so compelling. You were never quite sure what you were looking at, but you could never stop looking. In a museum with all the other paintings surrounding Picasso, it was that painting that people went back to see to try and make sense of the meaning. What was this great artist trying to say? What is inside the head of the artist that is so abstract yet so concise in his execution? That was Gilly, in my mind.
You never knew which Gil was going to show up. You could recognize that walk and waddle a mile away. You didn’t have to wait to see his smiling face. And you didn’t want to see his lower lip curled inward and his face redder than any fire truck in a 4th of July Parade, when he was mad. You wanted to laugh at the sight of his tirade but you knew better. You had to respect his intensity and combativeness but you knew it was all part of the artists' unique talent to keep you guessing. Let's face it, his canvass was Legion Baseball. It always was and I’m sure he’s coaching 3rd base as I remember him, right now, bitching at the umpires, and screaming at the players. Old school. He was the best at it.
Besides being thankful to his Lord and Savior for allowing him into the ballpark, Gil and Sharon are planning the second generation of the World Youth Classic. If there ever was a comparison to a Picasso painting, Gilly’s creation of the WYC was it. Not only did Gil touch the lives of over1,000 Post 1645 players over his reign, his brush covered not just the Southern Tier, but Japan, the Republic of China, Puerto Rico, Italy, Venezuela, Canada, Netherlands, and the DR. What a lineup for New York State and Binghamton and Post 1645. There hasn’t been a better one since.
While it is time to say goodbye for now to my “coop” as he liked to call me and I would call him my PIA with his 5 AM phone calls, I’ll miss the laughs and the on-field competition we had, but most of all American Legion Baseball will miss it’s very own Picasso, even if we didn’t know it at the time. Gilly, you belong in the lineup no matter where they play you.
RIP Brother
-Coop
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The obituary can be found at the following link
https://www.sheafuneralhome.com/obituary/Gilbert-Wood
