The Greatest Game Ever Played

 

Blue and gold upper border of the photo representing, of course, the Otto-Eldred HS colors

The title of this essay may indeed be a high-rise stretch of hyperbole, but you have to admit it is an attention-grabber and it may not be a complete exaggeration for every reader.

Posting this story on January1, 2021 is actually by design. Six months from now will mark the golden jubilee of the 1971 Babe Ruth game between Eldred and Otto. 

It is the lead-up to this contest, the actual seven inning game and the aftermath, the continual residual effect this meeting had on its participants.

It was a game where every player knew the name of each opponent on the other side. The fans of either team did also. These kids all attended Otto-Eldred High School. Many took the same classes, shared a table at lunchtime, rode the same bus and were teammates in other sports or were in the band or chorus together.

This was an unusual circumstance, but not unique. In fact, within this Babe Ruth League, there were at least two teams with a similar  makeup, Crosby and Smethport teams. Players on both teams attended  Smethport High School.

Smethport had won the league title in 1969. The McKean All-Star team in 1969 included: Eddie Swanson,  Lanny Colosimo and Rob Maynard of Smethport, Eldred's Dick Windsor, Steve Milne, Jim Pransky, Bruce Fowler and Mike Miller, Crosby's Rob Flickinger and Eddie Faes and Rew's Francis Ritz. 

The '69 McKean BR League consisted of teams from Smethport, Crosby, Otto, Hamlin, Eldred and Rew.

 Eldred was 11-1 in 1970 to take the crown. Their only loss was an early season 6-4 defeat by Limestone.

The loss to Limestone is one of the many mysteries not completely uncovered in researching this piece. Why, when and how was Limestone in the league? 

I'm sure the players didn't care. We just played whoever was on the schedule. There was no exhibition season or in-season scouting. Let's just play.

The clearest memory of that loss came shortly after we arrived at our opponent's field. Coach Ed Harrington had a station wagon, usually some off-beat color, that he drove to all of our games carrying several players and all of the equipment.

We stepped out of our rides, tucked our shirt-tails in and put on our baseball shoes and searched for the ball bag to start warming up for our contest.

No ball bag, no helmet bag, no catchers' equipment and no bats. Our arsenal of tools was all back in Eldred.

Coach Harrington, usually  soft-spoken, composed and not one to be upset easily, especially to our group of players who were talented and even at 14 or 15 always ready to play ball, had only one question to ask.

"Boys, I'm usually a mild-mannered man, but how in the world did you forget the damn equipment? asked our skipper.

We had to borrow Limestone's gear to compete, but after loading the bases with no one out in the first, our confident team felt we were in the process of putting the pre-game antics behind us. 

I was the runner on second base and when our cleanup hitter hit a ball over my head in to what I thought was an outfield gap, I sprinted toward third. The look on my teammate's face as I neared the bag was my first clue I had made a mistake.

The centerfielder made a fine catch and threw to second for a double play (our runner on third never tagged, probably still shocked by my base running faux pas).

Despite the headline being partially cut off, believe me it says Limestone and Foster win in Babe Ruth loop. We lost 6-4 despite two doubles by my teammate, Lenny Oszustowicz.

It was our only loss of the year and we beat them decisively in our final game of the season to capture the league championship. 

This is our 1970 Championship team. Missing from this photo are the Lathrop brothers, George (c) and Marty(rhp. /inf.)

Our Otto friends joined the McKean Babe Ruth League in 1969. They played all their games on the road with no home field available. A young team with no home field and playing in a very competitive league went through some major growing pains.

Smethport won the league with an 18-2 mark and Crosby, Hamlin and Eldred all had winning records while Otto suffered 17 losses, but...

One of their wins came against Eldred, an upset capped off by a one-hop groundball back to the Otto pitcher, Ned Van Epps, who joyfully ran the ball over to first himself. 

It was an unexpected and somewhat shocking loss for Eldred, but at the same time, there honestly was a part of us who were happy that our friends, classmates and teammates in every other area of our sporting life were happy. 

That was a refreshing part of the rivalry. As each school year was nearing its end, we kidded some about playing each other that summer, but there was no boasting, trash talking or bets made. Make no mistake, every player desperately wanted a win over their schoolmates. There were limited bragging rights at stake, probably among other students and our parents more than the players.

Okay, the greatest game ever; unique because of the opposing players and the young baseball rivalry among friends. Also, both teams had some outstanding players and despite Otto's only third year in the league, they had already established themselves as one of the league's top teams.

One of the major reasons of Otto's rise so quickly was the return of Kerry Snow and his family to Duke Center, Pa. Tom Snow, a fine athlete during his high school career at Otto High (before the consolidation) had moved his family to Louisiana for work reasons, but they returned when Kerry was in eighth grade.

1981 was the second year for Otto's baseball field-a baseball diamond they created. Steve Hepfer, the team's first coach, and several adults and players lobbied for town council approval and ground was finally broken. Trees had to be cleared. The infield was leveled, protective screens, a set of bleachers and an outfield fence were added. 

The field did have a noticeable lean toward the third base side to the point where you could only see the left fielder from the waist up. There were still a row of trees not far from the third base line.  Otto's home field was only a long fungo from the Otto pool that all O-E kids were very familiar.

Otto- Eldred High School with the ball field only 300 or 400 yards away behind the school.

It was the only pool in the area. Eldred students paid a dime (or some kind of minor fee) to ride the seven miles to the school and summer swimming. Except, half of the boys never went swimming.

We did take our towels with our swim trunks wrapped inside, but they never tasted the summer air and sunshine. The Eldred boys primarily played tether ball, watched girls and walked across the tar/oil covered parking lot to the concession stand, undoubtedly ruining a pair of sneakers each summer. Then after two hours we went home for a regular routine.

Take our towel and swim trunks, wet them with a hose or under the sink, hang them on the outdoor clothes line and never refer to our day at the pool. At least, some of us did that. At least, many of us did that.

I still get an occasional e-mail from an ex- teacher or friend who says it was the best game he ever saw. Some of the players, almost 50 years later feel as I do, but surprisingly some have little recall about the game. Fairly, it was nearly 50 years ago, but also as an athlete you always do not remember a special game, sometimes it's a heart-breaking loss that sticks with you.

I remember many games that ended in disappointment; a last minute loss, a below average performance, a loss that would have allowed us to advance in a playoff setting. Others might remember their only home run or an end-of-the quarter half court shot. There are no rules, only one's sense of recall.

We  shared little with college or professional teams. We followed the standings, but our league's more closely, as did our parents, girlfriends and fans.

The Eldred at Otto matchup was a 6:00 start. Pransky versus Snow. It's a natural instinct and it happens at college and pro levels all the time. If the crowd size is 10,000, there will be 20,000 people who will say they were there. 

Just a hypothesis, but there might have been 120 fans there. Parents, students, fans of O-E sports and people who might have gone swimming as their first objective, but filed over to the baseball field. I'm certain there were many who claimed they were present.

I don't know who was the home plate umpire. It might have been Kenny Kervin, whose brother, Mike, was a player, maybe in this game. Larry Burgoon was the head coach with Ron Bacha as Tom Snow as assistants. Ed Harrington manned the Eldred bench alone.

Both teams were talented ,proven by seven of them selected later to the McKean Babe Ruth All-Star Team; Snow, infielders John Hepfer, Steve Barrett and catcher Mike Burgoon represented Otto. Pransky, Oszustowiz and Marty Lathrop represented Eldred. Gary Cunningham represented Crosby and a player named Gustafson and also Gary Holcomb were Smethport selections.

Larry Burgoon, Richie Cunningham and Ed Harrington shared the coaching duties for the All-Star competition. 

Pransky struck out the opening six Otto hitters, but Snow threw two shutout and hitless innings. Otto began to make more contact, but the game had few errors and walks. Otto had only two hits the entire game, singles by Hepfer and Steve Farr. Eldred had none as the sixth inning began.

The game was decided on one swing of the bat. Oszustowicz hit a homer to straight away center for a 1-0 lead, Pransky followed with a single, the only two Eldred hits. If Lenny "O" had not hit that round tripper, the game may have lasted until dark.

Two outs in the bottom of the seventh (7 inning contest) and Snow hit a routine grounder to short that was booted for an error. Hope remained. Kerry stole second, then stole third and there was a strong chance he may have tried for the trifecta and an attempted theft of home. The next hitter was retired easily before Snow could try another steal and Eldred won 1-0, both teams getting only two hits.

A 1-0 Eldred win.

I mentioned several players who participated in this game and despite researching and speaking to many participants, the five decades proved a stumbling back.  

Eldred had, besides the players mentioned; Jimmy Russell, Whitey Peterson, Marty Lathrop, Steve (Reggie) Jackson and Joe Wade.

Other Otto players were; Dave Ezzolo, who played two BR seasons and was an official scorer for this game, Larry English, Bruce Milliron, Denny Glenn, and Joe Lehoskey. 

Some athletes were mentioned by several observers as possible members of these squads- Steve Drugg and Roger Jackson.

In later years, Jim Pransky and Steve Jackson.

Jim Pransky and Jim Green with his son, Keith

The 1971 BR season did not end after the Otto versus Eldred game. The two teams played in Eldred several weeks later with Otto bouncing back with a convincing win over their summer rivals. Pransky remembers Steve Barrett, hitting a home run off him "that still might be rolling. He hit a ball well over our centerfielder's head and it rolled through the open field, across the road and probably stopped its journey somewhere around the Myron Burns statue in the school parking lot."

Snow, later set a McKean BR record by striking out 17 batters in a 11-1 win over Smethport. He also homered in the game. The record he broke was Pransky's 16 strikeouts versus Foster Brook the previous year. He got the final out, picking a runner off second after shortstop Randy Shay snuck in behind the runner for the easy tag.

Pransky kidded, "If I knew Kerry was going to strike out 17, I would have gone for the 17th strikeout. Honestly, they was a hitter, Brad Byerley that just wore me out. He had at least two long doubles against me, maybe even three.

He told me," "I love your pitching."

Snow's record-breaking outing.

The season still had some unfinished business as the McKean All-Stars traveled to Wellsboro to play Williamsport West End and Wellsboro for the district title.

Snow beat Williamsport and Pransky beat Wellsboro and the McKean team was one win away from winning the tournament. That win never came as Williamsport beat them twice to win the qualifier.

The previous year, the tournament was held in Williamsport. I recall we lost the opener to the host team as they squeezed bunted successfully about three or four times in a row to break the game wide open.

Another memory of that tournament was that Mr. Snow (Kerry's dad) had an eight mm. camera and took videos of some of the action. I watched them later and it was the first time I had ever seen myself play baseball. It was amazing to see us play on film, even if we were losing at the time. The following school year we watched film of our basketball and football games on the reel to reel projectors. I can still hear the click of the reels turning and how grainy the stop action was.

Many, many years later, I stopped at the high school and during my visit I asked if any of the cannisters of the game films were still available. They were nowhere to be found. The search valiantly continues although the odds are they are no longer in existence. I'm sure there are many ex-players who would love to see the "glory days" again.

Snow's 7-6 win with ten strikeouts and tossing a four hitter .

Two Eldred All-Stars, Lenny Oszustowicz and Jim Pransky. not wearing their regular Eldred uniforms- white,sleeveless tops with gold t-shirts. Photo from All-Star tournament.

Three baseball moms; Mrs. Snow, Mrs Oszustowicz and Mrs. Pransky.

Mr. George Lathrop, one of four umpire for the District tournament.

The 1971 league championship trophy goes to Eldred as co-champs with the question being, Co-champs with what team? 

Snow and Pransky's junior football season did not play out the way they hoped. Pransky broke his leg in pre-season practice and missed football and basketball seasons. Snow broke his collarbone in the year's eighth game, missing the year's final game and part of the season's basketball season.

That 1-0 baseball game was more than a season highlight for many of the participants. It was an example of disciplined, all-out play and a great measure of respect for the opponent. No matter what happened the two teams would unite as they always had to continue friendships and prove that together they could go head to head with any local teams.

Many of those friendships have now lasted five decades.

They were young and it was life. They grew in to adults; Snow became a star quarterback and one of the very few athletes at O-E to play Division 1 football. (Bucknell). He led the Bisons to a 5-4 mark in 1975, winning four straight to close out the season including a 32-25 upset victory over Lehigh. Lehigh had won seven games in a row, but Snow's three touchdown passes, including a 54 yarder with five minutes left in the game sparked the upset win.

Kerry also played a year of baseball at Bucknell, but vying for the number one quarterback sport during spring workouts and playing collegiate baseball at the same time was an impossible task. Eventually, baseball gave way to the gridiron.

An interesting and accurate sidelight to Bucknell's end-of-the season victory over Lehigh. During the '76 season, Lehigh beat Rutgers. Rutgers defeated Syracuse and Syracuse defeated West Virginia. West Virginia bested Pitt and Pitt defeated Kansas. Kansas beat Oklahoma and the "Sooners" eventually won the National Championship. It may not have been an "official" #1 title for Bucknell, but it was and always will be a memorable story.

 He later returned to coach the O-E football team.

 Lenny Oszustowicz became a very successful businessman based in Arlington, Texas. Steve Farr was the Commanding Officer of a Navy Squadron, HSL-94 and just recently retired as Chief Helicopter Pilot of Pfizer.  Jimmy Green moved to Florida. Steve Jackson also became a pilot, working for Southern Airways Express. He authored a book, "N1XF is Going Down."

Many of the players who played in "The Greatest Game..." continued to play baseball together for the Eldred American Legion team, winning a league championship in 1973, defeating Bradford 3-1 in a playoff game played at Port Allegany, a neutral site. The Eldred team advanced in the district playoffs, beating Warren two games out of three with Snow winning both of his starts-two shutouts including a 1-0 game three.

Most of the players mentioned in this essay are now 62-66 years old.

Emporium, with ace lefthander, Randy Cooney won the '74 league championship, 

Alle-Catt Baseball followed with Ron Bacha managing and Hepfer, Pransky, Snow, Lehoskey, Jimmy Green, Larry English and some others extending their baseball careers.

Some players stayed in the area, married, raised children and grandchildren doing what is not even debatable, the most important aspect of life, showing kindness, compassion and making a house and home for their families.

Others left to pursue different options. Some left and returned, maybe to care for a parent or to come back to an area they had missed.

There were divorces, deaths, serious illnesses, anniversaries, reunions and periods of highs and lows. There was just life.

There are places I remember

All my life

Though some have changed

Some forever, not for better

Some have gone and some remain

All these places have their moments

With lovers and friends

I still can recall

Some are dead and some are living

In my life I've loved them all.

                                                    (Paul and John)

Scrapbooks are always an important part of reconstructing a time era, especially when you are looking way-y-y-y back. My mom was an avid collector. I turned all of our books over to the Eldred Library. There are several O-E ones there, maybe you can enjoy looking through them.