Swinchock glad he got a chance at pro ball
In the late 1960s and early 70s, Beth-Center High School was blessed with an outstanding group of athletes, one of them was Dick Swinchock, who excelled on the gridiron and the baseball diamond.
“I started getting playing time as a sophomore in football,” Swinchock recalled. My senior year in football in 1969 we had quite a team.”
Swinchock played on Bulldog squads that posted records of 5-0-4 in 1967, 5-3 in 1968 and 7-1 in 1969. The lone loss in 1969 was at the hands of Apollo Ridge, 9-0.
“We had some very good athletes,” Swinchock marveled. “We had several guys that went on to fine college football careers in Fred Pagac, who played at Ohio State, Dave Giles and Younis Zubchevich, who both went on to play at Rhode Island.”
Swinchock was a stocky 6-0, 200 pounds, and played tight end and middle linebacker.
“I didn’t have a preference for offense or defense,” Swinchock said. “I liked both, catching the ball at tight end and hitting people.”
Swinchock snagged 11 passes as a junior and was on the receiving end of two scoring passes as a senior.
The football coach at Beth-Center during Swinchock’s time with the Bulldogs was Bill Connors.
“I had a good relationship with Connors,” Swinchock noted. “He was a tough coach. He knew how to get the best out of his players.”
Swinchock was a three-sport athlete at Beth-Center early in his career.
“I played basketball my sophomore year on the JV team,” Swinchock said. “I did not play my junior and senior years. I liked baseball so I gave up basketball. I told Coach Connors the same thing about football. He was sending out films. I told him not to waste his time. I’d rather play baseball.”
On the baseball diamond, the lefty Swinchock formed a dynamic pitching tandem with right hander Dennis Slagle, who was a year ahead of Swinchock.
The Bulldogs won the Section 16 baseball title in 1969 when Slagle was a senior. The Bulldogs advanced to the quarterfinals of the WPIAL playoffs before falling to Norwin, 7-2.
In 1970, when Swinchock was a senior, Beth-Center again won the Section 16 championship, but lost to West Mifflin, 4-2, in the WPIAL playoffs.
“We had a whole core of guys that were multi-sport athletes, we had a good team,” Swinchock said.
A couple of notable performances that Swinchock authored on the mound for the Bulldogs during his career include a 2-0 two-hitter against Jefferson in 1969, he recorded 13 strikeouts in the game.
On May 21, 1970, Swinchock hooked in a memorable pitching duel with Bob Clites of Mapletown. Beth-Center notched a 2-1 win in 11 innings, and Swinchock fanned 25 batters.
“Clites and I combined for a total of 43 strikeouts in that game,” Swinchock recalled. “I had played against Clites since Little League. I knew him and he knew me, and that was a big competition.”
John Sloan was the baseball coach at Beth-Center.
“I got along well with Coach Sloan,” Swinchock stated. “He was a bird dog for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He would recommend players from this area to the Pirates.”
Swinchock was also an outstanding hurler for Marianna in the Washington County American Legion League.
“The fastball was my bread and butter pitch,” Swinchock offered. “I also threw the curve and change up. I messed around with a knuckle ball, but not too much.”
“I think Legion ball got me into professional baseball,” Swinchock explained. “The Legion All-Stars would compete in front of all the scouts. I played the East-West All-Star game in 1969 in Harrisburg.”
Swinchock was selected in the 19th round of the baseball draft by the Pirates in 1970.
“I was down at California University of Pennsylvania signing up for classes with baseball coach Mitch Bailey,” Swinchock stated. “I came home and my mother was sitting on the porch and told me I got drafted by Pittsburgh. I thought Baltimore was going to draft me. I graduated June 7, 1970, and on June 13, I was in Bradenton, Florida.
“The Pirates, like the Royals, were sending their prospects to college while playing in the minor leagues,” Swinchock said. “I went to Manatee Junior College and then came up to Robert Morris for a semester. Then I just gave that up. I never finished and I regret that to this day.”
Swinchock played three seasons in the Pirates minor league system with stops at the Gulf Coast Rookie League, Niagara Falls and Gastonia, North Carolina. He had a combined record of 6-8 with a 3.59 ERA.
“My first year I was a starter,” Swinchock remembered. “I made the All-Star team that first year. They signed so many people my first year that we had two teams. We had the Tourists the team I played on. We were always the visiting team. My second year at Niagara Falls they turned me into a relief pitcher.”
The Pirates released Swinchock during spring training in 1973. He was 20 years old at the time.
“I didn’t pursue a tryout,” Swinchock lamented. “It was a tough pill to swallow.”
He returned to the area and was doing carpentry work. He then went into the steel mill with Jessop Steel in Washington. It became Allegheny Ludlum in 1996. He worked there for 31 years, took an early buyout and retired in 2004.
Swinchock, 66, has been married to his wife, Marie, for 45 years. They have two grown children, a boy, Scott, and a girl, Haylee.
Looking back, Swinchock is glad he had a shot at professional baseball.
“I got a chance,” Swinchock said. “That’s the thing, how many people even get the chance?”
George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” column appears in the Monday editions of the Herald-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.