MSL Baseball: Buffalo Grove Celebrates Half-Century Filled With Success
There are plenty of reasons for Buffalo Grove to celebrate the first 50 years of its baseball program.
Three of its players reached the highest level of the sport and there were many other players and coaches who contributed to the success that made Bison baseball something special. With the school celebrating its 50th anniversary, third-year head baseball coach Bill Montemayor wanted to pay tribute to that success and organized an Alumni Day that was held Friday during its Mid-Suburban League crossover against Hoffman Estates.
“We’re very excited for the event,” Montemayor e-mailed last week.
Montemayor also had his weather prayers answered by the baseball gods as it turned out to be a pretty nice late-April afternoon, even though it might have been fitting to have a little drizzle so retired BG head coach John Wendell could have one more battle with the school’s grounds crew on who should get the field ready to play.
Montemayor said around 40 former players signed up and requested a T-shirt from the event. Wendell and former BG head coaches Fred Van Iten and Jeff Grybash and Montemayor were part of ceremonial first pitches before the game.
Some of the notable players who were expected to attend were Nelson Gord and Joe Parenti (1999), Zach Borenstein (2008) and Zach Fricke (2018). Tom Lahrman, an all-Mid-Suburban League pitcher in 1982, is the oldest alum who had signed up to attend and Don Cosley (1987) and Greg Orloff (1988) were also expected to take part in the event.
Here’s a look at some memorable moments from a half-century of BG baseball.
A Trio to the Show
A Powerful Marshall Plan
Mike Marshall was a success whether he was hitting golf balls, jump shots or home runs at Buffalo Grove. The 6-foot-5 three-sport star, who led BG to its first Mid-Suburban League baseball title in 1977, was on big-league radar screens early as a three-time Daily Herald All-Area pick and two-time honorary captain. He hit .534 with 9 of his 16 career homers as a senior and in 24 games as a pitcher went 13-2 with a 1.05 ERA.
“Mike is one of those rare gems who comes along all too infrequently with the ability and talent to be a consistent winner,” BG coach Fred Van Iten told the Herald’s Keith Reinhard.
Marshall was taken later than expected in the sixth round of the 1978 Major League Baseball draft by the Dodgers and signed to start his pro career. He tore up the minor leagues and his brief tastes of the big leagues in 1981 and 1982 included his first appearance at Wrigley Field. He became a starter in 1983 and on April 29, in his first start at Wrigley Field, he homered in a 4-3 victory in the place he visited many times when he was a kid.
“It’s always nice to hit a homer in front of the home fans,” Marshall told Daily Herald Cubs’ beat writer Don Friske.
Marshall would be a footnote to one of the most memorable tirades in sports history since Cubs manager Lee Elia was less than enamored with the treatment those 9,391 fans in attendance gave to the home team mired in a bit of difficulty. Friske was one of a handful of reporters there to record Elia’s profanity-laced outburst that is a YouTube sensation.
Marshall was a National League All-Star in 1984 and had his best season for the 1985 NL West champions with 28 HR and 95 RBI. He led the 1988 Dodgers with 82 RBI and hit 20 homers as they made a surprise run to win the World Series remembered for Kirk Gibson’s dramatic homer to win Game 1. Marshall hit a 3-run homer in Game 2 and drove in 8 runs in 12 games in that postseason.
“I consider him an outstanding teammate, and I could not have accomplished what I did that year without him,” Gibson, who won the NL MVP award, said in Marshall’s Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) biography.
Marshall was slowed by recurring back problems and would play with the Mets, Red Sox and Angels in his final two seasons. His 11-year MLB career ended in 1991 with a slash line of .270/.321/.446 and 148 homers and 530 RBI in 1,035 games. He went to Japan for a year, was also a player-coach for the Schaumburg Flyers in 1999 and did a lot of college coaching and independent league managing.
Here’s Looking at You Bogie
Tim Bogar had a much tougher road from BG to the big leagues. He was an all-Mid-Suburban League shortstop as he helped the Bison win its first regional title in 1984 but he started his successful career at Eastern Illinois as a walk-on before becoming the Mid-Continent Conference MVP in 1987.
“Now this is a compliment, but he did more with less than any player I ever had,” Tom McDevitt, his coach at EIU, said in a 2008 Daily Herald story on Bogar’s coaching role with Tampa Bay. “He caught on quick and he wasn’t afraid to work.”
That propelled Bogar to an eighth-round selection in the 1987 draft by the Mets and started a six-year grind through the minor leagues. He spent 1993-96 with the Mets and was a teammate of catcher and Fremd graduate Todd Hundley. Bogar also recalled his first trip to Wrigley Field as a big-league player as a rookie.
“I was in a state of shock the whole time during batting practice just knowing I was getting a chance to play on the field I always wanted to play,” Bogar told the Daily Herald’s Mark Ruda after the 1994 season opener at Wrigley. “People said to me, ‘You must be in heaven.’ I was.”
Bogar would move on to the Astros from 1997-2000 and played 100-plus games in his last two seasons. One of his big career highlights was in Game 5 of the 1999 NL Division Series where he went 3-for-4 with an RBI double as an Astros rally fell short in a 7-5 loss that eliminated them against the Braves.
Bogar got into his final 12 big-league games with the 2001 Dodgers and finished with a .228 average and 24 homers in 701 games. The sure-handed defender had a .978 fielding percentage at shortstop and finished in the top 10 in modern defensive metrics twice in 1997 and twice in 1999.
His success in professional baseball continues as the bench coach for the Washington Nationals. He was their first base coach when they won the 2019 World Series and earlier this season filled in as manager when Davey Martinez was ill and led them to a victory over the Angels. He has also coached with the Mariners, Red Sox and Rangers and was 14-8 as an interim manager in Texas to finish the 2014 season.
“He’s always been that type of guy since we were kids. He studied the game and knew the players,” said 1984 BG teammate and long-time New Trier assistant coach Pete Drevline about Bogar in 2008. “One thing about ‘Bogie’ is he’s the most down-to-earth guy. You would never know he was a big-league player.”
Hometown Dream Comes True for Paul
As a young kid, Josh Paul knew what he wanted to do after going with his dad to see Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk catch for the White Sox at old Comiskey Park. Paul missed his sophomore year at BG with a broken leg but was clearly on the right path to success as a two-time Daily Herald All-Area pick. He was the team’s honorary captain in 1993 after hitting .524 with 7 homers and 31 RBI, stealing 19 bases and throwing out 12 of 15 attempted base-stealers.
“He has God-given talent and he’s directed it very well,” said BG coach John Wendell. “He’s got a great work ethic and he just loves the game. He works so darn hard. He’s the best catcher we’ve ever had by far.”
But it took awhile for others to catch on and Paul didn’t find his college home at Vanderbilt until he got a scholarship offer that summer while playing for Lloyd Meyer’s Arlington American Legion powerhouse. Paul turned out to be a great late steal as he had a huge summer in the prestigious Cape Cod League after his sophomore year and hit .336 with 12 homers and 46 RBI as a junior. Paul was chosen in the second round of the 1996 draft by the White Sox and got the call from longtime Sox front office exec Larry Monroe, who was also their first-round pick out of Forest View in 1974 and pitched in the big leagues in 1976.
“It’s a dream come true,” Paul said of getting taken by the White Sox. “I’ve been a Sox fan all my life. (Carlton Fisk) was my hero growing up. I’m definitely thrilled.”
Paul finally got to work behind the same plate Fisk did as a September call-up by the White Sox in 1999 and he joined the MSL’s cradle of big-league catchers that includes Tom Lundstedt (Prospect), Sal Fasano (Hoffman Estates), Dan Wilson (Barrington) and Todd Hundley (Fremd). Paul made his first start on Sept. 10 at Comiskey Park against ageless Bartolo Colon of Cleveland and four days later he got his first big-league hit there by lining an eighth-inning single to left field off hard-throwing Tigers’ reliever Matt Anderson.
“Growing up it was my dream to play here and I’m really happy I got it at Comiskey,” Paul told Scot Gregor, the Herald’s veteran Sox beat writer.
Paul hit .282 with his first homer in 36 games to help the Sox win the 2000 AL Central title and had his best season in 2001 when he hit .266 with 3 homers and 18 RBI in 57 games. He was with the Sox into the 2003 season and then had a brief 3-game stint with the Cubs before going to the Angels. That would put him in the middle of one of baseball’s biggest controversies at his field of dreams in Game 2 of the 2005 AL Championship Series as the catcher when the White Sox’ A.J. Pierzynski appeared to strike out for the final out of the ninth inning, but umpire Doug Eddings ruled Paul didn’t cleanly catch the ball and it led to the winning run.
Paul has never wavered on his view of the play.
“I did catch the ball,” he told the Los Angeles Times when he was hired as the Angels’ bench coach in 2018. “I caught the ball.”
Paul went to Tampa Bay in 2006-07 to finish his big-league playing career as he hit .244 with 10 homers and 78 RBI in 321 games. Not surprisingly, he transitioned into the coaching side and worked in the Yankees organization from 2008-17, coached with the Angels in 2018-19 and coached with the Tigers from 2020-22 before he was let go in a staff shakeup.
Memorable Teams
The Baseball Gods Finally Shine in 2007
The weather and baseball gods were having a lot of fun at BG’s expense in 2007. It looked like a miserable spring all around in coach John Wendell’s second-to-last year as the weather was brutal and so were the Bison with a 7-game losing streak to drop to 5-11.
And then everything changed as the Bison could suddenly do no wrong as it won 12 of 14 to reach the Class AA Elite Eight for the first time. The magic finally ran out in Joliet with an 8-0 state quarterfinal loss to eventual runner-up New Trier, which had ex-BG star Pete Drevline as one of its assistants..
“It really made my 22 years because of these kids,” Wendell said. “But that wasn’t because of me, it was because of them. Coming into the tournament people weren’t expecting much and that’s the neat thing about this whole thing. It looked like a disastrous year and we made something out of it.”
BG had a standout trio of All-Area players in junior SS Zach Borenstein (.482, 8 HR, 37 RBI), who played nine years in the minors, and Valparaiso-bound 1B Ryan O’Gara (.510, 8 HR, school-record 56 RBI) and P-IF Steve Godawa (.427). Godawa threw a 6-hitter to upset Elk Grove 3-2 in the regional semifinals.
In the sectional semifinals at Schaumburg’s Alexian Field (now Boomers Stadium), a phenomenal running catch in right-center field by Dave Zarzynski preserved a 7-4 win over Prospect. Evan Kander homered and had a key 2-run double and Rawlins Riles scored on a foul popup to the catcher in an 8-5 win over Conant to give the Bison its first sectional crown.
And in the supersectional, the pitching of Tim Keyes and lefty Chris Wagner and Borenstein’s tiebreaking RBI double in the seventh sent BG to a 4-2 win over Lake Forest.
“It turned out to be a great spring,” Wendell said.
“Coach Wendell since freshman year said this could be a team to go downstate,” O’Gara said. “He was always optimistic about it. Everyone is just glad to do it for him.”
A Stunning Run in 2002
If there was ever a team that personified the fiery and feisty style of John Wendell during his 23-year head coaching career at BG it was the 2002 group. There was no one like MLB power-hitting alum Mike Marshall, or Wendell’s American Legion teammate Greg Luzinski, as halfway through the season the Bison had 4 homers as a team. They were coming off a frustrating 15-14 season and some potential key players weren’t around for disciplinary and academic issues.
All the Bison did was win. And keep winning for an amazing 24 consecutive games, which included nearly becoming only the third team in Mid-Suburban League history to have a perfect league season en route to going 29-6 and reaching the sectional final.
“We’ve got the horseshoe,” Wendell said after beating Maine South mid-streak 4-3 on an errant pickoff throw.
All-area picks in 3B Brian Mucha, 2B Alex Murman, P-OF Brett Karol and P-SS Nick Gord led a team that relished its identity of bunting and running frustrated opponents off the field. It was a team that had to rely on everyone doing their little things to succeed and when the Bison beat West-leading Schaumburg 9-3 for consecutive win No. 19, its first 5 runs scored with one ball leaving the infield.
“Good things are happening for us this year,” Mucha said.
BG wrapped up the East and its first outright division title early. The only remaining question left was if it could complete a perfect run through the 16-game grinder of a league schedule. Barrington was the only team to go unbeaten in division play in 1978 and Wheeling went unbeaten in 1969 before the MSL split into divisions. The Bison were on the cusp of history at 15-0 but the run finally ended in the East finale with a 7-1 loss to Elk Grove and big hard-throwing lefty Anthony Kern.
Schaumburg avenged its earlier loss in the MSL championship but BG regrouped to win the regional title as Gord shutout Conant. Karol held off Fremd 7-5 in the sectional semis to set up a third meeting with Schaumburg. BG rallied late and had the bases loaded with two outs in the seventh against ace lefty John Hummel but fell short 7-5.
“The way our season’s been going I felt like it was going to happen again,” Mucha said.
Walk-Off This Way to the Supers in 2018
Expectations were high in 2018 after a 29-win season under coach Tim Miller. BG delivered with a dramatic postseason run in a 30-6 season that resulted in a trip to the Class 4A supersectional and first MSL title in 40 years. All-area captain P-SS Zach Fricke, District 214 Athlete of the Year and 1B Mac Camardo, P-SS TJ Constertina, P Andy Greenberg, OF Rio Komatani and 3B Riley Rundquist led the way for the Bison.
“Being around a group of guys like this is unbelievable,” Fricke, who played at Valparaiso, told the Daily Herald’s Dick Quagliano. “Having the success we had last year and translating that to this year, I think we are creating a culture at BG - a winning baseball culture that is awesome.”
BG won the East and then beat Barrington 6-2 for its elusive second league title. The magic really started in the regional final with a 3-2 win in 9 innings over Palatine as Fricke won it with a bases-loaded RBI single and also struck out a career-high 15 in 6-plus innings. In the sectional semifinal, Camardo’s bases-loaded infield single in the seventh capped a 2-run rally in a 7-6 win over Warren.
The sectional final was off-the-charts crazy as Camardo’s 3-run homer in the bottom of the eighth gave BG an 11-10 win over Libertyville. The Bison trailed 8-3 going into the sixth but tied it in the seventh on a 2-run homer by Komatani - only the second he had ever hit at any level. That set up a trip to Boomers Stadium for the supersectional where Lake Park held on for a 3-1 victory.
“They’re great kids and they work hard,” Miller told Quagliano. “To make it to the final eight in your class, that’s pretty impressive.”
Other Championship Teams
1977 - Quick Trip to a Title
BG’s program was only in its fourth year under Fred Van Iten but was the preseason league favorite when it tied Wheeling for the Mid-Suburban North crown at 12-5 behind Herald All-Area picks Mike Marshall, SS Mike Ledna (19th round Dodgers draftee) and P Phil Czosnyka. Marshall’s homer helped complete a sweep of Wheeling to give BG a shot at the title against Prospect.
Under the MSL rules at the time the title was a best 2-of-3 setup that included the regular season matchup BG won 5-1. The Bison wrapped up the crown 13-8 as Czosnyka improved to 6-0 by hitting a 3-run homer and Dave Martin hit a tie-breaking homer.
1984 - Wurl-Wind Run to a Sectional
The late BG coach Bill Wurl had three goals in 1984 - to win the MSL North, break the record of 15 wins in 1977 and win a first regional title. Fremd won the division en route to the Elite Eight that year but the Bison got the last two as they finished 18-9 and reached the sectional semifinals behind future big-league infielder Tim Bogar and All-Area picks Pete Drevline and Dave Merker.
Drevline’s 9 homers tied the BG single-season record of Mike Marshall and Merker went 9-2 with an MSL-best 1.54 ERA. A pickoff play with Merker and second baesman Phil Bareck helped preserve a 6-5 win over New Trier for the regional title. A 12-9 loss to Notre Dame in the sectional saw BG rally after nearly losing by the 10-run rule in five innings.
1992 - Seeing 20 and a Sectional Trip
Getting to 20 wins for the first time and a sectional for the second wasn’t easy for BG in a year where the MSL North was loaded with one of Hersey’s best teams, a typical Barrington team and Fremd also winning a regional. John Wendell’s club beat Glenbrook North 1-0 in the regional final as Greg Lyons fired a 7-hitter and all-area center fielder Jim Mirabelli saved 2 runs with a spectacular catch.
The Bison run would end in the sectional semifinals to an Oak Park team coached by the legendary Jack Kaiser that was on a 19-game winning streak. Mirabelli stole a school-record 22 bases and was joined on the Herald all-area team by future MLB catcher Josh Paul (.393 with a school-record 30 RBI) and 1B Marc Thorstenson.
1994 - Down but Never Counted Out
Just getting to the MSL title game was quite a feat as BG had a sub-.500 regular season and was down 2 runs to Barrington with 2 outs in the bottom of the seventh in the North finale. But Ryan Lovitz’s RBI single and Brian Romes’ 2-run single capped a stunning 5-4 comeback to capture the division crown.
BG was playing for its first MSL title in 17 years and all-area pitcher Kyle Garifo, whose 19 career wins tied Mike Marshall, matched Meadows’ Brian O’Grady in a scoreless duel but lost 1-0 on a passed ball in the eighth. The Bison rebounded for two seventh-inning comebacks in the regional before falling in the title game. Lefty Mark Greenlee, whose 109 Ks were 30 more than Marshall’s BG single-season record, and 1B-P Ray Sanchez also were Herald all-area picks.
1997 - Shared Title Better than None
Residing in the same division with powerhouse Barrington for 20 years was always a challenge for BG. The Bison nearly pulled off its first outright title behind all-area picks P-DH Steve Hecker and P-1B David Horn but a late-season stumble led to a shared North crown. The Broncos won both regular-season meetings to make the trip to the MSL title game but Wendell had one of his team’s goals with a division title in an 18-win season.
1999 - A Historic Run
John Wendell clearly had guys who knew the game in addition to having talent en route to a school-record 29-6 season and first trip to a sectional title game. The Bison had four all-area picks in 3B Nelson Gord (.412, school-record 44 RBI), SS-closer Joe Parenti (.408), 2B Brad Wendell and P-1B Luke Sauter. Gord is coaching at Harper College and also was a successful high school head coach at Notre Dame, Parenti won 83 games in 4 years as head coach at Oak Park and Wendell followed in his dad’s footsteps and is the head coach at Geneva.
Gord played at UIC and professionally and Parenti played at Illinois. The Bison won a sectional semifinal for the first time 9-4 over 32-5 Nazareth on Gord’s tiebreaking 3-run HR. BG fell one win shy of making the Elite Eight when it lost 15-6 to New Trier, which finished second in the state.
2003 - A Four-Way Photo Finish
BG went into the final day of the wildest division race in MSL history with a chance to win the East outright as it was tied with Hersey at 10-5 with Prospect and Meadows even at 9-6. But the Bison’s Chris Salzman was outdueled 2-1 by Prospect’s Ryan Hantel and Meadows rallied to beat Hersey in extra innings to create an unprecedented four-way tie for the title.
Tiebreakers sent Prospect to the MSL title game where it won the league crown. BG finished with 20 wins and reached the regional final behind Herald all-area picks Chris Sajdak (1B) and Chris Pietroski (OF).
2008 - One Final Run for Wendell
The Bison came close to repeating the postseason magic of a year earlier in John Wendell’s final season as head coach in 2008. They finished 14-15 overall but got hot late and made it all the way to the sectional final with All-Area shortstop Zach Borenstein (.524), who hit 125 homers in a successful 9-year minor-league career where he got as high as Triple-A.
Tommy Moran was the man on the mound as he went 3-0 in the postseason and allowed 5 runs in 24 innings. Moran went the distance as BG upset 28-6 Mundelein 3-2 in 8 innings in the sectional semis on James Hurley’s RBI single and a vicious liner to 3B Mike Ricciardi to strand the tying run at third. Moran also threw a complete game as BG finally broke open a pitcher’s duel in the ninth to beat Barrington 8-1 in the regional final and give Wendell his 400th career victory.
2017 - Miller’s Time Arrives for Bison
BG ended a nine-year drought without a postseason trophy by winning a regional and having one of its best seasons ever at 29-5 under Tim Miller. Herald all-area pick John Lundgren capped a 7-0 season by beating Grayslake North 5-1 in the regional final and the Bison nearly kept rolling as it lost 6-5 in the sectional semis to Warren after loading the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh.
Lundgren was joined on the all-area team by 1B Mac Camardo, P-SS John Carpinelli, 2B-P Zach Fricke, OF Leo Rule, 3B Riley Rundquist and C Tyler Rundquist for a BG group that had even bigger things coming up a year later.
Yeah, a bunch of us (Pagnani, Hillner, Beard, Taylor, Keenan, etc) are in a group chat and that came up. Sad.
Ha! I played (at Elk Grove) against Marshall and Ledna in ‘77! Very cool reading up on these guys.