The Little Things Make It Big

As the only-known surviving member of the 1954 American Legion World Series organizing, committee, Harry Esgate, front, will be one of those throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before the fourth game of the day tonight at Parker Field. Members
of the 1978 organizing committee also will be honored. The include, front row from left,
Dorothy Wolf, Lorraine Whiteaker, Lorraine Conklin, Patty Crollard, Lucille St. Mary and Dolores Holbrook. In the back row, from left, are Art McManigal, James Yearout, Homer Crollard, Fred Iraola and Ralph Holbrook.

GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic

Details, details, details keep World Series
organizers busy -- both then and now

Friday, Aug. 24, 2001

By ED STOVER
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Baseball is a game of little things,take care of the little things, the maxim goes, and good things will follow.

That also applies to baseball tournaments.

Ask Mel Moore, tournament director for the 2001 American Legion World Series, which opens a five-day run at Parker Field in Yakima at 9:30 a.m. today, when Danville, Calif., and Napoleon, Ohio, play the first of a 15-game, eight-team schedule.

Better yet, watch Mel Moore, whose actions on a recent afternoon speak louder than anything he could say about the event that he and other Yakima Youth Baseball supporters have been working on for at least a year ...

It is Wednesday, tournament time is less than 48 hours away, and Moore is standing on the rain-freshened infield at Parker Field, talking on a cell phone that has been ringing almost nonstop. The grounds have never looked better,the grass practically glows green.

As he talks, he surveys the field, the freshly raked baselines, the newly painted bleachers and centerfield wall. The stadium is rimmed with flags that flap brightly in a light breeze. He notes the rain-moistened pitcherís mound ó it should dry.
Parker Field looks like something off a postcard.

Moore's eyes say, Yes!

Then, oops, he frowns. Looking down at the grass between his feet, he spots a problem, a lowly dandelion poking its yellow head up through the perfect grass.

Still talking, Moore stoops and plucks the interloper from its place in Paradise. He holds it in his palm for later disposal.

He smiles.

Little things, little things.

Aside from the weather and perhaps a renegade dandelion or two, Moore believes he and his staff have done about all they can to assure a successful 2001 series.

The teams are here, others hail from Milford, Mass.; Albany, Ga.; Lewiston, Idaho; Midwest City, Okla.; Brooklawn, N.J.; and Omaha, Neb. They have gotten acquainted with the city ó there was a parade Thursday through downtown Yakima.

Three more games are scheduled today. Game 2 between Milford and Albany follows the completion of Game 1. Game 3 between Midwest City and Brooklawn begins at 4:30 p.m., followed by Game 4 between Lewiston and Omaha.

A formal opening ceremony will be about 7 tonight before Game 4. Honored at that time will be several of the men and women who organized the only other two American Legion World Series tournaments to be held in Yakima. Those were in 1954 and 1978.

They will throw out the first pitch of the Lewiston-Omaha game.

It will be a special moment, they know only too well what Moore has learned. They know about little things.

"ìCome over here a minute," says 80-year-old Fred Iraola who, along with Ray Pittman Jr., co-chaired the 1978 tournament. He skirts the bleachers and walks to the "Parker Store," a booth under the south side of the stadium where souvenirs will be sold.

ìI helped build this in í78,î says Iraola. He points to a window panel that sports a fresh coat of royal-blue paint.

ìSee that groove right there?î he says, indicating an irregularity in the 23-year-old panel. ìI started to make a cut there with a saw, then realized I measured wrong ó thatís where I stopped.î

A little thing. One that is remembered, like a misplayed ball, 23 years later.

Harry Esgate, 84, the only known living member of the 1954 series organizing committee, remembers the huge attendance, a total of 40,269 came to watch the tournament.

"We were expecting maybe 23,000, so it was extremely successful attendance-wise," recalls Esgate.

A highlight in 1978 for then-Yakima Youth Baseball president Homer Crollard was when he and his wife, Patty, were invited to a private dinner with Legion baseball director George Rulon and special guest Bob Feller, a former major league pitcher and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

"That was a special treat," recalls Crollard, now 77.

Dorothy Wolf, co-chair of program sales, remembers pounding on the doors of businesses and selling ads with people including Kathy Dunn Pratt, Dolores Holbrook, Jackie Wilke, Lorraine Conklin, Lucille St. Mary and Lorraine Whiteaker.

"ìIt was a lot of work, but the support in Yakima was utterly fantastic,"says Wolf.

In 1978, Art McManigal had the job of managing the tournament business office: ìRight before the series started, everything was chaos ó once it started, everything fell into place,î recalls McManigal, now 66.

At Parker on Wednesday with his two grandsons, McManigal, the father of a former Yakima Beetle, glances over at the two boys playing at the edge of the infield: "Now Iím starting all over again," he says.

One thing that was not so little that everyone remembers from 1978 is the fact that the Yakima Beetles, a favorite that year, did not qualify for the World Series. Of course, it was a little thing, a missed play in the final inning of the final game of the regionals, that killed them.

"That was the biggest challenge," recalls Kathy Dunn Pratt, now 58. "ìIt was just devastating that they werenít in it."

Dennis Hanscom, now 53, who was in charge of program layout, said there was even talk of an exhibition game, the "78 Beetles would play the champions, that year it was Hialeah, Fla., after the Series was over just to prove how good the Beetles were.

"ìThere was such a feeling of letdown because of the quality of the team that Yakima had in 1978," said Hanscom, adding that, of course, many of those same Beetles returned in 1979, when Yakima did win the World Series.

This year, says Moore, everything is in place to show the nation that Yakima remains a class-act town for baseball, the perfect place to hold the American Legion World Series.

Dozens of volunteers were on hand at a Tuesday evening meeting at Parker, where Moore and his wife, Vickie, handed out shirts, buttons, ribbons and assignments.

Those volunteers and organizing committee members will be on hand for the next five days. Theyíll be taking care of little things , things like serving "bloomin" onions" from the Outback Steakhouse, barbecued hamburgers, pizzas.

People get hungry at baseball games. They must be fed. It's a little thing, but it makes all the difference, says Gloria Worley.

She should know. She's the cook.