Spring Baseball

One thing you can say about Shidler and the Osage is we loved baseball and Spring meant baseball was starting.  It started at school and the summer brought even more baseball.  My fondest memories of baseball were the summer baseball leagues where we played at the Phillips ball field west of town in Webb City.  One year when my brother was playing, Larry, the team was sponsored by Laurence Dehl who owned the foodliner.  Larry's team seemed to be full of some hot shot players but one in particular I remember was Jimmy Butterfield (hope I got that name close to right so send me corrections if I missed) who was a pitcher.  He was not the 'any old pitcher' kind of guy.  He threw what we called a side-arm-sub which meant he swung his arm low and to the right almost underhanded so that the ball came across the plate right to left from the batters perspective.  He could throw a sinker and a curve ball and it was HOT.  I think every kid tried to throw a side-arm-sub because of him.  Rocky Arrington was on that team and he played second base.  He was a scrawny (that means little) guy but he was faster than greased lightening and he could throw the ball to first base so fast it would make your head spin.  Harvey Harrington was the catcher but his strength was he could hit it out of the park.  Steve Blake may have been on the team but it has been a few years.  There were just a lot of great athletes coming out of that small country town.

Now for a fun side note last night I was attending the Oklahoma Christian Basketball game here in Edmond and sat by some friends of mine Scott and Lori Randal and Jeff and Mark Wedel.  It just amazes me about how small the world is because Scott asked me where I was from and he knew Shidler well.  And in fact his uncle was from Webb City and his cousin was/is Sunny Brock who I believe might have been on that team.  What I do remember about Sunny was he was a pretty good baseball player and a likable guy and of course I was a kid learning from watching those older kids.  I don't really remember much other than he seemed like a pretty smooth guy and that he was on the 4-H judging team with my brother Larry.  I think he also worked at the Codding Ranch.  This reminds me that we need to be careful as everybody knows everybody and especially if you are from a small town.

Well baseball is around the corner and a local boy from Edmond, Cale Coshow, just went to spring training camp for a minor league team in the Yankees organization.  So if he ever gets famous you just remember I told you about him, just kidding.  He is a pitcher and I told him I would be his agent just in case he got the really big check.

For no other reason than this, baseball is a great sport and is a time the family can spend together.  I really do believe that so many people grew up to be good family men, fathers and workers because they spent time playing baseball and going to baseball games together in the Osage.

So here is my advice:  shut down the TV, get the entire family and all your friends together and no one is allowed to NOT go, spend the day together and watch baseball.  Your family and friends will learn by watching you and they will learn about your character (is that scary?).

So what do you learn in the Osage?

• a lot of work and a little play is good for the family
• take time for your family because if you don't you will lose it
• remember the good times and set the bad ones in the back of your mind to help YOU 

God, I love this country.  Please help us to do a better job of taking care of it.  Amen

Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com
 p.s. sign up for the Shidler Review and learn a lot more about the current days and sometimes a little 'flash from the past'.  Shidler Review c/o Julia Ross at PO Box 6, Shidler, 74652