East Aurora Advertiser

Column: Wally Schang and the First 117 Years of Baseball at Hamlin Park  



Schedule a Skype-for-Business session, use GoToMeeting.com, punch your availability into Calendly or DoodleMeeting—that’s how we get stuff done in the tech-laden 21st century. But nothing matches the efficacy and productivity of a chance encounter at a local saloon, like this one the other night at 42 North after the Backyard Bash.

“Hey, Rick, what’s happening?” It was Tony DiFilippo, fellow ball fan and town judge out with wife Dawn and former town recreation department head Peggy Cooke.

“Hey, Tony,” I said.

“You’ve got your ear to the ground; what are you hearing about the diamond at Hamlin Park? It looks like hell. The infield is going to grow over into a weed patch. And the mound and the batters’ boxes are craters. It’s unplayable. I’m afraid it’s a goner.”

“Well, the mayor says he’s going to get it done over there. It’s a disgrace the way it is now, and he gets that. What an embarrassment. I’m worried that we’ll lose our consecutive years as a ball diamond run. We’re checking with Rob (town historian extraordinaire Rob Goller), but I think it’s at least 117 years that hardball has been played there, either Roycrofters, town team, Blue Devils, CEBA. Must be some kind of record. We know that until this year, the high school never played anywhere but Hamlin. Streak goes back to 1902. Maybe before. Now, it doesn’t look like there’ll be game there this year. Unless…”

“We better get one going.”

“You’re reading my mind, counselor.”

“Cool. How ‘bout you and I each manage a team. We’ll get some old guys and some young kids and we’ll have a draft. Get a grill, make hot dogs.”

“Maybe find some uniforms. Somebody will donate shirts. Maybe Don Goller will ump.”

“How about the day before the Lenny Mazurkiewicz tailgate fundraiser at the rink? September 7, noon-ish. We can dovetail those events somehow.”

“Perfect. It will be a blast. Maybe call it slow-pitch hardball. And we’ll keep our string alive.”

“And get our diamond back. Do we have to ask somebody if it’s okay?”

“Why?”

“We’ll spread the word. I can say something about it in my column. Have people get in touch with either of us.”

Dawn DiFilippo, who works for the town recreation department said she’d reserve the diamond, not that anyone else had dibs on it, but at least we were legit.

“I’ll call the mayor tomorrow,” I promised. 

And that was that. Elapsed time: about six minutes. And we had a civic event in the books without so much as establishing an LLC and getting waivers signed. 

The next day, the mayor promised he’d have the diamond ready and he supported the game idea. Gotta love a small town.

Wally Schang while with the New York Yankees. Image courtesy of Barb Schang

So, when you settle into your lawn chair at Hamlin Park for the special Legends of East Aurora baseball game on Sept. 7 on the newly refurbished diamond, you’ll be part of history, as the diamond will mark its 117th (at least) consecutive year of hosting community hardball, which, as I said, we believe is a record. At least we’re going to claim it is until we’re proven otherwise. Speaking of history, while you watch some of the best of yesterday and today play for the coveted Hamlin cup, I hope you’ll take a minute to remember the great ballplayers who made Hamlin their home in the last century-plus: players like John Tarnisch and Billy Shoemaker of the Roycrofters, Ed Stohrer, Bill Westfall, Lenny Mazurkiewicz, Mike Rozanski, all the Allens father and sons, Noah Thompson and, of course, the incomparable Schang brothers from Wales Center. 

I think about those brothers Schang brothers every year at this time when the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown inducts its newest class. I have always believed there was a scintilla (RIP Snake) of hope that Wally Schang could have his own plaque in that hallowed hall. After all, he played 19 seasons in the Major Leagues with six teams. For 11,500 innings in over 1,400 games he squatted behind home plate as a catcher, subjecting his body to the unique torments of that position at a time when the equipment was minimal and hardly adequate. That alone should get him consideration for enshrinement.

The Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 1918 and Wallie Schang was on the team, fifth from the left on the bottom. Babe Ruth is fifth from the left in the top row. Image courtesy of Barb Schang

He hoisted the World Series trophy three times: with the Philadelphia Athletics (1913, his rookie year), the Boston Red Sox (1918, their last series before the 86-year drought when the Babe was still a Red Sox) and the New York Yankees (1923, with Ruth and Gehrig). He put up a .284 career average with 1,500 hits, and was in the top ten of MVP voting twice. But baseball runs on metrics these days, calculus-type statistics worthy of Good Will Hunting and Gifted. Metrics like offensive and defensive WAR (wins over replacement), JAWS (measuring all HOFers against each other), Gray Ink (a metric so arcane I can’t get close to its meaning), range factors, power/speed ratios, adjusted batting, etc. Before you get to things like batting average and whether he was a credit to the game, it becomes clear that even though I know he belongs there, Wally’s not gonna get into the Hall of Fame.

Wallie Schang was honored at the Roycroft Inn in 1913 following the World Series win while he was a rookie with the Philadelphia Athletics. Image courtesy of Barb Schang

But he and his family still form part of the baseball legacy of the community and of Hamlin Park. Think of this image that Barb Schang, EAHS ‘71 (Wally’s grand-niece and keeper of his memorabilia) painted for me when we talked on the phone. It’s 1907 or maybe 1908 and the Schang brothers—Wally, Bobby, Clarence and Quirin (Barb’s grandfather)—are riding their bicycles to play some baseball at Hamlin Park, then the gem of local baseball diamonds with a grandstand, dugouts and stables for parking a horse and buggy during Sunday Roycrofter games. It’s six miles to Hamlin Park, give or take a furlong, from the Schang family dairy farm at the corner of Strykersville Road (Route 78) and the unnamed road that will come to be known as Schang. Whether they choose Centerline or Big Tree Road, they will have some considerable hills to climb and descend as they travel to the center of the village. Riding on the heavy, unsophisticated bikes of the day will make for tough pedaling. You might wonder if they will have energy to play after such a trek. But they are young (from about eight to 18) and their love for baseball, and for the diamond at Hamlin Park, overrides whatever fatigue that might dog them.

“Baseball’s greatest forgotten catcher” is how Wallie Schang was featured in this newspaper clipping. Image courtesy of Barb Schang

Baseball at Hamlin Park served at least three of the Schangs well. Quirin distinguished himself as a catcher at East Aurora High School, playing well at Hamlin Park until his graduation in 1917 and then spending two decades as an able catcher in the semi-pro circuits that proliferated in our area back then. Bobby Schang bounced around the minor leagues, but caught 82 games in the Big Leagues, 67 with the Pirates, 12 with the New York Giants and three with the Cardinals. And Wally, well, Wally went on to become best pals with Babe Ruth, barnstorming across the country with him in retirement and even (according to rumors that persist to this day), bringing him once to Hamlin Park.

Anyone interested in digging his or her spikes into the same batter’s box that Wally Schang (and who knows? maybe Babe Ruth) once dug into, contact Tony or me. You know where to find us.

***

Columnist Rick Ohler invites readers to visit him at the Advertiser office on Wednesday mornings from 10 to 11 a.m. Find past columns and articles on his website, www.rickohler.com.

Babe Ruth and Wallie Schang were teammates on both the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. Image courtesy of Barb Schang

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