MSL Baseball: Fond and Wacky Memories of Legion Baseball to End Sleepy Summers
Summertime was typically pretty quiet during my time in the Daily Herald prep sports department. It was understood it was a time to recharge a bit and make up for some of the extra hours put in during the school year.
Usually some restlessness would set in about mid-July. Right around the same time summer league high school baseball and American Legion baseball were beginning their postseasons.
Both of them were really fun into the 2000s. Summer league provided a good glimpse of the top returning and up-and-coming players for the next high school season. Legion provided a totally different level of entertainment altogether, which came to mind with Barrington increasing its record of state titles to 10 last Saturday and the Great Lakes Regional that started Wednesday being held in Carol Stream.
The baseball was highly entertaining with future big leaguers, recent draft picks and high-level Division I players going at it in rivalries that in some cases were as fiercely competitive as any you would see in high school. And in some cases recent high school teammates were on opposite sides and weren’t averse to sending a message via a neck-high fastball that any friendships were on hold.
The sideshows were also entertaining - although sometimes infuriating when it came to decision-making by the higher-ups. It included a combustible mix of diverse coaching personalities that included Arlington’s Lloyd Meyer, Rolling Meadows’ Tony Stompanato, Barrington’s Kirby Smith, Palatine’s Frank Mariani, Mount Prospect’s Ross Giusti, Elk Grove’s Mike Manno, Northbrook’s Mitch Stewart, Oak Park’s Ralph Zaccariello, Wilmette’s Mike Napoleon and Palatine’s Jeff Ryder.
Playing an extra two innings in the mid-summer heat seemed to have everyone on edge. But I think the umpires like Dave Pluta, Bob Ciulla, Jeff Siegel, Bill Orris and Jon Corchin to name a few seemed to enjoy that the discussions could be a bit more animated and combative than high school before they launched someone to the parking lot at Arlington Heights’ Rec Park.
Scouts like Bob Hale, who played on the legendary 1961 Yankees with Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, the great Rolling Meadows coach Al Otto, Mike Herbert, John Hennessy and Stan Zielinski were on hand for Cook County and local state tourney games because there was must-see talent to follow. There was also a guy from one of the city teams called “Dude,” who was always in a jacket even if it was approaching 100 degrees, wore a batting helmet and I recall hearing said you could tell what kind of talent a player had by his teeth, even though he was missing a bunch of his.
There were local fans who circled the dates of the County tourney at Rec Park - and the state if it was held there - as their go-to event of the summer. Not only did the Herald give it a barrage of daily coverage that included tournament previews but the Tribune and Sun-Times came out and covered it as well. The Herald even traveled to national, regional and state tournaments in places like Moline, Mattoon and Highland (near St. Louis).
At one time there were so many teams in Cook County it held sub-tournaments to determine who played in the County finals. One of the best games I’ve ever seen was in a sub-tourney between heated rivals and future pros where Arlington’s Ed Tolzien outdueled Rolling Meadows’ Ricky Kirsten 1-0. Naturally the game was played at 9 a.m. on a Thursday in Chicago Heights so other than a few parents hardly anyone saw it.
Some other memories:
* The crazy pitching of the 1994 10th District tournament (Lake County). Back in those days pitchers could throw as many as 12 innings in one day.
Well, Vernon’s Brandon Leese went 11⅔ against Barrington in one game. Talk about tough-luck losses, a grounder on Leese’s 207th pitch - yes, 207 pitches - was booted for an error. Leese did go on to pitch seven years in the minors and get as high as Triple-A. Kevin Frederick, who pitched 30 games in the bigs for the Twins and Blue Jays, also homered in the game.
The Kessel name has been best-known for basketball in Lake County but Kyle had as much zip on his left-handed pitches as he did with his pinpoint passes to teammates. The next day against Barrington, Kessel went 10 innings with 15 strikeouts and 172 pitches - yes, 172 - before a trio of Mets scouts. He also lost but found an eight-year pro career and was also a two-year starter at point guard at Texas A&M.
And on consecutive days in the tourney, Barrington coach Kirby Smith pulled pitchers with two strikes on a hitter and the relievers came in to get strike three. Smith would have probably tried to brush it off as just a hunch but those who were around him would know better that he picked up on something to make those moves.
* The 1997 state tourney in Mattoon was also the farewell tour for Frank Mariani and the late Bill “Chico” Pirman as coaches. It also was a chance to see Danville pitcher Jason Anderson, who was a sixth-round draft pick of the Royals and had a scholarship to Illinois. Back then it was a lot of word-of-mouth because there weren’t numerous platforms to show countless videos.
Anderson, who pitched 32 games with the Yankees, Indians and Mets in 2003-05 and now is the Eastern Illinois head coach, didn’t look very imposing at 6-feet and 160 pounds. Then he started throwing the absolute bleep out of the ball in a fun battle against Palatine High’s Dave Kiehn. Chris Chandler, a powerful lefty from Hoffman Estates, also hit the bleep out of one of Anderson’s fastballs in the eighth for a tying 2-run homer, but Anderson had an RBI single for a 3-2 win.
Mariani and Pirman invited me to breakfast the next day at the Legion Hall, which no doubt delighted the Herald bean-counters. Some of the players didn’t seem so enthused about the elimination game, which Mariani and Pirman quickly picked up on, and it wasn’t long before we were all headed back toward Chicago on I-57.
* That quick trip was countered the next year by a long, strange one to Highland, about 30 miles east of St. Louis, with Arlington and Barrington in the state field. A driving rain all the way from Springfield on I-55 began the theater of the bizarre in what seemed like a month-long stay.
The start of the first day was delayed by rain and ended with Arlington losing a four-hour game at 12:30 a.m. The second day was fine until tournament organizers opted not to put the tarp on the field after it was over and 30 minutes later another lengthy storm hit.
As a result, day three was also delayed with shortened 7-inning games. Lloyd Meyer was ejected as Arlington’s season came to an end. Barrington started an elimination game at 11:52 p.m. and completed a win at 2:40 a.m. to make sure Kirby Smith’s career didn’t come to an end and to get a shot at Edwardsville for a state title.
There was another three-hour weather delay and Barrington needed to win twice to extend the career of the retiring Smith. It led late in the game but Edwardsville rallied to win and went on to claim the national title. Dan Pohlman had a phenomenal tournament and a few months later would lead Barrington’s football team to the state championship game.
* In consecutive years not that long ago you could have seen future big leaguers locally play in state tournaments in Palatine’s Mike Tauchman (2009 at Rec Park) and Moline pitcher Dakota Bacus (2010 at McHenry County College).
Tauchman is now in his seventh big-league season and second as a popular outfielder with the Cubs. Bacus, who beat Palatine in a 2010 state tourney game, pitched 11 big-league games with Washington in 2020 and spent nine years in the minors.
* Imagine yourself at a Legion game in the late 1960s and seeing three future first-round draft picks and big leaguers on the field in Dave Kingman, Greg Luzinski and Tom Lundstedt. About a year ago John Wendell, the retired Hall of Fame head coach at Buffalo Grove, shared a great story about becoming Legion teammates with Luzinski.
Luzinski’s talents and exploits had been well-known but Wendell chuckled and said head coach Larry Nomellini, who I heard was another of the great characters of the Legion scene, insisted Luzinski had to try out to make the team. Luzinski, who hit 307 career homers for the Phillies and White Sox, came out and took one swing, according to Wendell.
“Come here,” Wendell laughed as he recalled Nomellini barking at Luzinski. “Go pick out a uniform.”
It would be great to see more players like that in Legion uniforms. That’s a tough sell today in the Chicago area because kids are deeply rooted in travel programs seemingly not long after they start walking.
But once upon a time there was nothing quite like the Legion baseball scene as the summer neared an end and another school year was about to begin.
The 1982 Great Lakes Regional at Rec Park was an absolute classic. Dave Otto had a huge HR to deep right center in one of the games that went late into the night. Kokomo, IN prevailed in a tournament that featured four intense days of games.