Jun 21, 2009 7 min read

By George Von Benko Former Redstone High School star athlete George Staples would have to be termed a baseball prodigy. He started his baseball career playing at a high level at a young age. “I started on the baseball team at Redstone as a ninth grader when Fred Mazurek was a senior,” Staples reported. “Paul Polink was the coach that I had all through school. He met me when I was a seventh grader – 12 years old. He was the junior high basketball coach. As a 12-year-old I was already coming along as a baseball player. I didn’t start the first few games as a ninth grader, but after that I started at third base. Growing up in the projects in Republic, we had some folks that I followed. Two brothers I sorted of followed after were Jack Marbury and his older brother Guy.”

Staples credits Mazurek and Mazurek’s father Joe with starting his baseball career.

“Right across from the projects in Republic was the patch and Fred Mazurek lived there with his father,” Staples recalled. “It was Joe who put me in the Little League. I followed him and was like a batboy when Freddy was 12. Joe was coaching Brownsville Construction in the Brownsville Little League and they let me go with them. The following year I went out for Little League and I didn’t have any transportation. They had a draft and Joe was now coaching Pony League because Freddy was 13 and I wasn’t picked. Joe told the guy who took over Brownsville Construction to pick me and that’s where it all started. I owe a lot to Joe Mazurek – he loved kids.”

Looking back the Black Hawks had some good baseball teams.

“We had a decent team every year,” Staples remembered. “A lot of us played in the Brownsville Little League. We were competitive. We didn’t win a section title or anything like that, but we were competitive. Our section was Mapletown, Carmichaels, Beth-Center. We weren’t even in the same section for baseball that Brownsville was in.”

Staples had a lot of respect for Polink, who was the baseball coach at Redstone.

“He was a good coach,” Staples offered. “He had played at West Virginia University and he was a good coach. We had some good players at Redstone. As a ninth grader he gave me a red and gray uniform. That’s what football coach Joe Bosnic changed, when he came to Redstone he changed our colors to black and white. The baseball team still had red and gray uniforms when I became a ninth grader.”

Staples always played against older competition and his baseball prowess allowed him to compete at a high level.

“I was playing in the County League when I was 16,” Staples stated. “In the summer of 1963, I was playing for Buffington. There was nobody my age playing in the County League at 16 and 17 years of age. I played with “Pickhandle” Merkosky. I played against Lawrence Curry and Bucky Fairfax – the County League was loaded. It was a great baseball education.”

Staples held his own in basketball and his junior year the Black Hawks went 13-8 and then posted a 13-7 record in his senior campaign. During his senior year Staples scored 245 points for an average of 12.3 points.

“I made All-Section as a senior,” Staples said. “During the summer I played on the playgrounds, against Ben Gregory and folks like that. I played hoops, but basically I played more baseball.”

Staples also excelled in football.

Redstone posted a 1-6-1 record in Staples’ sophomore season. Coach Bill Cessar resigned and John DePasquale took over. The Black Hawks went 3-5-1 in 1962. In 1963, Staples senior year, the Black Hawks were 8-1 in football and their lone loss was to Uniontown.

“We always played up in class,” Staples said. “My senior year we dropped to Class A from Double A and had a good year. DePasquale was a good coach who had coached under Joe Bosnic and he was tough, just like Bosnic. I played end – I basically played everything – defensive end, defensive back, offensive end. I moved around. We had Tom Jubeck and he was a serious running back, and Don Defino was a tackle. My senior year Defino and I were co-MVP’s of the football team and I made the All-County squad.”

Staples decided to sign with the Baltimore Orioles, even though he had a college offers from Hiram and Drake. Staples graduated from Redstone High School in 1964.

“Elmer Gray bird-dogged me from the time I was 17 years old,” Staples explained. “The Pirates wanted me bad and they had five of us working out at Forbes Field. Baltimore came to my house at 10 o’clock at night on September 1 when I was eligible to sign. I didn’t know what to do – I didn’t have a lawyer or agent and I signed for almost nothing. I was originally supposed to go to Cal State as part of the contract, but I wound up going to Stillman College because of Bob Davis and Gary Powell from Albert Gallatin, who were there. I went to Stillman because I was already accepted to go to school there. I was there and then went to spring training in 1965.”

Staples played two years in the Orioles system. At Bluefield in the Appalachian League in 1965, he batted .233 in 37 games with five home runs and in 1966, he was with Aberdeen and only played in five games, hitting .067.

“Jim Frey was the manager at Bluefield,” Staples said. “I only played in 37 games; I didn’t play for some reason. The sporadic playing time hurt me. I went back to Stillman and then the Orioles sent me to Aberdeen. I was cut. I was a good kid and never was in trouble. I did something that I shouldn’t have done and I didn’t realize the impact. I messed with somebody I shouldn’t have messed with. It had something to do with the times. Let’s leave it at that. I had never been in trouble. I was disappointed and went to work out with the Pirates and they didn’t pay any attention to me. I still don’t know if I got blackballed.”

That wasn’t quite the end of Staples baseball career.

“I went into the military in 1968,” Staples said. “I was in the Air Force at Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio. I played slow pitch softball in the city. I got a call from a guy named Sandy Sanchez and he said, ‘I’m the coach with Garza Finance and I understand you want to play some baseball.’ I was the only black player on the team. There was one white dude and the rest were Hispanic. I had a great time and they paid me to play. We won a tournament and played in Mexico and they treated me well. We played against Mickey Mahler, who later played in the major leagues.”

After leaving the Air Force, Staples went to Cal State and got a degree in education and helped coach the freshman baseball team in 1971 and 1972. He graduated in the summer of 1972.

Staples moved to Columbus, Ohio, and taught school for a few years and then worked with juvenile delinquents and the juvenile court for 30-plus years. Staples retired in 2003. He married a young lady named Greer in 2002. They moved to Atlanta for two years. He did some substitute teaching. Then he moved to Los Angeles for a year, before settling in Montgomery, Ala. He still does some substitute teaching.

Staples, 63, has two children from a previous marriage, a daughter Courtney, 31, and a son, Keith Hatcher, who is from Connellsville.

“I still get back to Fayette County quite a bit,” Staples said. “The sports were something and I tell stories everywhere I go about Fayette County.”

George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” columns appear in the Sunday editions of the Herald-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.