SSHOF Team Inductee: Mack World Series runners-up set the Standard in ’62
It has been almost 50 years since they provided Springfield with some late-August baseball excitement. So it’s understandable that the details of how they did it have gotten blurry with the passage of time.
But members of the 1962 Standard Concrete team all would agree with the assessment of one of their teammates, Mike Rodgerson.
“The thing about that team was, the host team was allowed an automatic spot in the tournament,” recalled Rodgerson, a 1963 Lanphier High School graduate. “So we didn’t have to win all the way through to get there, and all the other teams did. Yet we played pretty darned well that week.”
The tournament was the Connie Mack World Series, the ultimate destination for teams in the baseball league for 17- and 18-year old players. Lanphier Park was the tournament site from 1961-64, and the local Connie Mack champions got an automatic spot in the eight-team tourney field over those four years.
But the 1962 Standard Concrete team made the most of its chance. Manager Clyde Oliver’s boys, buoyed by some pitching magic, battled their way to the championship game before losing to Fort Worth, Texas, 5-0, before a Lanphier Park crowd estimated at 4,000.
It remains the top World Series finish for a Connie Mack team from Springfield, and members of the ’62 Standard team will be honored with induction into the Springfield Sports Hall of Fame on Tuesday night at the Crowne Plaza.
Two members of the team are deceased: outfielder John Jones and standout pitcher Joe Hamende. Oliver and his coaches, Larry Irving and Maurice “Deke” Suits, also have died.
Some of the details may have faded in the memories of 14 other men who were on the team, but they still remember the big-time atmosphere during an era when Springfield had no professional or collegiate league team.
“At that time, it was the most exciting thing that ever happened to me,” said John Pyle, another pitcher on the team. “It was just a great honor to be there. At the time, it was probably as high as you could go for baseball in town.”
Standard definitely had a hometown following. A crowd estimated at 3,000 turned out to watch Bob Clifford — also an individual inductee Tuesday night — pitch a two-hitter for Standard in a must-win, 3-0 victory over Copiague, N.Y., that sent the locals to the championship game.
“If we lost that game, we were done,” Clifford said. “I didn’t realize it was that big of a deal until after the game. Everyone was congratulating me, and I looked up at the grandstand and it was just packed. That’s when it hit me. I must have really done something.”
It was a team that had its back to the wall on more than one occasion. Standard wasn’t in first place in local league play until pulling even with the American Legion team at the end of the regular season. Both teams finished 16-12, forcing a playoff to determine the league champion and representative in the World Series.
“There was a lot at stake, and a lot of pressure,” Pyle said. “Clyde Oliver reminded us about (the World Series) that whole season.”
Lance Davsko pitched a two-hitter in Standard’s 3-0 playoff win. He outdueled Hamende, who pitched for American Legion during the regular season. Hamende, Clifford, infielder Rodgerson and outfielder Rich Hayes were added to the Standard roster for the World Series after they played for other teams during league play.
“Lance came on pretty strong the last few games that year,” Pyle said.
Davsko got the call in Standard’s World Series opener against St. Joseph, Mo. He struck out 11, walked two and gave up just two hits. But both were home runs and St. Joseph won 3-2. The locals already faced a must-win situation in the double-elimination tourney.
Pyle got the start in the next game against Fort Wayne, Ind., which took an early lead. But Hamende entered in relief in the third inning and shut down Fort Wayne the rest of the way, and Hayes had a double and inside-the-park home run to give Standard a 6-2 come-from-behind win.
Hamende, a left-hander who went on to pitch in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, came back the next day and fired a no-hitter in a 1-0 victory over Danville, Va. It was the first no-hitter in Mack Series history. The lone run came on Jim Heitzman’s RBI single in the sixth.
“I was like Tom Glavine,” Hamende was quoted in a 2002 State Journal-Register story. “I threw about 85 to 89 miles an hour, and I had a good curve and I changed speeds. They told me I’d never play pro ball, which stuck in my craw a little.”
Clifford followed with his two-hitter the next day, and Standard then got a break. With three teams still alive for the championship, Standard won a blind draw to determine a bye into the title game. The locals took the next day off while Fort Worth defeated Seattle, Wash., 8-1, to earn the right to play Standard for the title on Aug. 29, 1962.
The 5-foot-10 Hamende, who needed just 79 minutes to pitch the no-hitter a few days before, got the call again for the championship. He turned in a respectable performance this time: 11 strikeouts, four walks and six hits allowed. But Standard committed four errors in a four-run Fort Wayne fifth inning, and the Texans came away with a 5-0 championship victory.
The local team received an impressive second-place trophy provided by Quaker Oats, which helped sponsor the tournament. When Donald Fred Childs Jr., owner of Standard Concrete Pipe Co., died in 1990, his widow, Betty Lou Childs, contacted Davsko and gave him the trophy.
“It has all our names on it, and she said I was the first one she could get ahold of,” Davsko said. “She was sorting through things, and she said if I didn’t take the trophy, she was going to throw it out.
“I had it for quite a while, and then I gave it to (Standard teammate) Rick Grant. He’s getting it all cleaned up, and we’re going to have it at our table at the banquet.”
Grant, whose father, Ed Grant, was involved with organizing the tournament during its stay in Springfield, said the World Series experience provided many memories. But Grant said playing for Oliver also was special.
“Clyde Oliver was an extraordinary man,” Grant said of the man who later served as pitching coach at Lincoln Land Community College. “Lance and I played on the same Little League team for Clyde out at Fairview Park, and he coached us all the way through Connie Mack.
“Everyone who knew Clyde had the highest respect for him, especially the boys he coached.”
The Hall of Fame banquet and induction ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday night at the Crowne Plaza in Springfield. Rick Majerus, the men’s basketball coach at Saint Louis University, will be the featured speaker. For ticket information, call Lesa Schaive at 529-0008.
Dave Kane can be reached at 788-1544.
Standard Concrete 1962 baseball team
A list of members of the Standard Concrete baseball team that finished second in the 1962 Connie Mack World Series at Lanphier Park. (High school in parentheses; x-denotes player added to team for World Series.)
Larry Ackerman (Williamsville)
x-Bob Clifford (Feitshans)
Lance Davsko (Griffin)
Tom DeFrates (Feitshans)
Bert Gerger (Feitshans)
Rick Grant (Lanphier)
x-Joe Hamende (Griffin) (deceased)
x-Rich Hayes (Feitshans)
Jim Heitzman (Feitshans)
Monte Irving (Feitshans)
John Jones (Williamsville) (deceased)
John Pyle (Griffin)
x-Mike Rodgerson (Lanphier)
Bob Sagle (Williamsville)
Bob Smith (Feitshans)
Denny Yoggerst (Griffin)
Manager — Clyde Oliver (deceased)
Coaches — Larry Irving and Maurice “Deke” Suits (both deceased)
WORLD SERIES SCORESSt. Joseph (Mo.) 3, Standard Concrete 2
Standard Concrete 6, Fort Wayne (Ind.) 2
Standard Concrete 1, Danville (Va.) 0
Standard Concrete 3, Copiague (N.Y.) 0
Fort Worth (Texas) 5, Standard Concrete 0