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.
