Book combines sports and Scottdale history
How would you like to combine some local history and nostalgia with baseball as it was played in the “good old days,” before greed, free agency and threats of mid-season strikes came along to ruin what was once referred to as the national pastime? Matt Miller of Scottdale has done all that in a book he has written, titled “Milltown Yank,” in which he chronicles the life of a 19-year-old Iowa farmhand starting out in professional baseball, who is assigned to Scottdale, Pa., which was once a farm team of the St. Louis Cardinals in the Class “C” Middle Atlantic League.
Miller said, “I have always been a history and baseball buff, and now I have been able to combine my two loves into one book. This is not a book solely about history, or solely about baseball, but a combination of both, with a surprise ending. There are only two fictitious characters. All other people mentioned in the book were real life people, and the places named really existed.”
Some people mentioned include Russ Hockenbury, secretary of the Scottdale team and Middle Atlantic League treasurer; Frank Ganoe, then Scottdale chief of police who raised funds to pay Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey to keep a farm team in Scottdale; John Whoric, sports editor of the Connellsville Daily Courier, who covered the team, and Ralph Hernley, publisher of the Scottdale Independent-Observer.
The book opens with young Mike Stephenson moving into his first summer of professional baseball. He has been signed by the Cardinals and sent to Scottdale. But unbeknown to him, the Brooklyn Dodgers are also on his trail and chief scout Carl Watkins is trying to get him away from the Cards.
As Stephenson takes the train to Pittsburgh, he shares a seat with Watkins, but having never before met the man he has no idea of his baseball affiliation nor his interest in him as a player, and the scout never lets on who he is. Watkins appears in and out of the story several times in his efforts to get the young catcher into the Brooklyn system. Stephenson and Watkins are the only fictitious characters in the book.
Some of his Scottdale teammates include Lefty Heise, who later pitched for the Cardinals and then made his home in Scottdale; Bill Lee, who spent 14 years in the majors; Jimmy Winford, who spent six years with the Cards and Dodgers; Mike Ryba, who had a long career with the Cards and the Boston Red Sox, and manager Eddie Dyer. Ironically, in the 1946 World Series, Ryba and the Bosox would play the Cardinals, managed by Dyer.
Mike becomes a local hero as he tears up the league in the first half of the season. The wheels are turning in the baseball world, as Brooklyn desperately needs a catcher.
Miller said, “I was always amazed growing up that Scottdale had a pro baseball team, and as I got older, I started researching the team. I read every Independent-Observer from 1925 through 1931. I read files in Connellsville and in Pittsburgh, since the Post-Gazette covered games here. I like local history, and I like baseball, so it was easy to combine the two loves.”
Miller is a graduate of Scottdale High School and Clarion University of Pa., and is now quality control supervisor in processing for DME Co., of Youngwood. He is also a member of SABR (Society of American Baseball Researchers) and has written an earlier book, “Scottdale Cardinals, 1925-1931.”
“Milltown Yank” will be in local bookstores this week, hopefully including Uniontown. Several locations in Scottdale will have the book, with a portion of the proceeds from their sales going to the Scottdale Chamber of Commerce for their Christmas lighting fund.
“Milltown Yank” is a book combining local history with a moving story of what life was once like in Scottdale’s glory days. It is a feel good book that can be enjoyed by all ages.
Jim Kriek is a Herald-Standard sports correspondent and columnist.