Abandoned - Chapter 1: We Just Can’t Get Them Out

 Quincy College vs. University of Iowa (DH) April 1, 1989

 
The six baseball seasons immediately prior to the 1989 campaign had been tough ones for the Hawks as they went a combined 63-165 from 1983-1988. Ron Clark was the QC coach for the last four of those years and the 1988 club put together a 20-30 mark, the only 20-win season during those six seasons. 

The only player who was in the 1988 starting lineup for Quincy College and now was a member of the ’89 group was senior catcher Bud Mcginnes.

 
After the end of the 1988 season. Pete Mcginnes (Bud's twin brother), Pat Schmidt (the #1 pitcher on the 88 squad) and one other QC player transferred to Division 1 universities. Ten other players who had eligibility to play in 1989 remained at Quincy College, but did not play baseball. Several of them had been everyday players during the previous season.

Without a head baseball coach, an assistant coach or even an assigned faculty member since mid- May there were no high school or junior college players recruited for the ‘89 season.
 
 We were nearing the halfway point of our 1989 campaign when we met the Hawkeyes on April Fool’s Day. I guess that should lead to a clever anecdote, but I think the members of that Quincy College team have heard them all. We had played 11 games in the last eight days, nine of those on a short swing through some southern states during spring break. Our ten-man pitching staff had turned into a 12-man group as we tried to navigate our team out of swirling waters.

When I recently began contacting the players who made up our 1989 squad and we began launching into memories of that season, half of the team brought up the Iowa doubleheader within the opening five minutes of our conversation.

 I don’t think they were necessarily having nightmares about that day thirty years later. I think their thoughts were more in line with 'Let’s initially talk about that embarrassing Saturday afternoon so we can reminisce about some of the less painful times and more enjoyable memories of that year.' If they wanted to talk about it or not, no player had forgotten about that doubleheader.

Iowa defeated us in game one, 10-0. Both coaches had agreed to the ten-run rule after five at bats for the trailing team. Junior Don Hargis pitched the entire game for us. Don was 6 '3, 200 lb. right-hander from Effingham (Il.) and like most of the guys who stepped on the mound for us, he was also a position player. He was one of three pitchers who had thrown innings during the 1988 campaign. Combined, the three hurlers (Dave Mikolaczak and Elvis Turkovich were the other two) threw a total of 40 innings that entire 1988 season.

I was not dissatisfied or displeased with our opening game loss to a solid Big 10 team. I was confident we had played enough games during the season for me to have formed an accurate assessment of our players individually and as a team. Of course, it was our goal that we wanted to continue to get better as the season progressed and, in many ways, I felt we had been doing that. I also internally recognized those aspirations would rarely be evident in the game results and box scores.

Hargis threw strikes for us in the first game. We handled the routine plays and if someone had proposed to me a repeat of game one as we readied for the second game, I would have accepted it. There’s absolutely no way I could have anticipated what took place in game two. But there had been enough indicators during the season that the wrong combination of variables coupled with a worn-down pitching staff against a good Iowa team that went 37-20 in 1989, could unlikely, but possibly put us in line for our worst defeat of the year and probably the worst in the school’s history. Maybe the worst in the modern history of 99 percent of every college team who ever stepped on a game field.

The Iowa Hawkeyes qualified for the Big Ten Tournament that season and with infielder Tim Costo (the 8^th overall pick in the 1990 draft), Chris Hatcher, an outfielder who was selected in the third round in 1990, and pitcher Cal Eldred, a 14-year ML veteran-picked in the first round in 1989, they were the most formidable opponent we would face in that ’89 season.

Game two got under way and we simply could not get them out. Oh, eventually we did, but so many hitters came to the plate between outs you almost forgot there had been any outs made. The opening inning went something like this-single, walk, triple, double, error, deep flyout for the first out. That was followed by a walk, double, walk, home run, ground ball for the second out and then single, home run, double, single, error and mercifully out number three was made.

The Hawkeyes scored 12 runs in the first off Turkovich and 20 in the second inning off freshman Brian Allen and sophomore Tony Preall. Iowa went to their backup position guys very early and we still had trouble finding a way to gather more outs. To their credit, Iowa just played ball. They did not intentionally run up the score. Their substitutes didn’t hit and run or steal bases-they went up to get their hits and they did not make it more embarrassing by taking wild swings and purposely striking out or running into outs.
As terrible as it was to be in that position, it would have been twice as demeaning if they had faked their way to a conclusion. We were defeated 32-0 in game two. Iowa hit six home runs on the day with Costo and Hatcher hitting two each. We had five hits combined in the two games, scored no runs, and gave up 42.

Brian Allen was a freshman from Clayton, Illinois, about a 30-mile drive from Quincy. He graduated from Camp Point Central High School, where former major league pitchers, brothers Paul and Rick Reuschel had attended. Brian also played against a couple of QC teammates in high school (Quincy Notre Dame’s Dave Schuering and Mike Egenes from Liberty H.S.)

Brian retained a significant recall of our ’89 season. He often rode shotgun in the van I was driving to our road games and was quite a conversationalist. It was enlightening to talk to him in 2024 and to hear his perspective of the season we shared.  He was one of three or four players listed on our roster as a second baseman, but it became apparent that he could garner more playing time and contribute more to our club as a pitcher. Brian was only 5’8”, but the young righthander always competed and he’d take the ball at any time, like he did against Iowa on April 1.

Brian told me, “I gave up several really long home runs that game. I remember your face when you came out to the mound. You didn’t yell, but your face said that we have to keep on playing. Despite the score and all the hardships, we couldn’t just give up.”

We were now 0-21 on the season. We lost one game 5-4, another 3-1 and one 9-6. Those were the closest margins of defeat we had posted during those 21 games.

Theoretically, baseball is designed to be played every day. It is rare that it actually happens, except at the professional level, but there are times when you just want to get back out there the next day and play again. Sometimes you feel you need a day or two away from it all. We had no choice after the Iowa doubleheader. We had another doubleheader against a Division 1 opponent, Northern Iowa, the following day.

I don’t think I immediately realized the importance of Sunday, April 2^nd as it related to our season and to our baseball program. The significance of that day wouldn’t be determined until much later in the 1989 campaign. 

Abandoned: Prologue

 The Quincy College Baseball Team opened their 1989 season on May 13^thwith a home doubleheader against the University of Missouri-Saint Louis.

Thirty-five years later I began a series of phone calls and social media connections with the Quincy College players from that ’89 squad. They were no longer the 19, 20- and 21-year-old young men from their collegiate playing days. Now they were men with mortgages, children, and several with grandkids. These 54,55, and 56-year-olds now had successful careers, many that were directly tied to their college studies.

Their baseball coach on that Opening Day was no longer a mustachioed 33-year-old with seemingly endless energy to hit fungoes and throw batting practice daily. I was now gray-haired, 69 years old, and still eager to swing a fungo bat and throw batting practice every day, but countless swings of the bat had become a no-no and my right elbow continually announced that tossing b.p. had been reduced to a once-a-week activity.

Contemporary technology had allowed me to stay in occasional contact with six or seven of the guys, but I had only seen two of them in the 21^st century. Yet, the first communication with each player in March 2024 and that initial, “Hey Coach, how are you doing?” immediately brought back vivid images of each player.  I immediately saw some in the batter’s box, on the pitcher’s mound or all 19 together posed for the team picture.

I passed along my writing plans detailing the complete 1989 season. I wanted to tell the entire story of what these players were forced to needlessly confront during the entire academic year and baseball season. For many it began at the end of May in 1988, continued through the summer and extended nearly through the end of the 1988 fall semester into December. Then there was a reprieve of a few months until the nightmare moved to the game field. 

The apathetic deportment of persons whose jobs were to supervise, oversee, and administer to all the Quincy College athletic programs guided the baseball team with a completely detached and plainly uninterested behavior. It was a classic example of the Peter Principle concept. Their inactions began to dismantle the baseball program brick by brick.

When I contacted the players from the 1989 squad, I told them their story would be written in the manner and context that I believed in then. Thirty-five years later, my respect for the 19 players has only gathered strength through all the years that have passed. Recent conversations and the baseball events that have followed the ‘89 season have only enhanced that belief.  These players would be written about individually and as a team from a commendatory viewpoint, simply because that’s the way it was.
 It is a story worthy of acute attention, identifiable by few and startling for most.

 The 1989 Hawks were not a championship team or a squad that played at the break-even level or within telescopic sight of that mark. It is not a story of amazing come-from-behind upset wins or a campaign filled with exciting nail-biting games that brought hundreds of fans out to watch their exciting brand of baseball. 

It is a chronicle of a collection of young players who were forced to break the game down to the grassroots level seeking to compete in conditions that had been unreasonably tilted against them. Unfair doesn’t begin to describe the inescapable position these 19 athletes were placed in. 

I consider it a long-awaited opportunity and a favorable time to relive that year with our 1989 team and inform others about a college baseball season that may have been almost inimitable in the treatment and challenges these young men faced. I’m very fortunate and grateful for having the right set of factors aligned that allowed me to coach the Hawks’ baseball team and now be able to affirm what they accomplished during their college years and over the last three and a half decades.

Reviews of Baseball's Test of Spirit- A Man's Unlikely Odyssey into the Scouting World.

Reviews of Baseball's Test of Spirit: A Man's Unlikely Odyssey into the Scouting World for Sale now on Amazon.

"Jim Pransky was my coach at St. Bonaventure University in the early 80s. "Nice guys finish last," was a famous line by manager Leo Durocher. Jim has proven this adage wrong. For anyone who loves baseball, this is a behind the scenes look of baseball's less glamorous side of being a baseball lifer. In a world of dysfunction, his story is one of function - a solid youth, loving parents, overcoming injury, and a wife he adores. It's a life of gratitude, hard work, many nights at the Holiday Inn, and countless baseball games. His memoir is an engaging read. Baseball may have tested Jim's spirit, but he is not someone to be underestimated."

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 "Jim Pransky went from the baseball fields in McKean County to a 25-year career in Major League Baseball. Even Pransky admits it was an unlikely trek." 'I never thought  I'd end up working in professional baseball, Really. for me, it was very unlikely that I would ever become a big league scout.First, it's hard to do anyway, but I just a kid who grew up in Eldred. I played  baseball, loved baseball, but we never played in front of a scout. I had never even met a scout until I started college coaching, I never thought that was possible."

 

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   "Jim's true life story of his career as a baseball scout is truly an odyssey as the title indicates. The twists and turns of a scout workingin MLB where there is only 30 MLB teams is quite revealing of how baseball works and of how challenging it is to find and develop MLB players. Jim's participation in the first Money Ball draft was one of many compelling stories Jim shares with his readers."

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"This book is an excellent insight into the game of baseball. My passion for the game began in 1957 when I began playing at the age of ten. I continued playing to the age of 25 when I became an area umpire. Thirty years later and after umpiring 3 New York State Championships and Division 1 baseball (St. Bonaventure games including the plate assignment for the first Atlantic 10 series were memorable."                

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    "Baseball's Test of Spirit"- A Man's Unlikely Odyssey into the Scouting World is a fascinating glimpse into a baseball life. The structure itself of the book is interesting,

alternating life-on-the road with a personal memoir with scouting reports about memorable players along the way. The author, Jim Pransky, scouted Albert Pujols when he was a husky shortstop playing on the road at a JUCO in southeast Iowa, and Jim was just so-so on Albert's hit for power tool. He was not the only one to miss on Pujols. Only one or two scouts in major league baseball saw the first-ballot Hall-of-Famer for what he would become, and the peek behind the curtain for scouting on that 13th rounder is one of the many stories that illustrate the strange brew of art, science, conventional wisdom, and analytic precognition that make up modern baseball. Pransky shares the gritty and mundane details of scouting flyover country which enriched my understanding of the great game and stories and unknown people who form the tapestry of the most American of sports. I highly recommend this baseball book for fans who enjoy a good yarn. Five out of five stars.

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A fantastic behind-the scene look at what goes into MLB scouting!

   "Baseball's Test of Spirit," is a great firsthand account of the world of MLB scouting. Jim's entertaining and informative anecdotes on one important part of constructing a major league roster. Whether you've been a lifelong fan of the game or are a rookie in the bleachers, "Baseball's Test of Spirit" should make your readling list's starting lineup.

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Baseball scout's passion and vocation

   "Pransky's book is an in-depth, no-nonsense story of his determination and dedication to the game of baseball and his unflagging effort to do his best, regardless of the long trips, the even longer hours, and the sometimes thankless realities of the business side of the game. His escalation from a small town, "one of the kids" to a world-world traveling professional baseball scout is a story well worth reading. As a baseball junkie myself, I enjoyed following the author's climb up the rungs of the scouting ladder and his referencing players both famous and little-known brought back lots of memories. If you are a true fan of the game and enjoy a good "Little Engine That Could" tale, this book is for you."

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Baseball scouting stories-a worthy read

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A different look at MLB

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Some Olean Sport's Memories- Karuch, Anastasia, and others

    Some Olean Sport's Memories- Karuch, Anastasia and others

    My first memory of Olean area sports is reading about the teams and athletes as an Eldred (Pa.) kid growing up in the mid-60's. The Olean Times Herald covered high school sports so thoroughly with their game coverage and photos that I felt I actually knew many of the athletes before I ever saw them play.

      I didn't actually witness any Olean area games until my brother played basketball vs. Bishop Walsh in 1964-65. A year or two later I was introduced to MUNY League fast-pitch softball followed closely by watching my cousins play football vs. Portville in the late 60's. 

Olean High School basketball captains, 1976-77- Dan Sweeney and Jeff Anastasia. Jon Baker was the head coach of the team. 

     Even when I began to compete as a high school sophomore against some New York State schools in the early 70's, our opponents (Portville, Allegany, Cuba, etc.) were still a bit of a mystery. Despite the fact that Portville and Olean were closer in driving distance than some of the towns we played in little league (ages 9-12) and/or Babe Ruth baseball (ages 13-15) (Coudersport, Shinglehouse, Roulette, Austin and several other Pa. teams) we never actually saw most of our NYS opponents until we were 14 years old or older.

     I chose John Karuch and Jeff Anastasia to highlight the Olean area as two of the hundreds of quality athletes who played during my time as a fan, player, coach and then back to a player, coach and fan again- a period covering a 25 years.

     Along with John and Jeff, I tried to include as many Olean area players in this writing as possible, realizing it would take multiple blog stories to create a completely fair representation of all the top flight athletes.  

     As always, I don't make comparisons re: what player or team was the best during a certain period of time or in a particular school's history. Those can be good barbershop debates or lively discussions over a cup of coffee and a donut. I'm sure that has already occurred a time or two.

        

      Below: John Karuch was a three-sport athlete at Olean Bishop Walsh (1967-1970)- basketball, track and baseball. He was a three-year starter for Ed McGuire's basketball team and had the Big 30's best 100 yard dash time, ten flat.           

Karuch joins Mike Hart as co-captains of the basketball team.

Some of the Olean area best track and field stars: Tony Salmonson (Allegany)-high hurdles,  Marty Torrey (Bolivar) 100 yard dash,  Brian Hart (Bradford)- 440, Larry Decker (Emporium)- 440, Jerry Scutt (Portville) 220 and others are listed above and below.

Photo- John Butler of Randolph (two mile run)

Karuch and Bishop Walsh teammate, John Turek are named to John McCarthy's camp all-star team

Olean defeats Wellsville, 46-40 and Karuch scores 29 and Neal Meacham tallies 23 in Bishop Walsh win over Lackawanna Baker, 80-57. (1970)

Notes on "The Nation's Top 500 HS stars" John Karuch and Neal Meacham of Bishop Walsh are included. Two other area basketball stars, John Oszustowicz (Otto-Eldred) and Paul Stiles (Bradford) are mentioned. Power Memorial HS (Walsh opponent) had three outstanding players- future University of Maryland's All-American Len Elmore, Ed Searcy and Japeth Trimble.

Above and below: John Karuch breaks the Bishop Walsh scoring record with a 42 point effort in league win over St. Mary's of Buffalo. Karuch was 18-26 from the floor and broke his own school of 36 points.

Bishop Walsh baseball team. Henry Bzdak was also an outstanding running back and we also played together on the Allegany Alle-Catt baseball team with Henry's two brothers, Dick and Paul. 

Before his 42 point game, Karuch scored 36 points as Bishop Walsh broke the 100 point mark using their famed full court press to completely dominate the final quarter. Karuch's 36 points broke Tom Heenan's of 33 from the '63-64 season.

Three years ago I wrote a blog story about the 68-69 Hinsdale team led by Don Hurlburt. Tom Oakley and Coach Carl Saglimben. Hinsdale went 8-0 behind Oakley's 28 points and Hurlburt's 22 in 78-54 win over Cattaraugus.

   The complete story of that season was one of the interesting I have ever written, because it was a basketball season that featured a skilled small school basketball team and the emotions and tragedy they faced midway through the year  and how they continued to move forward despite the loss of a friend and teammate. Don is still coaching high school basketball in Georgia and I've been fortunate to stay in touch with him on occasion.

    The piece on this Hinsdale team is still located on my blog site, dankoandmanuel.blogspot.com. along with several other essays on individual players and teams throughout the years of local sports.

 

   Senior Don Hurlburt led all scorers in the Olean area averaging over 33 points per game. Hurlburt went to Canisius College.

   Pre-season notes as Karuch and Rushford transfer, Neal Meacham  are set to be big contributors for the Eagles.

   Bishop Walsh opens the season with two key injuries. 6-6 center John Turek is out for the season (auto accident) and 6-3 junior starting forward Jack Amphlett is out indefinitely with two broken fingers. Karuch will team up with Bernie Gunther in the backcourt. Forwards will be Lee Schafer and Jim Sczudlo will be the squad's forwards.

   Bradford High School with coach Hal Hansen (former coach at Otto-Eldred HS) with Paul Stiles and Jon Poling are 1969-70 is picked to be one of the best in the Big 30 area.

   Karuch and Bradford's Paul Stiles are repeat independent all-stars and Walsh frontline player, Neal Meacham was an Allegany County All-Star the previous season. Dick Glady (Bradford), Bill Potter (Allegany) and Doug Wright of Olean High round out the team. Walsh is 17-1 and Bradford 21-1 at the time of these all-star selections.

February 1970- Steve Cook (Richburg, N.Y), Tom Ripple (Austin), John Oszustowicz (O-E), Karuch, and Ray Hatch (Limestone, N.Y.) are the area's top five scorers at the two-thirds mark of the season.

Independent All-Stars- Front Row (L-R)- Meacham, Glady, and Wright. Top Row (L-R)- Potter, Stiles and Karuch

Bishop Neumann knocks Walsh out of a chance to repeat as Manhattan Cup champion, 69-66. Walsh trailed at halftime by 12, but came back to close the gap, but foul trouble hurt the Eagles with Meachum and Karuch fouling out. Karuch scored 20 and became the all time scoring leader in Monseignor Martin League history topping the record previously held by former St. Bonaventure player, Paul Grys.

   John Karuch signs at Niagara University. Karuch scored 1,278 points in his three-year high school career and Bishop Walsh won 52 of 60 games during his career.

   February 1973- (above)- Senior Jeff Grandusky breaks John Karuch's and Jack Amphlett's's single game scoring mark of 42. Grandusky hits for 47 in 95-70 win over Midzenty

   1974- I first saw John playing fast-pitch softball. He was a leadoff hitter, a left-handed hitter and if he got a bunt down or hit a ground ball to the left side of the infield it had a better than average chance of being a base hit. Tremendous speed and if he lined a ball in the outfield gaps it was likely to be a triple or an inside the park homer. John was a couple of years older than me, but I must have seen him play 15-20 games. I'm quite sure we met a few times on the softball field. Fast pitch was huge at the time in the western NY area. A great game to play. Coaching at Bonas I had some summer opportunities to play in the MUNY League and loved it. Rick Rosenswie, Tom Wilson and Henry Bzdak along with pitcher Wayne Dornsife (one of the top pitchers in the area for many seasons) were excellent players

    1975-Displaying individual player or team records is always frustrating because so many good players are omitted-there were so many. The Times Herald would publish the hitting stats once a week or so- easy to keep track of your favorite players.

   Karuch, second from left on the bottom row, with a slo-pitch tournament championship

   June 1975- Terry Rider was one of the top pitchers among many in Olean. Here's Terry with a shutout win over Salamanca with a no-hitter and a shutout in the Mayor's Conference. Rider was 6-1 with the victory with a 1.40 ERA and 5-0 in the conference.

   1975 with Fillmore ace, Denny Thomas ready to pitch in the Finals of a Class C tourney. The Mayor's Conference 14-man all-star squad was dominated by five players from Salamanca and three each from Olean and Allegany. Pitching selections were Rider and Harry Nelson (Salamanca), Catchers were Mike Calabro (Salamanca) and Tom Verbanic (Olean). Infielder Ray Auman, a sophomore was Portville's lone representative. Ron Dolecki, Matt Kubic and Ron Dolecki rounded out the Salamanca contingent. Brad Weitzel (Salamanca} was an infield selection. Weitzel later went on to be a Division 1 baseball coach and also a professional baseball scout. Allegany's representatives were Dan McCaffrey, John Potter and Ed Grove. 

   Tom Hull was an infield selection (Olean)

   Mike Retchless (Salamanca), Karl Weidt (Olean), Frank Petruzzi (Allegany), Ken Woodruff (Portville) and Bob Mountain (Wellsville) were the league coaches.

   1976- All-Tournament team- left to right, Portville's Tom Yanetsko, Jeff Nix, Tim Yanetsko and Jeff Anastasia (Olean), Jerry Devito (Allegany) and Doug Hallock (Pioneer)

   Portville defeats Pioneer in championship game. The Yanetsko brothers and Jeff Nix score 57 of Portville's 75 points. Olean wins the consolation game over Allegany.

    

   Portville wins three Holiday tournaments collecting six wins in one week. Portville improved their overall mark to 9-0

   Below: Anastasia hits for 28 points in win over Fredonia. 1976

   Area scoring leaders at the halfway mark of the season.

   Fillmore's Thomas leads the way at 25.1. Bolivar's Jeff Scott is in the #2 spot at 23.6. Anastasia is at 18.8 ppg.

   1976- Olean drops a close one to Pittsburgh's Peabody HS in Meadville Elks Tournament.

   Anastasia leads the Huskies with 25 vs, Peabody and 21 in a loss in the first game of the tourney.

   Allegany's Craig Rieman reaches over Jeff Anastasia (#25)

   Jeff Anastasia attempts a jumper in game vs. Pioneer. Anastasia hit for 26 points

   Section VI all-stars in the Expressway Conference include Dick Heidrick (Salamanca), Anastasia and Mike Carr of Olean and Jim Cooney of Allegany.

Cattaraugus County CC all-star team includes four players from Portville (Tim and Tom Yanetsko, Jeff Nix and Fred Caya.

   Olean Times Herald Big 30 Basketball Banquet- left to right: Ray Deland (Portville) coach of the year,  Jeff Nix (Portville) Cattaraugue County Class CC MVP, Jeff Anastasia (Olean) Expressway Conference Class C MVP and Bruce Crandall of West Valley Cattaraugus County Class C MVP.

   1980- Olean always put together a strong recreation league made up of former HS area players. Anastasia leads the way in this game with 36 points.

   1984-Rec League trophy winners representing their respective teams-Steve Mountain, Jim Wright, Joe Sgro- a team sponsor, Bob Hannon and Anastasia.

   1988- Salamanca vs. Olean pre-game notes. Jeff Anastasia was now the head coach of the Huskies, Olean starts five seniors- Matt Threehouse, John Wolfgang, Kevin Klingbell, Joe Gunther and Jeff Sherman. Olean comes into the game at 8-3.

   2016 (below)Inductees into the Western NY Sports Hall of Fame. The list includes: Jeff Anastasia (coach), Dave Hollins- former major league third baseman and Warren Spahn- MLB Hall of Famer-lefty pitcher for the Milwaukee Braves. 

   Below: Three new members elected to Big 30 Basketball Hall of Fame- Second from the left, Scott Crist accepting for his father, Chuck Crist. Middle- Jeff Anastasia and second from the right, Margie Holland.

   Margie Holland was an outstanding women's HS basketball coach at Bradford HS. She coached there for 16 years, with her teams winning 80 percent of their games, nine district titles and going 18-0 in the 1975 regular season.

   Anastasia's HOF bio: Jeff coached at Olean HS (his alma mater) for 32 years. He had 602 wins, 21 league titles, 14 sectional titles, 12 regional trips, seven state final four appearances and two Class B state championships.

   Jeff is a member of the NYS Basketball HOF and is the winningest coach in Western New York basketball history. He retired from coaching after the 2018-2019 season. His varsity basketball coaching career began in 1987. He graduated from Olean HS in 1977.

   Chuck Crist HOF bio: Crist, a Salamanca HS graduate, was a four-sport, dominating HS player (football, basketball, baseball and track and field). He was awarded an athletic scholarship to Penn State and primarily focused on basketball at PSU. He was the Nittany Lion's team captain during his senior season, averaging over 10 points a game and leading Penn State to a 17-8 record, the best in school history at the time. He was the team MVP in both his junior and senior seasons.

   After his college career, he signed with the New York Giants as a free agent to play defensive back. He played in the NFL for seven seasons and recorded 20 interceptions in his career.

Crist is a member of several Hall of Fames including: Cattaraugus County HOF, Chautauqua Sports HOF and the Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame.

   Alle-Catt baseball was a long-time staple of amateur baseball in the western New York and western Pennsylvania area. Their were some team changes throughout the years, but Olean Bradners and the Crosby Mudhens were the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants of the league year after year.  Another team(s) might step up as a challenger each year, but they almost always would have to get past Crosby or Olean to advance in the western NY playoffs.

   Here's a clip of Olean and Crosby near the halfway mark of the season at 1-2 in the South Division. Doug Dallas was the key player for Franklinville years before as they won five straight western NY titles. He joined the Olean club this season and in his first game went 2-4 as Olean won their seventh straight game. Lefty Jim Thomas picks up another win for Crosby vs. Fillmore.

   Olean and Crosby always had excellent pitching through the years and just a few names to toss about were Olean's Tim Brewer, Gary Witter, Mike Carr, Mike Martello (also a VG all-around performer). Crosby was led by lefty area legend Jim Thomas, Ed Faes and Jeff Schultz. Again, these guys represent only a portion of the fine pitchers those two clubs had. It seemed the league teams always had at least one guy who was difficult to face on Sundays. 

    I'm not sure when Alle-Catt baseball and MUNY fast-pitch shut down their leagues, but even not living in the area since 1985- I felt the loss, Great memories of playing and just watching all the teams, tournaments and players through the years.

Olean's Tim Brewer is mentioned as a pitcher (one year after his high school career)  one of the "hardest throwers" in the league. Having faced Tim a few times, I would have to agree. 

March 1971-   

Cattaraugus BB All-Stars- left to right, Pete Weishan (Cattaraugus), John Ames (Franklinville), Jeff Hunter (Franklinville) and Jeff Stark of Ellicottville

Paul Dorman averaged 24.3 ppg.

Below photo- Portville stars- Jim Schott and Paul Dorman