4th of July had plenty of offense
While July 4 is the traditional day to bing-bang-boom in honor of the nation’s birthday, there are some who like to make a little (?) noise a day before and echo it a day after. But that can happen any time in baseball, no matter the day or month.
For the most part, fans like to see explosive innings, and in some cases the club owner provides his own real fireworks after the game. But those eruptions provided by the players are much more fun.
Like during this holiday time back in 1953 when a couple teams provided some fireworks of their own.
The Fayette County Baseball League had picked its two divisional all-star teams and was getting ready to celebrate the Fourth a day ahead of time, with some hoped for fireworks of their own. But that’s getting ahead of the story.
The All-Star game had been arranged for the Filbert Field, with Charles Hutchinson of Phillips managing the Valley Division Stars, and Paul Gmutza of Filbert leading the Valdike Division Stars.
There was one problem with sports writing back in those days – for reasons known only to the writers, first names of players were not always printed. That is one no-no we try to avoid today.
Anyway, the Valley Division stars included:
Catchers – Soltis, Trotter; Sabatula, Phillips; and Wolfe, St. Rita’s.
Pitchers – Joe Marcinek, Monarch; Lulich, Phillips; Glenn Grimm, Bute; and Jay Shallenberger, Trotter.
Infielders – Grimm, Hardy, and Walters, Oliphant; George Pastors, St. Rita’s; Helms and Bashinsky, Trotter; Alex Marra, Phillips; Gerry Griffin, Mount Braddock; Jim Shubert and Paul Alexander, Monarch; and Strycula, Bute.
Outfielders – Otis and Reed, Bute; Kegg and Pillar, Phillips; Hiles and Herchko, Trotter; and Matteosky, Mount Braddock.
The Valdike Stars included:
Catchers – Lou Panek, New Salem; D. Ledonne, Filbert, and Brown, Collier.
Pitchers – Chuck Evanina, Keister; Ray Chuck, Continental; Kobala, Davidson; Reposky, Lambert; and E. Cassurole, Filbert.
Infielders – E. Zimmerlink, Allison; Joe Bendo and John Pedro, Keister; George Kazimer and Ron Fudala, Continental 2; Bill Fisher, High House; Janesko, Collier; Salopek, Masontown; Tom Gmutza and Al Galie, Filbert; and Bob Motil, Allison.
Valdike set off their fireworks in the first inning, taking a 7-0 lead, and rolling from there. Gmutza and Misenko singled, Kazimer walked, and after an error Ward singled, Bendo doubled, and Evanina and Gmutza singled.
A nightcap five-run salute wrapped it up in the eighth, on hits by Motil, Rosnack, and Fisher, around two walks.
Valley got all its runs in the ninth on a walk, Andy Tajc, John Matteosky, and Chuck singles, with two errors.
Myers, Motil, Rosnack, and Marra hit doubles, and Fudala tripled. Misenko had three hits and Gmutza two to lead Valdike at-bat, while Marra had two Valley hits.
-Scottdale set off a few fireworks of their own in the North Section of the Big 10, trouncing Levin’s of Connellsville, 26-3, with six runs in the fourth and seven in the eighth. R. King, Bozo Shimshock, and Vargulich combined to pitch a winning 5-hitter, including Frank Dunaway’s double and single. For Scottdale, Percy (2) and Bob Galasso homered, Shimshock and Horn a double and triple, Frank Koza a triple and single, Heise three hits, Tannehill a double and single, and Dunlevy a double.
Elsewhere that week:
-Billy Phuntek pitched a 3-hitter and struck out 15 as Fairview beat South Connellsville in Connellsville Little League play. Soliday had two SC hits.
-Jim Whoric of Trotter pitched a no-hit, 3-0 win over Scottdale, in Fay-West National Rookie League play. Whoric fanned 10 as he outdueled Dick Stoner, who allowed only three hits, Domaracki’s two singles, and Kostelnik’s double. That was the league’s second no-hitter of the season; the first one pitched a few days earlier by John Grinko.
-There was bad news for National League pitchers. Stan Musial had been in the worst slump of his career, dropping to a .250 average. But in one week, he went 9-for-14 (.643) and hiked his average by 14 points.
-The Martin Brocco Loft of Vanderbilt finished one-two in the Connellsville Homing Pigeon Club’s 232-mile race from Xenia, Ohio. “Silver Chief” averaged 1,156.18 yards per minute and won in 3:48, with “Blue Belle” right behind averaging 1,101.55.
-Bill Little, who would go on to have a fine pitching and hitting career in the Fay-West League, hit a grand slam homer as the Elks collared South Connellsville, 7-0, in Connellsville Little League play. Egan also homered for the winners.
-Pitcher Bob Garber, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Garber of Narrows Road, Connellsville, had been recalled by New Orleans (AA) after three weeks in Longview, Texas (B). Garber had gone to spring training with the Pirates, then was sent down to their farm to work back from a foot injury.
-Jim Shubert hit a double and single, and Monarch scored single runs in the first three innings, to edge Mount Braddock, 3-2, in County League play. WP Marcinek allowed five hits, two by Jacobs.
-Guess who was in the National League cellar? The Pirates were 24-50, standing 21 games back of Brooklyn.
-At this point, the two leagues took a mid-season break. In the County League, the Valdike Section standings were: Continental 19-5, Keister 17-6, New Salem 14-10, Masontown 12-12, Davidson 11-13, Allison 9-13, Lambert 7-16, High House 6-18, and Collier 2-22. The Valley Section lined up with Monarch 18-5, Bute 16-7, Mt. Braddock 16-8, Trotter 15-9, Phillips 12-12, St. Rita’s 8-14, Oliphant 6-16, and Dunbar 2-22.
In the Big 10, the North Section saw Perryopolis 18-3, Vestaburg 12-9, Smock and Scottdale 11-10, Fayette City 10-10, Colonial 7-14, and Levin’s 4-17. Robena led the South Section at 18-6, followed by Nemacolin and Pals Club 18-7, Crucible 16-9, Fairchance 15-10, Bobtown 9-15, Gates 5-20, and Oaks 0-23.
Remember?