Versailles outfielder Quentin Henry outruns a drive to center field Friday to make this impressive catch during action in the Craig Stammen Classic. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
The weekend is on fire with baseball fever in Versailles with the annual Craig Stammen Classic tournament in support of community baseball…and the good things that come from it.
Versailles, OH – It is that time again…when in Versailles, Ohio youth baseball is such a priority that even the chickens quit laying…out of respect for the weekend.
VPP, in Versailles, Ohio, proudly sponsors youth baseball on Press Pros Magazine.com.
It’s the annual Craig Stammen Classic, profiling amateur youth baseball and the good things that can come of it…and even a 13-year major league career for one of its alumni and the namesake of the event.
We’ve put the Classic on our calendar now for nearly a decade, and for one reason. The commitment to youth baseball in Versailles, its value to not only to those that play, but to the competitive profile of a community, is a stark reminder to other Ohio communities who’ve let community baseball slip away in favor of ‘travel’, or ‘select’ baseball. Like the lyrics to the old Joanie Mitchell song…’you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone’.
And if you look at the Press Pros readership density map for baseball coverage in Ohio – 7u to college – you’ll see many of those areas where baseball has ceased to be the priority it once was…if it ever was. A lot of wide-open spaces.
But not in Versailles.
This play looked the same last week at the state tournament…this spring at Bill Davis Stadium…and at the next Reds game you watch.
“Youth baseball is strong in Versailles,” said Stammen this week. “I know the high school team didn’t have the season they wanted to have, but the culture of baseball in the community is great. Kids are playing, they’re having fun, and it’s fun to watch them. There’s nothing better than growing up together, playing baseball with your buddies.”
So says the community’s most noted baseball alum – three seasons at the University of Dayton, thirteen seasons in the big leagues, 562 career games, 55 wins, and 3,700 batters faced!
Ironically, it sounds a lot like what the legendary sports writer Grantland Rice once wrote about baseball, during the post-Depression years of the American experience when baseball – and church – were the single-most unifying factors in the community…a relief from the competition for a roof over your head, and the next meal for one’s family.
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Wrote Rice: “Boys and baseball on the worst day imaginable inspires a good feeling, not unlike the warmth of the sun”.
Like Craig Stammen, I cannot agree more that watching kids play baseball is as satisfying as watching a 9-2 longshot win by a nose. And as a sports photographer, I can add that the images of kids playing baseball look an awful like that of the pros playing the game at the highest level.
Troy Gehret made this catch of a ball in foul territory during Friday action against Marion Local in the Stammen Classic.
Versailles 14u player Troy Gehret making an all-out effort to catch a foul ball against the boys from Marion Local Friday evening at the Indian Creek field in Versailles.
And in that same game, Versailles centerfielder Quentin Henry turning his back on the infield and sprinting head-long for the fence, out-running the ball, ala Willie Mays, to catch a fly ball over his head for the final out of the inning.
At the high school field in a 14u game, St. Henry’s Carson Huelsman scoring on a double to left field, diving for home plate, head-first (like Pete), ahead of the throw to Sidney’s catcher.
All the familiar names from their respective communities – Langenkamp, Huelsman, Barga, Gehret, Homan, Albers – and a pitcher from Versailles (what else) named Knapke – whose form in throwing the ball was as sound as any big leaguer you can name.
St. Henry’s Carson Huelsman reaches for home plate to score in Friday night action against Sidney.
Impressive, too, are the numbers of people who show up to watch. Everyone from St. Henry was there to watch their team beat a team from Sidney – everyone, that is, except that one group spending the weekend in Hocking Hills.
And the men from forty communities this weekend who give their time to coach, to groom the fields, to grill the hamburgers, keep score, and do whatever needs doing – the same men who’ve been doing it for years.
And Versailles is not alone. Three weeks ago Coldwater had its own similar event over the Memorial Day weekend. Not by coincidence, the youth baseball cultures are strong in St. Henry and Coldwater…and growing in Maria Stein, where the Marion Flyers won a district championship this spring.
Minster, who just won its fourth OHSAA state title since 2011, has an even bigger amateur ‘Classic’ for both baseball and softball in mid-July.
And the photos from those events always look a lot like what you see in Versailles…the pitchers look something like Craig Stammen did as a Padre reliever…and the best who ever played the game, anywhere. Baseball’s roots are that deep.
What a blessing! That so many men for so many decades have devoted their time and energy to baseball, and like Grantland Rice wrote…to boys. Your high school coach and mine, who might have once told you like mine once did: “When you take that uniform off for the last time you’re going to miss it one day.”
Whats better than to be a boy in Versailles this weekend…when that day never comes.
All the familiar names…and a pitcher in Versailles named Knapke……!
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