6. Town Team - Epilog

This series of posts on the Lowry town team is dedicated to Ray Hayenga, one of the founders of the Lowry ball team and whose scrapbook provided much of the detail for these posts.  Sadly, Ray passed away in 1962 from a stroke at the young age of 56.  Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of Ray, so here's one I do have - me, in the choke up, 2 strike, make contact pose.

Lowry won the PDT title in 1962, but by 1963 all the 1st generation players had retired and their slots were taken largely by recent Glenwood high school grads. Sort of like Craig Kusick replacing Harmon Killebrew or Babe Dahlgren for Lou Gehrig - just not quite the same for me. Coupled with the arrival of major league baseball in Minnesota in 1961 - the Washington Senators becoming the Minnesota Twins - and the emergence of slo-pitch softball (the Lowry State Bank team was a perennial league power and went to a state tourney - a story for another day) as well as American Legion ball, interest in town ball waned in Lowry and spelled doom for many Minnesota town teams. However, Minnesota town ball remains robust in the state with 53 leagues actively competing for a spot in a 3 class state tourney in August of each year.  

Roster 1954-1962

I am trying to compile a list of all the members of the Lowry Leghorn team from 1954-1962. This list is of course fraught with the danger of omission.

Please examine the list below and if you know of someone I have not included, please add their name as a comment below. Corrections welcome as well.

Thanks. 

Managers
Lawrence "Doc" Wright
Al Sell
Ray Hayenga
Glen Herrlinger

Catchers
Al Sell
Arnie Gunness
Ben Troen
Glen Herrlinger
Curt Anderson

Pitchers/Infielders
Jerry Hayenga
John "Jeener" Bosek
Dennis "Donuts" Bosek
Burdell Benson
Paul Quitney
Denny Danielson
Kenny Moe

Infielders
Floyd Bosek
Gary Boldenow
Dave Opheim
Chuck Thompson
Roger Hayenga
Wayne Anderson
Rodney Swenson
Bill Starr

Outfielders
George Dieter
Harold "Solie" Erlandson
Stan Brosh
George Sauer
Dave Troen
Ben Motis
Phil MacIver
Kenny Hagen
Dave Cooley
Larry Hedlin

Batboy
Bruce Hayenga
Gordy Wagner

Official Scorer
Myrtle Benesh

Concessionaire
Leo Dahl

Groundskeeper
Glenn Hoplin
Dave Hoplin - rock picker

Sponsors/Directors
Ray Hayenga
Dave Nelson
Arnie Gunness

Previous posts in this series 

Episode 1: The Ballpark

Episode 2: '55 Champs
Episode 3: '56-'57 Seasons

Episode 4: Pomme de Terre...
Episode 5: A Tale of Two Pitchers

Note: This series of posts is supported by Ray Hayenga's scrapbook which came to me from his son Bruce by way of Dave Chan.  Ray collected every Park Region Echo clipping on the Lowry ball team from 1954 to 1962.  I have digitized this scrapbook.  If you want a look, here's a link:Ray Hayenga's Scrapbook.  Caveat:  It's a large .pdf file. Your browser may not be able to preview it but you should be able download it.

Copyright © 2018 Dave Hoplin

Let's be careful out there

The hazardous nature of some occupations is obvious.  Policeman, fireman, construction worker, race car driver, .... But you'all who sit at a desk all day?  What could go wrong? It turns out, you likely work in a pernicious environment - not just you, but most every office worker.  Did you know ...

Fluorescent lighting “saps your soul”.  A Thought Co study identifies multiple hazards from fluorescent lighting, from migraines, eyestrain, increased stress levels, sapping vitamins,  seasonal affective disorder (SAD) to even worse [On second thought, don't read the study. It's pretty depressing.]  People with a diet of daylight are significantly more alert.  Find a way to get some natural light into your space. 

Maybe not surprisingly room temperature is also an efficiency factor.  With temperatures @ 68F/20C, employees make 44% more mistakes than at an optimal temp (77F/25C) - the claim is “chilliness” keeps you distracted. [Editor comment: I am skeptical. Have these researchers never heard of sweaters? For me, 77F = nap time]  

This next thing will seem irrelevant - but bear with me.  A major chord - e.g. major third vs. a minor chord - e.g. minor third, are associated with music being “happy” or “sad”.

  

             

I tried to find some scientific rationale for this, but it’s pretty sparse & in fact is probably a “western” thing. But trust me - it just is. Listen to Lenten music - it’s all minor key. So what? Well ... it turns out that the combination of a spinning disk and a computer fan produces background noise in a minor key. So you are subjecting yourself to “sadness” producing sounds for 8-12 hours a day. But there’s an easy fix - crank up some Vivaldi on those headphones.  For those averse to classical, LinkedIn has even published a "songs to inspire you at work playlist".

Next item - sitting.  Sitting is hazardous to your health. The Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise journal reports that those of you who spend most of the day sitting have a 54% greater chance of a heart attack - and guess what, neither smoking nor regular exercise have a bearing on that risk. A New York Times Magazine report on a study by Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic of 123,000 Americans found the death rate 20% higher for men who sat for 6 hours or more. For women - it’s 40%.  If you’re not ready for a career change to say ... a bartender, maybe you should consider a standup desk. Sitting .. is bad whether you are morbidly obese or marathon-runner thin. “Excessive sitting,” Dr. Levine says, “is a lethal activity.”  And while you’re at it, lobby for those rubber ball chairs for your school.  Or maybe try it yourself.

The key is to keep moving.  Or as an 89 year old lady I met on a recent bike ride said: "keep it wigglin'".

And this is just the start of the hazard list:  the disease risk of indoor circulating air; repetitive motion disorders; eyestrain; the color of the walls - get rid of beige; toxic fume emissions from your computer or the carpet; ...  So,

Let’s Be Careful Out There

P.S. Take an alcohol wipe to your keyboard and work surface. But, on the other hand, "the American Medical Association discourages the use of antibacterial agents in consumer products because they may encourage the development of "superbugs" - antibiotic-resistant bacteria".  So strike that - wash your hands - frequently - with good old soap and hot water.

Author note: I spent 35 years basking in fluorescent light and the glow of a computer screen. Well, except early on, it was punch cards - not much glow there.

Copyright © 2018 Dave Hoplin

5. Town Team - A Tale of Two Pitchers

The Lowry club was optimistic entering the 1960 season. They had finished 1959 on a hot streak, winning 8 of 10 down the stretch.  Glenwood, having finished in the cellar in '59 opted out of the '60 season, replaced by Holloway.

The PDT had some great pitchers - with longevity.  Pete Bright of Cyrus (or Morris or Kensington when Cyrus did not field a team), Larry Krienke of Kensington, Dean Olson of Glenwood, Dick Starner of Hoffman, Lloyd Heil of Hancock, Jerry Hayenga and John Bosek of Lowry all were outstanding and pitched for a decade or more.

But the PDT also produced two young pitchers with comparatively short careers that were exceptional and one which was meteoric.

Lowry's 21 year old right hander, Paul Quitney, possessed a sneaky fastball, a wicked overhand 12-6 curve that Bert Blyleven would later copy to good effect and a third nameless pitch that looked like a fastball but at the last second slid to the end of a right-hander's bat or onto the handle of a left-hander, resulting in a swing and a miss or a weak ground ball, a pitch so devastating it would make Mariano Rivera a one pitch Hall of Famer. Quitney's masterpiece came in game 2 of the 1960 PDT season. At home against Holloway, Quitney pitched a no hit, 20 strikeout game for an 11-1 victory, winning Paul "State Star of the Week" honors. Behind Quitney, the Leghorns rolled, winning 8 in a row. But Paul came down with a sore arm after week 8. Pitch counts? Limits were an unheard of thing in 1960, and in game 9, without Quitney, Hancock dropped Lowry 13-12. Quitney came back to win games 10 & 11, giving him a 10-0 record for the regular season.

The second shooting star was Holloway's teen-aged fireballing left-hander, one Jerry Koosman. Koosman's fastball was in the 90's and his curve resembled Koufax's. But his control tended to be an issue, with a typical line being 15 K, 12 BB, 2 HBP.  PDT fans were pleased when Koosman joined the army after high school and starred in Fort Bliss rather than Minnesota.

In later years, Koosman overcame the control problems and in 1969 won 2 games in the NY "Miracle Mets" World Series win over Baltimore, teaming with Nolan Ryan and Tom Seaver to form one of the best pitching staffs in MLB history. Yup - same Jerry Koosman.  He also won a game in the Mets World Series loss to Oakland in 1973, giving him a 3-0 World Series record. In 1979, the 36 year old Koosman was traded over to the Twins and won 20 games for them. (The Twins have had only 13 20 game winners in their history and I suspect that number will stand for the duration.) And as lefthanders are wont to do, Koosman pitched 19 seasons for the Mets, Twins, White Sox and Phillies with a lifetime ERA of 3.36, retiring at age 42.

But in 1960, there was no question which pitcher had MLB potential. Quitney in a runaway.

The 1960 Lowry team advanced to the Region 9 State Amateur Tournament but was matched up against a powerful Willmar Kernel team, which defeated Quitney in game 1 for his first loss of the season, ending with a record of 13-1. Willmar came back in game 2 to beat Koosman, drafted from Holloway, to eliminate the Leghorns.

What a year!

Previous posts in this series 

Episode 1: The Ballpark

Episode 2: '55 Champs
Episode 3: '56-'57 Seasons

Episode 4: Pomme de Terre...

Note: This series of posts is supported by Ray Hayenga's scrapbook which came to me from his son Bruce by way of Dave Chan.  Ray collected every Park Region Echo clipping on the Lowry ball team from 1954 to 1962.  I have digitized this scrapbook.  If you want a look, here's a link:Ray Hayenga's Scrapbook.  Caveat:  It's a large .pdf file. Your browser may not be able to preview it but you should be able download it.

Copyright © 2018 Dave Hoplin

4. Town Team - Pomme de Terre

PDT Teams

In the four years, 1954-1957,  Lowry's Resorter's League town team compiled a 36-3 record, won 3 league championships and made the State Amateur Class B Regionals twice. Perhaps at the behest of the other teams in the Resorter's League, in 1958, when both Cyrus & Clontarf dropped out of the Pomme de Terre League, Lowry opted to move to that league, which in addition to Lowry, included Hancock, Morris, Starbuck, Hoffman, Glenwood, Chokio and Kensington.

Pomme de Terre?  What do the french know about baseball?  English translation: Potato.  The Potato League. Really? And with most of the towns having a sizably greater population than tiny Lowry, well .. disappointment awaits.

And my fears were realized in PDT game one, when the other new member of the league, Hoffman, dropped the Leghorns 6-5.  But I began to feel confident (over-confident) when Lowry took the next 2 games, 6-2 over Chokio and 5-4 over Kensington. But then things went south. A loss to Starbuck (13-12) with 7 errors committed, followed by losses to Morris, Hancock. But the season (for me) was salvaged by a 12-4 win over Glenwood under the lights at Barsness Field.

Lowry finished 7th in the 8 team league in 1958, but - schadenfreude - Glenwood was on the bottom.

So going into the 1959 season, it seemed the boys were over-matched, confirmed to me on opening day when Morris trounced Lowry 11-2, followed by a 15-2 drubbing by Glenwood (ouch) and a 7-5 loss to Kensington.  Lowry stood 0-3.  But Holy Cow, Lowry notched consecutive wins over Alberta, Starbuck AND the seemingly unbeatable Morris Tigers.  Lowry stood at 3-3. But reality set in in game 7 when Dean Olson of Glenwood twirled a shutout for Lowry's 2nd loss to Glenwood (double-ouch). But they then won a 18-17 slugfest over 2nd place Kensington to get them to 500, 4-4.  A shutout over Alberta and an extra-inning 5-4 loss to Starbuck evened the record at 5-5. Then followed 4 straight wins - 8 of their last 10 - to finish tied for 2nd at 9-5 and a place in the playoffs.  Despite defeating Lowry twice, Glenwood finished 7th with a 5-9 record. tsk tsk. Lowry faced Kensington in the playoffs winning 1 game but coming up short in the 2 of 3 series.

1959 Final Standings

But a pretty respectable season for the boys of summer.

Previous posts in this series 

Episode 1: The Ballpark

Episode 2: '55 Champs
Episode 3: '56-'57 Seasons
...

Note: This series of posts is supported by Ray Hayenga's scrapbook which came to me from his son Bruce by way of Dave Chan.  Ray collected every Park Region Echo clipping on the Lowry ball team from 1954 to 1962.  I have digitized this scrapbook.  If you want a look, here's a link:Ray Hayenga's Scrapbook.  Caveat:  It's a large .pdf file. Your browser may not be able to preview it but you should be able download it.

Copyright © 2018 Dave Hoplin