A conversation with a former teammate turned into a walk down memory lane, or in this case…around Trautman Field. Remembering some old Buckeyes, and players and people I had the privilege of calling friends.
It’s a part of growing old…how the month of February and the opening of the college baseball season makes you think and feel younger than you are, remembering when you actually were out there in a uniform, instead of sitting in the first row with a legal pad and a Nikon.
I get that way now, looking out at 18-year-olds experiencing a baseball dream they’ve held for so long – the next step from Little League, to high school, and now a Buckeye playing college baseball at its highest level.
And really, if you’ve every been there…how cool is that?
Younger here than when I knew him, Marty Karow told me I had made the team as a freshman…when I thought he was going to cut me.
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Well, I remember in the spring of 1971 when then coach Marty Karow called me to his office the week of opening day. I thought he was going to cut me. But instead, he told me that I’d be making the varsity trip to Coral Gables, Florida. I couldn’t sleep, I tried to call my dad to tell him (collect) at 9 pm and he wouldn’t answer the phone. I hope he was asleep.
I remember some of the guys who were on that particular team, some of them freshmen, like myself, and how many of us wondered if we really belonged. I called my Legion coach, and he said, “Just throw strikes and you’ll be fine.” And he added, “I was in your shoes thirty years ago at Western Michigan. It’s just baseball, but better baseball.”
When you’re 18 you tend to see things through the lens of inexperience. It’s easy to doubt yourself, so of course, you lose perception of just how good everyone else was, too. And worse, you take the moment for granted!
Because in fact, in the spring of 1971, and just five years removed from Ohio State winning the national championship, we were a mere remnant of that ’66 team with Steve Arlin, Chuck Brinkman, Ray Shoup, and Arnie Chonko. We finished with a record of 13-21, and just 5-11 in the Big Ten. And I, personally, spent most of the year on the JV team, something they no longer have in Division I baseball.
And then last fall, in a chance meeting with one of my teammates from 1972, a first baseman named John Littlejohn, he shared with me just how special those days as a Buckeye really were, at least to him. And how he had come to realize that those players eventually proved to be better than 13-21 – better people that you enjoyed thinking about with each passing year. Sadly, some of us are no longer around.
So I think of them his week and next, of the times we shared, the things we did, and how proud I am of what those guys would become.
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For the good of time lost – for my never telling them face to face – let me remember them now……….
Paul Kurpiel, OF (Dayton, Oh)…I remember Paul as being a very competitive guy, a good high school basketball player at Dayton Chaminade, and the teammate who went over the right field fence in 1972 to rob a home run and preserve a 1-hit shutout over Northwestern – my crowning achievement as a college pitcher.
Barry Bonnell, OF (Cincinnati, Oh)…Barry was probably the most talented of anyone who played from 1971 through ’75, and ended up playing for ten seasons in the major leagues with Atlanta, Toronto and Seattle, compiling a .273 career batting average. He once threw a ball from the base of the centerfield fence that struck the backstop on the fly. That was some heave. He became a devout Mormon, and after baseball, he became a commercial airline pilot. An amazing talent!
Barry Bonnell, our centerfielder, as he later appeared as an Atlanta Brave. After retiring from baeball, he became a commercial pilot.
Stew Brownstein, C (Columbus)…Stew was one of the best players in the Big Ten during those four years, but one that too many overlooked. A really talented catcher, I think in his senior season he had nine home runs and personally won three or four games for us. A quiet good guy from the east side of Columbus, and an Eastmoor High School teammate of Tyler Pettorini’s grandfather, Tim.
Jim Haney, 2B, (Pittsburgh, Pa)…It took me years to appreciate the fact – of comparing him to players I saw in the minor leagues – Jim Haney, aka ‘Cal’, was the best at turning the double play I ever saw. It was his thing. Kinda’ skinny and with a whip of an arm, he did it better than anyone else in the Big Ten. He now coaches high school baseball in Dublin, Ohio.
Bill Sero, SS (Garfield Hts, Oh)…His hands were so good as a freshman that he not only made the team, but was our starting shortstop for the next four years. Quiet, and very committed to always being at his best, he took the game as seriously as anyone I remember at Ohio State.
Richie Clouse, 3B (Columbus, Oh)…A good guy and a dependable guy in the lineup at third base. I remember him making a play at third that save me a run and us a game in the spring of 1972. He’s still around, living in New Albany.
Steve Day, 1B (Cincinnati, Oh)…Quiet, lefthand hitter who never missed a game and delivered a lot of RBI hits. One of our best players during that time. His son, Zach, later pitched for several seasons with the Montreal Expos.
Terry McCurdy, C (Springfield, Oh)…Our backup catcher for three years, from Springfield Central Catholic High School, he simply knew how to have fun. I roomed with him on the road and remember that he never slept much. He was still in Columbus the last I knew, and still smiling.
There were others…Randy Shade, Harry Tabler, Jim Shields, Don Dungee, Mike Stange, Bob Gano and Skip Peltier…and some I can’t recall. But one of the best stories of that time revolved around a pitcher named Russ Pensiero who once gave up three home runs in an inning. Of course, that brought Karow out to the mound for a comforting conference.
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“Russ,” said Karow. “You’ve got to do something different. Mix things up a bit.”
“I did,” said Pensiero. “They hit one to left, They hit one to center. And they hit one to right.”
Coaches talk about brotherhood a lot, but some of the guys I just listed I barely knew back then. Sometimes it takes fifty years and a chance meeting to realize how hard it was to go to college and play baseball at the same time. How hard to appreciate life when you’re young – the reality of not appreciating each other enough.
And that’s what John Littlejohn and I talked about back in October. The stories, the laughs, and what’s lost over time can never be recovered, just the memories.
How hard it is to say goodbye now. And when you say, “See you later”, you hope it’s true.
I want everyone to know…the best guys I ever knew, then and now.
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