After having been a fact of sports life hereabouts for years, in the late 1960s adult-level town-team baseball gave way to slow-pitch softball.
Stu Butcher, Chanute Tribune editor who cut his journalistic teeth writing sports, penned a story the other day about Chanute’s town teams. A photo of the 1967 squad included a couple of Allen Countians, Larry McCord and Bob Cavins.
McCord was a do-everything athlete in Iola. Cavins, a rangy kid, was much the same in Humboldt. Both were southpaws and were known for their command on the mound.
I recall McCord only by reputation, but knew Cavins firsthand, having played a little ball with him. I remember he once struck out 17 or 18 in seven innings. I suspect McCord performed similar feats.
Butcher noted that three Chanute teams, formed in the 1960s for those who were too old to play American Legion ball but too young to quit, had players from several towns and mainly played each other. Team members played late into the night, showed up for work the next morning, sometime a little groggy, and helped with team finances by soliciting donations.
A terrific Chanute pitcher, Paul Lindblad, skipped town and played for Bronson, before signing a professional contract and starring as a relief pitcher for the old Athletics, in K.C. and then Oakland.
Another of the Chanute players was Dave Cooper.
When I coached Iola’s American Legion team, Cooper managed the Chanute squad. We had some great games and anytime I saw him years later, Cooper invariably talked about one game in particular.
It went on late into the night and Cooper had to leave before its conclusion for work at Ash Grove Cement.
After he had left, we loaded the bases and Mike Howard, one of our most dependable hitters, charged the plate. He laced a drive that cleared the left-center fence by a mile.
Cooper’s admonition, on every occasion, was the same: “I’d have walked Howard, even with the bases loaded.”
Knowing Howard’s ability and flair for the dramatic, I probably would have as well.
He was a hitter, pure and simple
