It took a captivating World Series like the Cubs vs. Indians to bring much of the country back to baseball. Many fans went away after the strike of 1994, immersed themselves in college football and have never fully come back.
When I watch baseball now, I often find myself thinking of two men I have known who always had an incredible passion for the game.
One of those men was Glenn Verbage, who is considered by most to be the best high school baseball player to come out of the city of Huntington when he played in the mid-1960s for St. Joseph. After graduating from St. Joe in 1967, he went on to Marshall and was considered among the elite players in the Mid-American Conference and held in the same esteem as Mike Schmidt (Ohio University) and Thurman Munson (Kent).
However, injuries prevented Verbage's professional opportunities. Longtime Marshall coach Jack Cook considered Verbage the best player he coached. He set school records for home runs and RBIs and batted .407 his senior year.
Charleston attorney Tim DiPiero graduated with Verbage and was a basketball and baseball teammate.
"He was the point guard on our basketball team that won the state Catholic tournament," recalls DiPiero. "In baseball, he was the most natural hitter I had ever seen or played against. He was incredibly relaxed at the plate and he always made contact. He hit the ball hard every time and that was with a wooden bat."
After college, Verbage served the community by helping to run the Memorial Fieldhouse and he was also a Cabell County magistrate. He passed away in 1999.
No one loves baseball more than former local player and coach Billy Joe Hicks, who is the second of those two baseball men I'm thinking about.
I grew up watching Hicks play at DuPont High School where he was an all-state shortstop in 1972. He and teammates Joe Whitlock and Gerald Crowder led the school to its first Kanawha Valley Conference title in any sport when they won the baseball championship in 1972. Hicks played at Morris Harvey and then went into coaching, working at George Washington, DuPont, Hurricane, Buffalo and West Virginina State. Hicks, Tim Meeks and now Brian Sutphin have turned Hurricane into a great baseball community.
Among the players Hicks coached at Hurricane was pitcher Alex Wilson. It has gone largely unnoticed, but Wilson had a very good season this year with the Detroit Tigers. In 62 games, he had a 4-0 record with a 2.96 ERA.
Hicks remembers when he first saw Wilson.
"His family moved here from Tennessee and we didn't know a thing about him," Hicks said. "We were having tryouts and his mother brought him by and asked if he could try out for the team. I assumed it was just a mom being a mom and I told [assistant coach] Freddie Wright to take him over to another part of the field and let him throw a little.
"It seemed like Fred was back in about five seconds and I yelled at him to take the kid over and watch him throw. Freddie said, 'I was over there and you need to come and see this. I think we got something here.' "
Wilson, who has pitched in the major leagues for the Red Sox and Tigers, was a member of the 2002 Hurricane team that won a Class AAA state championship.
Speaking of Hurricane, it's hard to go anywhere in the community and not hear great things about former Redskins coach Jim McGehee. McGehee in Hurricane and Leon McCoy in Winfield are two examples of the positive impact that coaches can have on a community.
McGehee graduated from Hurricane High in 1958, then went on to play football at Morehead State in Kentucky. He came back to Hurricane and coached from 1962-77 before moving into administration. Among those he coached were future WVU players Steve Dunlap, Steve Lewis and Doc Holliday. His son, Jim, would later be a Hurricane quarterback under former WVU captain Larry Canterbury.
Several of McGehee's former players also became longtime coaches. One of his former players, Howard Rowsey, coached for over 30 years in Williamstown in Wood County.
"Jim McGehee is the reason I became a teacher and a coach," said Rowsey. "He is one of the most amazing men I have ever been around. He was a great teacher and coach, as well as being a wonderful and decent man. He did it all by himself and had an assistant coach. In junior high, he did football, basketball and track with no help."
Another former player of McGehee's was longtime Hurricane middle school coach Skip Cremeans.
"Coach McGehee truly is an icon in Hurricane and Putnam County," said Cremeans. "Everyone loves and respects him. He had to do it all by himself and no one can ever match his accomplishments. I don't know of anyone who does not respect Coach McGehee."
Contact Frank Giardina at flg16@hotmail.com.