It was during a particularly intense early summer Little League game in the former Cedar Grove baseball league when A’s coach Jim English called a timeout to calm his young pitcher, who was getting flustered as the opposing team rallied. English ran out to the mound and began talking with the young hurler, and soon the boy was smiling and firing strikes, recalled English’s long-time friend and co-coach, Shaun O’Sullivan.

“What did you say to him?” O’Sullivan recalled asking. “I asked him what kind of ice cream he liked – what flavor – vanilla or chocolate,” English told him. “You did what?” O’Sullivan replied. “I told him the sooner he gets this kid out, the sooner he and everyone will get their favorite flavor of ice cream because I’m taking everyone out for ice cream after the game,” English replied.

Said O’Sullivan this week: “The kid could do nothing but smile after that. That’s what Jim did – he put everyone at ease and always put out fires. In difficult circumstances during pressure moments in games like that he had a sense of purpose, but he also had a sense of humor, and everyone loved to be around him because of that, and in baseball kids loved to play for him because of that.”

Mr. English died on Dec.28 at age 70 after a long illness. He leaves his wife Moira (the co-founder of Minot Mudhouse), four children, Christopher, Emily, Caroline, and Sam, and one granddaughter, Grace. Beyond family and friends, his passing will be mourned by hundreds of Little League players whom he coached over his 30 years of being there for them.

“He got into coaching when his kids were growing up and even when they stopped playing, he continued to coach,” said his son-in-law, John Finn, speaking for the family to the Reporter. “A lot of kids wanted to play for Jim because after the games he would take them to Wendy’s. That was a favorite spot, and everyone knew Mr. E would take them there after the game.”

Jim English was raised in Port Norfolk, a self-described “Port Rat” who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s with five other siblings attending St. Ann’s Church on Neponset Avenue, where he was a parishioner and a lector. Over the last 10 years he attended services at St. Cecilia’s Church in the Back Bay where his friend, Father John Unni, was the pastor.

He attended Boston Latin School, and graduated in 1974 from UMass Amherst before embarking on a career in development. He retired recently as a senior vice president at Suffolk Construction.

“We lost another neighborhood hero,” said O’Sullivan. “Jim was part of the old guard who always took time out with neighbors and people in the community – kids especially.”

Finn noted that while Mr. English played baseball in Dorchester as a kid, he really got into the game by watching the Red Sox. “His father had season tickets to the Red Sox, and he would go with him to the games. He worked at Fenway Park as a vendor too. He loved baseball and really loved all sports.”

Jim loved his home of the last 30 years or so in the 400 block of Adams Street and found friends wherever he went. Finn noted that he became close friends with a Vietnamese woman who collected cans in the neighborhood to help bring her siblings to the United States, and was always ready to assist her, said Finn who recalled that “she came by about a year ago to thank him,” said Finn. “It was kind of funny to his family, but that was just Jim… People were drawn to him, and he was always trying to help them…He didn’t look down on anyone.”

It was the same posture that he assumed with legions of young people in Cedar Grove baseball, and later Dorchester Baseball, and with the folks he considered friends at McDonald’s where he would stop frequently to get a Diet Coke.

“A good friend of mine said many years ago that if he could look at the world the way Jim English did, he would be a very happier man – and he was not unhappy,” said Finn. “Jim always looked at things in a positive way; the glass was always half full. He could have an arrow through his head, and he’d give you his standard answer of ‘Never Better’ if you asked.”

A visitation will be at John J. O’Connor & Son Funeral Home at 740 Adams St., Dorchester, on Thurs., Jan. 4, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. A funeral Mass said by Father Unni will be held the next day at 10 a.m. in St. Cecilia church in the Back Bay.