52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History: Sports

The prompt for Week 15 of 52 Weeks of Personal History & Genealogy, by Amy Coffin of We Tree, and hosted by Geneabloggers, is: Sports.

Sports. Did you have a favorite sports team as a child? If so, which one and why. Did your parents follow the same teams? Do you still support the same teams?

My father was always a Cleveland Indians fan, but I married a Detroit Tigers fan. Personally, I think everyone should be pursuing their family history, or visiting cemeteries, and I've never been much of a sports fan! However, if I had to pick a team that was the favorite at my house when I was a child, it would have to be the youth leagues of the Margaretta-Bay View-Townsend Baseball Program. My dad, Paul R. Orshoski, Sr., helped promote youth baseball in Bay View. He helped to round up managers, players, umpires, and folks to line the field for the big games. We ate supper early, so that Dad and Mom and all the boys old enough at our house to be on a team could be at the ball park on time. Usually Dad coached, and Mom kept score. Mom always did the write up for the local newspaper as well. The players loved seeing their names in the paper!


















Dad and several other members of the community would find local sponsors, and encourage every youngster they encountered to play Atom League, Little League, or Babe Ruth League baseball. Some of the sponsors in the 1960's were: the Log Cabin Inn, Lagoon Deer Park, Knauer Feed & Grain, Four Winds, and G.B. Plumbing & Heating. Later several businesses went together and sponsored teams that were known as Bay View Merchants. As my brothers got older, they umpired behind the plate. Someone once told me that he thought my dad was the "Pied Piper" of baseball in Bay View. Dad thought if a young man was playing baseball, then maybe he wouldn't get into mischief. Later, he even coached a girls' team, which my little sister Kellie played on.
















Some years Dad's teams were fantastic, and some years they had LOT of losses. He felt that teaching the kids the basics were what it was all about. There were plenty of fund raisers, and always an end of the year picnic for the players and their families. Our family made lifelong friends with several of the fellow coaches and baseball players that we met through the years. Dad also participated in Slo-Pitch Softball Church League teams as well. A sports enthusiast named Tom Stauffer once wrote a tribute to my dad which appeared in the Sandusky Register. (Click on the image below for a larger view.)



















Now both Tom and Dad are gone, but their love for baseball will not soon be forgotten.