March 2003 Sports Feature

Where do you begin to chronicle the more-than-seven decades of Ball State baseball history? Do you start with the Cardinals' glory days on the diamond?

May 30, 1969 has become known as the greatest day in Ball State baseball history. That's the day when Coach Ray Louthen led his BSU squad to victories over the champions of both the Big Ten and Mid-American conferences. But it was also the afternoon of one of the biggest baseball brawls in the university's history.

Racial remarks from the host University of Minnesota fans toward Ball State right fielder Pack Craig sparked tensions between the Cardinals and Gophers, and immediately after the final out of BSU's 4-1 victory, fights erupted on the field.

"It was a heck of a fight," Louthen says, but he recalls only one lasting injury, a scar on the forehead of 5-foot-7-inch Don Schmidt. The reserve catcher claimed the gash resulted from his head hitting the belt buckle of a Minnesota player when the Cardinal player was pounding the much-taller Gopher player in the stomach.

Ball State baseball programs produced other NCAA playoff berths in 1961 and 1965, three Indiana Collegiate Conference championships, and Ball State's three Mid-American Conference crowns. And there was the school's first league title on the diamond. That was in 1939, when Coach Billy Williams directed the Cardinals to the Indiana Intercollegiate Conference, of which Ball State was a charter member when the league was established in 1922.

In a doubleheader sweep of then-league powerhouse Hanover College that gave Ball State the title, Walter Pesavento pitched both games and Gabor Takats hit a home run for the only tally in the Cardinals' 1-0 opening game victory. "That was the only time I saw Mr. Williams overcome with emotion," remembers Takats, the Cards' regular catcher in 1939.

Should you commence the saga of Ball State baseball by talking about the three ballparks on which the Cardinals have played their home games? Between playing host to opponents on a field near where Burris School now sits and moving to the university's present baseball facility on the corner of Tillotson Avenue and McGalliard Road, the Cardinals' home diamond was across University Avenue from Ball Memorial Hospital. That's where they were playing when Louthen became the school's baseball coach in 1958.

He was shocked when he saw such things as gullies forming the base paths, portions of the school's track running through the outfield, a wrought-iron fence in right field and no fence in left, a flat pitching "mound" with the pitching rubber two-and-a-half feet closer to home plate than the rules require, and a treeyes, a treealong the first-base line inside the concrete stadium. The tree was soon chopped down despite objections from then-Ball State President John R. Emens, who enjoyed the shade it provided while he watched the Cardinals' afternoon games.

Would it be best to capsulize the story of Ball State baseball by recounting the achievements of Ball State's four players who have reached the Major Leagues? Before leading the 1970 World Champion Baltimore Orioles with a .322 batting average, Merv Rettenmund, on at least two occasions while playing outfield and catcher at Ball State, made good on predictions that he was going to hit a home run on his next time at bat.

Prior to playing 11 seasons in the Majors, outfielder Thomas "Tank" Howard slammed five homers, including a grand slam, in a four-game series at national powerhouse Florida State and had the Seminole fans chanting, "Transfer."

Before spending portions of 1989 and 1990 in the Majors, pitcher Mike Roesler disappeared during a Ball State baseball practice and was later discovered playing in an intramural rugby game.

Prior to Larry Bigbie's playing for the Baltimore Orioles the past two summers, he smacked three hits, including a home run, in a Ball State game at Wichita State, despite suffering from stomach flu which forced him to return to the clubhouse between at-bats to lie down.

Could the way to talk about Ball State's baseball program be to discuss the seven coaches who preceded the Cardinals' current skipper Greg Beals. First, there was Orville Sink, who started the program in 1919 and coached the school's first three teams when they were known as the Hoosieroons. Then there was Paul B. "Billy" Williams, who coached the school's baseball teams for 35 seasons, between 1922 and 1958, and demanded that his players use proper English at all times. He admonished such players as Bill Reynolds when they yelled, "I've got it!" instead of, "I have it!" when preparing to catch a pop-up or fly ball. When Williams took a leave of absence in 1927, Norman "Happy" Wann coached the school's baseball team.

Succeeding Williams as coach was Ray Louthen, who also was Ball State's football coach for six seasons. Louthen stocked both teams with many two-sport athletes, most of them from Flint, Michigan, where he coached both sports at the high school level. One of Louthen's players, Bob Rickel, followed Louthen as the Cardinals' baseball coach and led the program in its early years in the Mid American Conference, which marked a significant increase in the level of competition for BSU baseball teams.

Ball State's next baseball coach was Pat Quinn, and his 13 years in the position was marked by the booming bats of Tank Howard, Mark Davis, and Dru Kosco; such brawlers as Thomas Kilgore; and battles with umpires who made questionable calls, such as balls being foul because they hit the foul pole or they hit "on the foul side of the chalk line."

Then came Rich Maloney, who led the MAC's premier baseball program during his seven years as coach at Ball State with the help of 22 players who were selected in the Major League Baseball draft. They included pitcher Bryan Bullington, the number-one overall pick in 2002.

So where do you begin to chronicle the more-than-seven decades of Ball State baseball history? Well, the more difficult question might be: Where do you stop?

by John Ginter