When I began this series I had this great idea of writing about some of the outstanding teams and outstanding players who played during the 20-year period of the Howard Insurance baseball program.

So much for great ideas. I don’t know where to begin and where to end. I knew I would mess up when I wrote about assistant coaches. I left out one of my favorites, Warren Westrich, and, I probably left out others.

I have this big box in my garage loaded with the history of Howard Insurance baseball. My wife, annually, insists that the box should go to the curb for pick up. I’ve told her that one day I would need it. Well, here’s the day and like I wrote, I don’t know where to start and where to end.

I would guess that during the 20-year period there were 200-205 kids who played in the program. Name a few? No way!

Howard Insurance wasn’t about great players or great teams, although we had our share of both. It was about family baseball and kids, and their families, having fun.

The toughest job of coaching Howard Insurance was picking the roster. That grew tougher and tougher when more kids began playing baseball in Noblesville. Not every kid wanted to play on the Howard Insurance team. A great many did.

The second toughest job was putting a starting lineup on the field at tourney time. Winning tourneys was important, to everyone. Howard Insurance was a community team and when it came time for Babe Ruth tourneys, people wanted to win.

Until tourney time, picking starting lineups was easy. Most of our games were doubleheaders and the theory was everyone starts a game and everyone plays what amounted to a full game. Then came the tourney, and starting everyone and playing everyone wasn’t possible. Every kid wanted to start. Every kid thought he should start. That’s what a coach wants from a player. Still, everyone couldn’t start. That was hard.

In 20 years the coaches never had a problem with a player. They were good kids who enjoyed playing baseball.

Oh, I could tell you lots of stories.

One time while lodging in a kind of beat up motel near Terre Haute I had the windows to my room open while taking a shower. Next thing I knew the room was filled with exploding smoke bombs.

There was another time in Michigan when the team was lodged in a two-story, kind of motel of its own. A couple of drunks wondered by and from the second floor came a couple of firecrackers, directed straight at the drunks.

One time our motel was located about two miles from town when one of the players became hungry early in the evening and hitched his way into town. I found him in a restaurant.

Like I said, good kids who loved playing baseball.

The parents were great, too.

Each weekend as we traveled to other parts of the state and into Michigan and Ohio there always were enough parents with cars lined up ready to go.
No transportation fees for the players. No motel fees. The kids bought their own meals.

I could tell you some stories about parents on those trips, but I won’t.

Like I wrote, good parents who enjoyed summer baseball.

Often times we had larger crowds at road games than did the host teams.

I once thought that my enjoyment from 20 years of being with Howard Insurance were the games, the tourneys, the road trips, and, yes, even the umpires.

What I’ve learned later in life is that my greatest enjoyment from those days are the kids (now young people) and parents (now not so young) who stop me when we meet, or call, or e-mail and say, “Do you remember ….”

Yes, I do. It was lots of people, kids, parents and others, having fun with summer baseball.

Now that I think about it, no one mentioned being scouted by the pros and colleges. These kids just wanted to have fun.

I’ve been around the block a time or two when it comes to amateur baseball. Never, in all my years have I experienced, nor have I seen, anything like what the Howard Insurance team was in Noblesville in the 1970s and 1980s.

It was a team which consisted, for the most part, of 14- and 15-year-olds. A player had to be good, darned good, to make the team as a 13-year-old. Maybe in that 20-year period there were a half-dozen 13-year-olds.

It was a travel team long before we knew about travel teams. The major difference in that team, from travel teams today, nearly all of the players were from Noblesville. Along with being sponsored by Howard Insurance the team also was funded by what was called City-Township Recreation. City-Township rules stated all players had to be from Noblesville.

In the first couple of years, the summers of 1967 and 1968, there were a few players from other Hamilton County communities. It was 1967 when the team made one of its strongest runs in the postseason Babe Ruth tourney, reaching the final three teams in the state tourney before being eliminated by Crown Point. In a tourney played in New Castle, Crown Point then lost to Terre Haute and that Terre Haute team went on to win the World Series in Alaska.

I’ll tell you a funny story about Crown Point. As a young kid and a hot-shot coach thinking I was another Don Dunker, or Glen Harper or Bill McClain, I decided to scout Crown Point in the area tourney, knowing we would play them at the state. They had a catcher who absolutely killed us. The kid didn’t even play in the game I scouted.

End of my scouting days. End of being a hot-shot coach.

The closest thing to a travel team in those days was Dunker’s American Legion team, which also consisted mainly of Noblesville players.

With the sponsorship of Howard Insurance and City-Township Recreation, money was never a problem. City-Township Recreation had some weird funding guidelines. You could buy equipment such as baseballs, bats, etc. and uniforms, but nothing else. We had more money for equipment than was needed. Spend it, or lose it.

Remember what I told you earlier, this was the only team in the 13-15 age group in Noblesville at that time, at least in the early years of Howard Insurance. The roster, each summer for probably five or six years, was never higher than 20 kids.

Howard Insurance never lacked for competition.

Throughout the summer (summer baseball in those days being June through July), the team played in the Hamilton County Pony League.

It was a tough league. Man, I mean it was tough. The big rival was Arcadia. When Noblesville and Arcadia played at Forest Park the bleachers and grandstand were jammed. Carmel was tougher than nails. So were Westfield, Fall Creek, Cicero, Fishers and Sheridan.

Howard Insurance wasn’t exactly well-liked by the rest of Hamilton County. Every so often, in the early days, Howard Insurance would pluck away an outstanding player from one of the other teams. Then, there was our budget; our travel, our uniforms  - things the other folks didn’t have. Even today I have guys who played on those county teams tell me how much they wanted to beat Howard Insurance. And, by golly often they did.

Some of the best 13-15 teams in Indiana, and from other states, came to Forest Park to play Howard Insurance. And, when Howard Insurance wasn’t at home, the team was on the road playing the better teams in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.

It wasn’t easy, in the beginning, scheduling top-notch teams. South Bend was the hotbed of Babe Ruth in the late 1960s, when the Howard Insurance scheduling got underway. South Bend was the twice defending state champion. Noblesville was a little town with a little Babe Ruth program that was nothing more than a dot on the map in the Babe Ruth world.

I went to South Bend and pleaded for a game. They agreed to “work us in” on a Sunday afternoon. We had played in Michigan on Friday and Saturday and were scheduled for a league doubleheader in Sheridan Sunday evening. I don’t recall the score, but we beat South Bend.

Scheduling became easier after that and after advancing to the state finals later that summer.

I could go on and on, but tomorrow I’ll wrap up this series  on Howard Insurance and how summer baseball once was.

At the Indiana North-South All-Star Baseball Classic Saturday and Sunday, Jake Hansen ended his high school baseball career the same way he played it for four years at Westfield High School.

Exciting. Successful.

Playing for the North Team in the second game of the Saturday doubleheader, Hansen made history by being the trigger man in the first triple play ever recorded in the series.

The South had runners on first and second when the next batter lined a shot to Hansen at second base. He caught the ball, tagged the runner attempting to go from first to second and then the South got the third out when the runner on second failed to tag up before going to third.

Hansen, a shortstop during days at Westfield, played second in all three games. He handled every ball hit to him.

The series ended Hansen’s high school career. He now will move on to Purdue University, where his father and two uncles played college baseball.
Hansen played a key role in all three games.

In the opener, a 16-8 loss for the North, Hansen started at second base. He went to the plate three times, collected a walk and a single, stole a base and scored two runs.

In the nightcap of the doubleheader, Hansen came off the bench and doubled, drove in a run and hit a fly ball to left. The North won that game, the game of the triple play, 7-4. The North had collected just one hit and hadn’t scored a run before Hansen hit the double in the seventh inning.

On Sunday, the teams ended the weekend with a wooden bat game. It was won by the South 3-0. Hansen started; struck out his first trip to the plate and drew a walk in his second trip.

The weekend started with a Friday banquet, highlighted by the naming of Greensburg’s Alex Meyer as Mr. Baseball. Meyer has been drafted by the Boston Red Sox, but has indicated he will attend the University of Kentucky.

Standing 6-7, Meyer worked the first three innings of the opening game at the University of Notre Dame. He allowed one run on three hits and fanned four batters.

Meyer lit up the crowd when he was clocked throwing the ball at 96 miles an hour. Veteran coaches said they had never seen that type of speed from an Indiana high  school pitcher.

The best game of the weekend was the Sunday contest. The South led only 1-0 until scoring two runs in the top of the ninth. The North threatened in the bottom of the ninth, getting a hit to open the inning. But then pitcher Cody Johnson fanned the next batter and ended the game on a double play.

Johnson, from North Harrison and headed for Oakland City University, was named the Outstanding Player of the series.

Franklin’s Brad Hook, who will play at the University of South Alabama, won the home run contest.

Hansen was the only Hamilton County player in the series.

If you didn’t live it, I would think it would be difficult to understand what summer baseball was like in Noblesville in the 1970s and 1980s.

The team I wrote about in Thursday’s column, Don Dunker’s American Legion team, was something special in this city. When Dunk’s squad won the Advance Babe Ruth state championship in 1972, the story was the lead on Page 1 in the local newspaper.

It was that big. Dunker’s team drew large crowds when the Legion played at Forest Park.

Another team which drew lots of at attention during this period of time was the Howard Insurance Babe Ruth team.

When Babe Ruth baseball was organized by Dunker in 1967, 19 players reported. If you’ve followed the local Babe Ruth program since then, you know how it has grown by leaps and bounds.

Back then, Noblesville didn’t have enough players to form a league, so the Howard Insurance team for a few years was it.

I spent 20 years coaching that team, so I can tell you first hand what life was like when the program first began at the diamond on 16th Street and then later when Babe Ruth built its own facility at Forest Park.

I don’t use the word “coach” in a boastful way. I kind of just hung around. Dunker’s Legion (and high school) players were role models and the younger kids already had picked up the game before they arrived on the Howard Insurance team as, mainly, 14- and 15-year-olds. Also, there were other coaches who worked with me and knew the game far better than I did. I hope I don’t leave out anyone (the memory isn’t what it once was), but there was Carl Lowery, Lyle Howell, George Grimes, Clarence Sherrill and Terry Coomer. I just know I left out someone.

Lowery was a baseball nut. When Noblesville hosted its first state Babe Ruth tourney in 1970, Carl was the driving force. He brought TV-6 to Forest Park for the championship game.

Howell, in the summers, spent more time in the batting cage than he did at home. Grimes and Sherrill always were there, doing whatever was needed.

Coomer coached a couple of years. A normal schedule was meeting for batting practice at about 3 p.m. and playing a 5:30 p.m. doubleheader. That wasn’t enough for Terry. After many games Terry would take the players into the outfield to run. You think I didn’t hear an ear-full from parents who wanted to get home for dinner?

Howard Insurance played 40-50 games a year, depending how far the team advanced in the postseason tourney. In 11 of the 20 years, Howard Insurance made the state finals, finishing second two times.

During the week, Howard Insurance played in a Hamilton County Pony League. Competition was tough with Carmel, Arcadia, Fishers, Sheridan and Westfield.

On weekends teams from throughout the state, and other states, came to Noblesville to play Howard Insurance, or Howard would hit the road for weekend trips. The parents would gather and off we would go.

I always felt the parents enjoyed those trips more than the kids. It was a family and everybody chipped in. The players did not pay to play or travel.

Those weekends were fun. I’ll write a little about them in my next column on summer baseball.

I contend that Don Dunker’s 1972 Noblesville American Legion baseball team was the best summer team ever to play the game in this area.

As I wrote Wednesday, I wish Dunk was still alive today so I could ask him that question. I went to another source, Terry Coomer, who played on that team.

“It may well have been the best,” said Coomer, who was a senior-to-be at Noblesville High that summer. Following his senior year Coomer was the state’s No. 1 draft pick in Indiana and signed with the Giants.

What made that team so good was pitching. Coomer was the ace right-hander. Gary Parks was the ace lefty. Parks was a graduated senior who in the summer of 1972 was drafted by the White Sox and turned down that offer to go on and pitch at Purdue University.

Not many summer teams, in those days, were blessed with two pitchers who had been or would be drafted.

Parks and Coomer were so good that often over-shadowed were other good pitchers, such as Ray Lyttle (No. 3 on the staff), Doug Latham, Carl Lowery, Jr. and Mike Beadle.

“Lyttle threw a lot, but the others didn’t get lots of opportunities to pitch,” Coomer recalled.

The team ended the season by winning both the Legion state tourney and the Advance Babe Ruth state tourney and then went on to be eliminated in the Babe Ruth Regional at Alpena, Michigan.

Noblesville blasted Plainfield 25-7 in the opening game of the Legion state and then knocked off Floyd County 4-0 for the championship. Randy Wilson (from Fortville) hit a home run with Lowery on second to clinch the victory. Coomer pitched and struck out 16.

“We didn’t finish the Legion tourney in time to start the Babe Ruth state,” Coomer said, “so we had to forfeit the first game.”

That meant Noblesville had to beat Calumet twice for the state championship. Coomer, who had pitched the final game of the Legion tourney, was called on to pitch the first game against Calumet.

“Lyttle was on vacation, so Dunk said I had to pitch. My arm was killing me,” he said.

Noblesville won 10-2 and then in the second game against Calumet, Parks fanned 15 batters and Dunker’s squad won 4-1.

In a classic, Noblesville lost to Appleton (Wisconsin), 1-0, in the Babe Ruth Regional opener. Parks threw a two-hitter in the losing effort.

Coomer pitched a five-hitter as Noblesville stayed alive with a 7-3 victory over Frankfort (Kentucky).

Noblesville was eliminated by Irving Lake (Illinois) in another 1-0 classic. Lyttle threw a strong game, but lost.

“We weren’t a bad hitting team,” Coomer said, “but Wisconsin and Illinois had great pitchers. We had the bases loaded a couple of times. We hit some hard line drives which were caught.”

Dunker’s teams always attracted scouts for games here in Noblesville, but nothing like what Noblesville saw at Alpena.

“There must have been 40 or 50 scouts,” Coomer said.

“Because of the teams Dunker scheduled, we were well scouted during the summer,” Coomer continued. “We beat the Storm Club from Cincinnati, 2-1. They came here with a 30-0 record. We also won at Kokomo in a game in which Dunker was ejected for arguing balls and strikes. It’s the only time Dunker was kicked out of a game.”

The local Legion post picked up the bill as the sponsor of the team.

“We never paid anything to play or travel,” Coomer said. “I remember we had a fund-raiser to finance our trip to Alpena.”

On that team, along with those already mentioned, were Mike Swaynie, Alan Dunlap, Mark Hood, Joe Sherrill, Jim Harger, Larry Morris and Dave Beatty. Dunker’s assistant coach was the late Carl Lowery, Sr.

I’m sticking to my guns. It was the best summer team, of many outstanding teams Dunker produced, ever put on the field in Noblesville.

In my next few columns I’m going to write about how baseball was in this area back in the old days. I may miss a day here in the series and there as other sporting events leap into the spotlight.

I think some of you who lived those days might enjoy the memories. I hope the columns also are of interest to others.

I don’t pretend that what happened back in the 1970s, 1980s could happen today. It was a different world. Local baseball was in a different world than the one in which we live today.

There were two big differences, maybe three.

In those days high school coaches in other sports in the summer were not allowed, by IHSAA rules, to work with their players. That, as you know, has changed. Today, everyone wants a piece of the athlete. Summer baseball didn’t have such restrictions in the 1970s, 1980s.

There was no moratorium week. Currently, the week used by the IHSAA as a moratorium for all high school sports is the same week teams back in the old days were heating up for post-season tourneys. Today, few high school baseball teams return to play after moratorium week. Travel teams aren’t under the rules of moratorium week.

Also, there weren’t travel teams in the 1970s and 1980s. At least not in this area. Most high school players in those days participated with local American Legion teams and with local Babe Ruth teams. There were two Legion teams in Hamilton County, one sponsored by the Noblesville Legion post and the other by the Carmel Legion post.

Don Dunker was baseball in Noblesville. He ran the show. I wish Dunk was still alive so I could ask him, but I believe his all-time best team was his Legion team of 1972. That’s the team I will write about in Thursday’s column.

Dunker brought baseball to Noblesville.

Yes, he did lots of traveling with his Legion team, but Noblesville was where you would find a host of professional and some college baseball recruiters in the summer. There were always a couple of tryouts camp conducted by major league teams. And, seldom was a Legion game played at Forest Park that a scout or two weren’t in the stands.

Dunker, a former professional player and a pitcher who during his time owned the all-time strikeout record at Indiana University, knew how to get his players scouted.

Dunker’s players didn’t pay to play on his team. Dunker’s players weren’t faced with the huge financial cost players today face playing travel baseball.

Here in Noblesville, the Legion post was the sugar daddy, although Dunker and the Legion always would conduct a couple of successful community fund raisers during the winter.

Dunk brought strong opponents to Noblesville. The Storm Club out of Cincinnati, one of the most famous travel teams in those days, always made an annual visit to Forest Park.

Dunker brought entertainment to the Noblesville community. The Legion team drew good, sometimes outstanding crowds to Forest Park. The scoreboard was flashing; a PA announcer kept fans informed, and, by golly, fans could buy a bag of popcorn, or a hot dog, or a soft drink at the concession stand.

Dunker not only played a Legion schedule, his team played an Advance Babe Ruth schedule. In those days, all the good Legion and Babe Ruth players were playing with their local teams.

In tomorrow’s column I’m going to write about that 1972 Legion team. The best Noblesville summer baseball team ever? I wish Dunk was here to answer that question.

But, what that team did was win the state Legion tourney and just a few days later won the state Advance Babe Ruth tourney.

In those days, a team couldn’t do much better than that.

If you’re thinking about traveling to South Bend this weekend to watch Hamilton County athletes participate in the Indiana North-South Baseball Classic, you may want to save your gas.

Unless you’re a Westfield fan. The only player from Hamilton County who will participate in the game is Westfield shortstop Jake Hansen.

The Classic consists of 50 of the best graduated seniors in Indiana high school baseball.

Only one from Hamilton County? Ouch!

There are players from teams which played in conferences with Hamilton County teams.

The South Team has Michael Tucker from Zionsville (Hoosier Crossroads Conference). From the Metropolitan Conference are Andrew Spleth of Lawrence North, Justin Zeller of North Central, Koby Kraemer from Terre Haute South and Joe Megas from Terre Haute North.

Playing along with Hansen on the North Team are Emillo Domondon from West Lafayette and the Hoosier Conference, James Reed from Northwestern and the Mid-Indiana Conference, and Eric Tippy from McCutcheon and the Hoosier Crossroads.

Let’s hope Hansen doesn’t get lonesome during the three-day weekend.

Still, even without Hamilton County, the Classic is a great show of many of the state’s great baseball players.

The event will kick off Friday with a banquet at the Waterford Estates on the north side of South Bend. That’s when Mr. Baseball will be announced. Notre Dame head baseball coach Dave Schrage will be the guest speaker.

A doubleheader will start at 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday’s single game at 1 p.m. is a game in which wooden bats will be used.

Games will be played at the 12-year-old Frank Eck Stadium on the Notre Dame campus. It’s a great place to watch baseball.

The stadium opened in 1994. It seats 2,500 and all of the seats are good ones.

Here are the rosters:

North Team: Ryan Baker, Belmont; Bryan Brudi, Churubusco; Matt Bugaiski, Highland; Emillo Domondon, West Lafayette; Rhett Goodmiler, Norwell; Jake Hansen, Westfield; Josh Ludy, Jay County; Blake Mascarello, Crown Point; Tyler Nader, Wheeler; Ian Nielsen, LaPorte; Daniel Ranchaert, Mishawaka Marian; Lincoln Rassi, Northridge; James Reed, Northwestern; Griffin Richeson, Lafayette Catholic; Bryce Robinson, Kokomo; Elliott Rowe, Caston; Zach Schroeder, Heritage; J.J. Short, Jimtown; Tyler Spillner, Fort Wayne Northrop; Zachary Tanner, Yorktown; Eric Tippy, McCutcheon; Ethan Tribolet, Huntington; Tyler Watts, Ft. Wayne Luers; Ryan Wright, Homestead; Luke Zinsmaster, Logansport.

South Team: Derek Baker, Bloomington South; Trent Barrett, Pike Central; Matt Beyes, Austin; Bo Benham, Crawford County; Jared Broughton, Lutheran; Jordan Chavis, Evansville Harrison; Sean Collins, Pendleton Heights; Jason Cruse, New Albany; John Dury, Chatard; Breandon Gehl, Jac-Cen-Del; Brad Hook, Franklin; Cody Johnson, North Harrison; Nathan Koontz, Brebeuf; Koby Kraemer, Terre Haute South; Shawn Mattingly, Decatur Central; Joe Megas, Terre Haute North; Alex Meyer, Greensburg; Blake Monor, South Spencer; Joshua Reinties, North Knox; Matt Serfling, B Bloomington North; Andrew Spleth, Lawrence North; Mitch Strobi, East Central; Andrew Swart, Crawfordsville; Michael Tucker, Zionsville; Justin Zeller, North Central.

The National Federation of State High School Associations has come up with rule changes in softball, track and field and baseball for the 2009 season. The IHSAA is a member of that association, so some of the changes might be of interest to those of you who play the games here in Hoosierland.

Some. Nothing earth shaking.

The changes in softball, so wrote the NFHS, are designed to create more balance between pitching and batting.

One change is the penalty for a pitcher who exceeds the 20-second time limit to throw the ball. Once ruled an illegal pitch, now the violation is a ball will be awarded to the batter.

“The change,” wrote Mary Struckhoff, NFHS assistant director and liaison to softball rules, “makes a violation of time to pitch by the pitcher consistent with a batter failing to be ready within 10 seconds after the ball has been returned to the pitcher.”

Here is where I show my stupidity (again). I must admit when someone such as myself works for a small daily newspaper and therefore covers six different sports in the spring, I don’t see a ton of softball games. I see my share.

I didn’t know the 20-second rule for the pitcher or the 10-second rule for the batter existed. Did you? Have you ever seen the rule called?

Just asking.

Another revision to a rule changes the pitching windup requirement to a maximum of one and one half clockwise revolutions. The NFHS suggests that the change will make the rule, which results in an illegal pitch, easier for umpires to identify and enforce.

The final adjustment to help create balance between offense and defense clarifies the definition of an attempted bunt. The rule will be changed to state that holding the bat in the strike zone is considered an attempted bunt. In order to take a pitch, the batter must withdraw the bat backward away from the ball.

So much for softball.

Here are a couple of rules to note in track and field.

Beginning next season, pole vaulters once again will be charged with a foul if their feet leave the ground in an attempt to clear the crossbar, but are unsuccessful. However, an exception was adopted to permit the vaulter to leave the ground and return when stopping an approach.

Another revision will allow competitors in throwing events to enter and exit the throwing circle without a foul providing it occurs within the time allowed for the trail and before the competitor starts an attempt beginning with the pause. The change will allow competitors, for example, to leave the circle to wipe off their hands and re-enter the circle without a penalty.

There is a change in the automatic timing (FAT) rule. The rule now allows all ties for place finishes and or determining qualifiers for a subsequent round to be broken using time to one one-thousandth of a second.

So, so much for track and field.

For baseball, a revision was made regarding infractions by a pitcher. The rule states it is illegal for a pitcher to intentionally pitch close to a batter, replacing the prior phrasing of to “throw” close to a batter.

A change for batters, too. The rule-makers are concerned batters are still attempting to be hit by pitchers and earn an undeserved awarded base by “taking one for the team.” In such a situation, the pitched ball will be called either a strike or a ball and the player who permitted the ball to touch him remains at bat unless the pitch results in a third strike or ball four.

Now you know the new rules for softball, track and field and baseball. Heck, the seasons are only (what?) nine months away.

I received an e-mail concerning my series of columns on summer high school sports. On summer high school baseball and how it has changed here in Hamilton County.

“You’re like a politician running for office,” the writer wrote. “You flip-flop. You write about travel ball being bad for summer baseball, and then you write about how good travel baseball really is. I’m not sure you’re in favor, or don’t favor, how the local high schools are conducting their summer programs.”

Thank you. That’s how I attempt to write on controversial subjects. I try to give you my opinion, but I also try to take the other position.
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Why do I believe travel teams have killed summer baseball more than travel programs have killed other high school summer sports?

Glad you asked.

Baseball is different.

First, when the summer begins high school baseball coaches have been with their players for three or more months (legally). That’s not the case with coaches in other sports. Coaches of most other sports haven’t (legally) worked with their teams for the last several weeks, or months. They’re eager to go at it. Baseball coaches are tired and often times burned out.
Continue reading this post…