Thursday, October 20, 2011

For the Record

It’s October, and the boys of summer are jousting once again for the World Championship of Baseball. Where but in the U.S.A. could the champs be crowned?  No other nation has the same extensive professional league structure and widespread amateur interest in the sport.

In more than 100 years, baseball has caught some public fancy in Canada, Japan, and parts of Latin America, but gets little or no attention elsewhere. In the U.S., the sport gradually has lost its position as the national game to football.  Why?  Basically, baseball games are slow-paced with long intervals of nothing much happening interspersed with a few moments of furious action.  In other words, watching baseball is boring most of the time. It’s also getting expensive to go out to the old ballpark—this summer fans had to fork over $6.00 for a hotdog in the Chicago White Sox’ stadium.

Perhaps as a way to add some interest, statistics expanded in scope and depth as the baseball years rolled by.  From the start number crunchers have provided fans with batting averages and totals for such essentials as home runs, runs batted in, strikeouts, and walks.  For pitchers, they gave us won-lost records, strikeout and walk totals, innings pitched, and (relatively recently) earned-run averages.  Now the keepers of the record books seem to have gone mad.

The Geezer watched a playoff game on TV a couple of nights ago.  A pair of announcers filled every second of spare time with numbers.  There was a lot of spare time as the teams changed pitchers whenever a hitter looked threatening. Viewers learned how many pitches a hurler had thrown in every conceivable situation, how every batter fared historically against every pitcher, and the speed of fastballs in miles per hour.  We even were treated to something the announcers labeled a “productive out.”

Where there are numbers there will be records.  Someone, sometime won the most games, hit the most home runs, and drew the most walks, or was the first to do something or other.  These are significant things to baseball fans.  However, we can get along well without knowing that Justin Verlander retired an average of four left-handed hitters with an outside slider every time he lasted five innings when he started a game in 2009.

Negative records perhaps are atop the pile of unimportant baseball matters. For example, do we really care if Los Angeles Dodger infielder Eugenio Valez this season set the modern-day record for nonpitchers for consecutive times at bat without a hit?  Perhaps Mrs. Valez does, if there is a Mrs. Valez, but I don’t.  And I’m sure Mr. Valez would rather not have his performance noted in the record books for all to see.

Other types of trivial baseball records sound positive, but mean very little.  High on that list are accounts of the first person to do some obscure thing or other or the only one to perform a trivial feat. The Geezer holds that sort of baseball record—one that probably never will be equaled.

I was the only person ever to play in both the junior and senior championship games in the same Wisconsin State Amateur Baseball Tournament. Wow!

Some might be awed by this achievement.  Wisconsin has held amateur championship tournaments for 63 years. Back when I played in the 1950s every little town and many companies sponsored teams.  Today, although interest in baseball is much diminished, Wisconsin still has about 60 amateur teams concentrated in northern and western parts of the state.  So my record might be considered a biggie, but how I earned it is as bizarre as the honor is unimportant. It was a pure case of being in the right places at the right times.

Through some mysterious manipulations by the chamber of commerce, my hometown (Tomahawk, Wisconsin) was selected to host the 1953 state amateur tournament.  At that time, tournament sponsors invited teams to compete in two divisions, also by a somewhat mysterious process.

Players in the junior division could not be older than 17.  They played seven-inning contests.  The senior teams had no age restrictions, and apparently few or no requirements about who might be considered an amateur or a regular member of the team.  All the teams, junior and senior, were known to add any talented players they could find to beef up rosters for the tournament.

I don’t know if the sponsors considered it a courtesy to the host city or needed a couple of teams to fill the brackets, but that year they invited one team from Tomahawk to participate in each division.  Apparently, the invitation came somewhat unexpectedly.  Managers had to hustle to assemble the two teams.  No one expected the locals to win anything—just play one game and take a bow after the defeat.

I was working that summer in a National Tea store.  Bob Koth, a local businessman involved with American Legion baseball, showed up and convinced my boss to let me off work because he needed a catcher for the junior division team he was assembling. I had played Legion and high school ball and was 17.  The first game was the next afternoon. Our ragtag nine wore the Legion team uniforms.  We won.  We won the next day.  To the amazement of one and all we were headed into the championship game.

The performance of the senior Tomahawk team perhaps was more amazing.  Competing against teams loaded with former minor league professional players, the local all-stars also won their first two games, which were nine-inning affairs played at night, and advanced to the championship game.

Our junior team had a big problem.  We only had two pitchers and it would have been a disaster to put one of them back on the mound with inadequate rest.  Mr. Koth learned that high school pitcher Dave Lemke was returning from a trip to Chicago the day before the title game.  He met Lemke at the train station and gave him a briefing and a uniform.  We had our pitcher, a guy with a strong arm but not as much experience as the first two we used.

Lefty Lemke was superb for six innings.  He was up against a team of stars from the Wisconsin Rapids area, a hotbed of amateur baseball.  One outfielder had signed a professional contract after a tryout.  We were tied 1-1 going into the last inning. Then we broke down defensively, and the visitors wound up winning going away for the championship.

I barely got home and shed my uniform when the manager of the senior Tomahawk team phoned.  His catcher had been called up by the National Guard and he couldn’t find another one when he checked with all of the area mens teams.  Would I play in the championship game that night? I did. We took a terrible thumping from a team that competed in a Milwaukee industrial league. 

Two championship game appearances in one day—two sound defeats. Not a record to be pointed to with great pride. But my very own record, nonetheless.

Recently, two local authors published a 550-page “History of Tomahawk Sports” book that covers teams and events from 1897 to 1980.  The book includes records and noteworthy accomplishments by athletes while they played on school teams and afterward in college or elsewhere.  Yes, I’m in there.  My appearances are in those standard pictures of a bunch of kids lined up to pose for high school football and baseball team photos. 

My 1953 amateur baseball record does not appear in the book.  The authors obviously have a keen perception of the importance of things.  

  

7 comments:

Alan G said...

Could not agree more with regard to all the records and statistics thrown our direction while trying to watch a televised sporting event. You can just visualize a whole team of researchers in a studio or transmitting trailer somewhere whispering all this unsolicited trivia in the right ear of the announcer in an effort to prevent any dead-air time!

As to your amateur record – well for goodness sakes cheer up!! That’s the beauty of blogging because from the moment you published this post, your obscure record now appears on the World Wide Web thanks to you. In no time you will probably be able to “Google” it. Then one of those researchers will find it and whisper it into the right ear of some sports announcer and there you go….!

As far one holding or having a record, I would have to think any record would probably be okay including those like the one you noted being held by Eugenio Valez. Being totally honest however, I don’t think I would like having a criminal record! :)

schmidleysscribblins,wordpress.com said...

A couple of years ago, I was digging through the WI state archives for material on Koehler in WI and discovered they had employee picnics which included baseball games. Intersting history.

Baseball is a great sport. I haven't watched a game in years, but one of my favorite films is about the women's baseball team, "A League of Their Own." I also like "The Natural" which was supposed to be based on Ted Williams. Maybe you wrote this somewhere, but Ted was supposed to be an advisor for the film. When Robert Redford called him to come down to the movie set, Ted couldn't leave the fishing. Apparently he was up north somewhere..was it WI?

Great story and I m sure it was a thrill for you, even if you took a "thumping." Dianne

joared said...

Yes, I've been disgusted with how the 'talking heads' have taken the relaxed fun out of much of TV sports. I get sick of all the statistics that don't really need to be aired for all. I tire of the team Managers/Coaches dictating every little action to the players. I resent that half-time band performances in college football are no longer provided as entertainment -- no I was not in band and had no one in band. I just like a change of pace from the incessant patter of the sports announcers.

Sadly, I've had numerous sports fans who've had strokes, brain injury, neurological diseases with resultant decreased mobility and skill levels. They miss being able to watch games because of the fast-paced video changes, re-plays because their processing is slower and they can't keep up. They lose track of the game, ultimately become frustrated and can't keep up. Turning off the jabbering commentators helps only with the audio.

Years before I knew him my husband enjoyed playing American Legion baseball. When we dated, I was often able to get box seats for one of the pro baseball teams farm teams. I enjoyed the game's pace, but today people want action every minute with attention spans of very limited length -- then they have to consult their doctor's to figure out how to decrease stress in their life.

Enjoyed the stories of your personal experiences.

Dick Klade said...

Diane. . . I know Ted Williams was a rabid angler, especially skilled as a fly fisherman. I remember seeing ads featuring him touting fishing equipment.

A quick check doesn't yield stories of him fishing in Wisconsin. However, he is a member of the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame, which is in Hayward, WI. A bit of trivia: he is the only person in the halls of fame of two different sports

Dick Klade said...

Alan G sent this comment:

Could not agree more with regard to all the records and statistics thrown our direction while trying to watch a televised sporting event. You can just visualize a whole team of researchers in a studio or transmitting trailer somewhere whispering all this unsolicited trivia in the right ear of the announcer in an effort to prevent any dead-air time!

As to your amateur record – well for goodness sakes cheer up!! That’s the beauty of blogging because from the moment you published this post, your obscure record now appears on the World Wide Web thanks to you. In no time you will probably be able to “Google” it. Then one of those researchers will find it and whisper it into the right ear of some sports announcer and there you go….!

As for one holding or having a record, I would have to think any record would probably be okay including those like the one you noted being held by Eugenio Valez. Being totally honest however, I don’t think I would like having a criminal record! :)

Big John said...

"slow-paced with long intervals" ... Blimey ! you should watch a cricket 'Test Match'. It goes on for bloody days !

BTW .. How did the US ever decide to call it "The World Series" ?

Dick Klade said...

I've never been tested by a Test Match, but we watched our son play in several cricket matches. He was the only American on a company team in Connecticut. It was a real international group.

My wife and I had no idea what was going on. We clapped politely once in a while when people near us did so. We thought the break for tea was the highlight. Our son thought gatherings after the matches to hoist a few with his UK and other teammates were pure joy, but we're not sure he really could recall the next day how those events went.

Some unknown promoter back before 1903 when baseball was played only in the U.S. coined that World Series name. That was years before some Americans decided everything on earth revolved around them. Good thing. Those "ugly Americans" who disgusted us on trips to other nations might have named it the Universe Series.