Montgomery County - pro players
Montgomery County Baseball Players in the Pros. by Bill Boone - thanks so much BB :)
There have been many outstanding baseball players who called Montgomery County home. Several in recent years have signed professional contracts and one is still trying to make the Big Show. Some who come to mind are Dick Shull, White Sox, 1959, Steve Templeton, Twins, 1974, Brandon Moore, Mets, 2008, Rob Bowers, Rangers, 2000, Cameron Hobson, Mariners, 2011, and Matt McCarty, Dodgers, 1994; Templeton, Moore, Bowers, Hobson and McCarty are Crawfordsville graduates and B.J Schlicher, Phillies, 1996, is a North Montgomery graduate.
Brandon Moore
Steve Templeton
Rob Bowers
In earlier years, two baseball players from Alamo and one from Coal Creek Central had brief flings in professional baseball. Bill “Doc” Cedars and Dale Perkins were battery-mates at Alamo in the early 40s. Dale pitched and “Doc” caught. They both graduated in 1941 and after decorated careers in the service, signed with the Janesville (Wisconsin) Saints, an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs in the Wisconsin State League. Cedars played for a few years at that level and Dale stayed long enough for his first son, David, to be born at Janesville in 1947
Bill "Doc" Cedars and Dale Perkins & Dale with his 5-fingered glove
Dick Shull was one of the best athletes to play at Coal Creek Central (a consolidation of Wingate and New Richmond). He finished in the top five leading scorers in basketball in the County with 1317 points for his career and signed a professional baseball contract with the White Sox after a two year stint in the Army. While in the army, Dick’s team won the 3rd Army tournament at the Redstone Arsenal. He was assigned to the Class A, Clinton, Iowa farm team for the Sox. One day after going 2-4 with a single and a double, he told his coach that he was going home. He told me the other day, “Bill, I was just a homesick farm boy and wanted to come back home to the farm.” Dick later went into law enforcement and spent 33 years serving the people of Indiana. Dick graduated from CCC in 1959.
However, of all the outstanding players to come from the County, only two made it to the major leagues. The first was Eddie “Kickapoo Ed” Summers who graduated from Ladoga High School and attended and later coached at Wabash College, and the other was Dick Dietz who played for three major league teams in his 8 year career.
Ed Summers - Ed's Baseball card & Ed and his Ladoga mates
Summers pitched for the Detroit Tigers in 1908-1912. He was 24-12 in his rookie season and pitched in the1908 World Series against the Chicago Cubs which featured the famous double play combination of Tinker to Evers to Chance. Do you remember Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance? The trio was immortalized in an eight line poem by Franklin Pierce Adams in 1910—a poem which was likely the cause of their being inducted as a trio into the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, NY. In case you have forgotten it or never heard of it, here it is. It is entitled:
“Baseball’s Sad Lexicon.”
These are the saddest of possible words;
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”
Trio of bear cubs and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double.
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”
Eddie Summers was a “Switch Pitcher.” He was ambidextrous. He once pitched 18 shutout innings in a 0-0 tie with the Washington Senators in 1909, which still stands as a major league record. He also pitched 31 consecutive scoreless innings against the Philadelphia Athletics, the Cleveland Indians and the New York Yankees in 1909. He pitched in two World Series and was a teammate of the legendary Ty Cobb, for whom he once pinch-hit and hit a home run. He was hobbled by rheumatism all of his career and pitched only five years retiring with a record of 56-33.
Ed Summers - Ed's Baseball card & Ed and his Ladoga matesEd and the 1909 Tigers - Ty Cobb is 2nd from left. Another Hall of Famer, Wahoo Sam Crawford is the lst man on the right
The other major leaguer was Crawfordsville–born Dick (The Mule) Dietz, whose family moved to Greenville, S.C. very soon after Dick was born. Dietz graduated from Greenville H.S. and signed with the San Francisco Giants in 1960. He played with the Giants, Atlanta Braves, and Los Angeles Dodgers in his eight year career. During his career, he hit 66 home runs, had 301 runs batted in and had a batting average of .261. Dietz made the All-Star team in 1970 and was a key member of the 1971 NL Western Division Champion Giants.
One last thought—has anyone out there ever heard of Jerry Johnson? The Crawfordsville Daily News-Review of February 2, 1903 has the following article: “Jerry Johnson, a local baseball pitcher of prominence, has signed with St. Paul of the American Association to pitch for that team the coming season. Negotiations have been hanging fire for some time and Jerry has consented to go into the league. The contact will be closed in a few days.” I checked the St. Paul Saints roster for 1903 and 1904 and couldn’t find any trace of Jerry Johnson from Crawfordsville or Montgomery County. Is there anyone out there who might be related to one “Jerry Johnson a local baseball pitcher of prominence?”