Let’s dive into part two of our jump back in time, revisiting Oak Harbor youth baseball in the 1950s and ’60s.
For those who did not read part one last week, I recently stumbled upon some old scorebooks my father used while writing weekly roundups of youth baseball for the Whidbey News-Times more than 50 years ago. I thought readers might enjoy reliving the highlights of some of the action from those years.
The books covered American Legion (players 15-18 years old), Babe Ruth (13-15) and Mustang (13-14).
The first names of some of the players and the exact dates are not listed in the books for some games.
In an act of full disclosure, my name pops up a few times. I was the Mike Trout of Oak Harbor Mustang baseball in the mid-’60s. Well, maybe more like Kyle Seager — but I had my moments.
American Legion
The Legion book includes only four games (two doubleheaders) from 1959.
July 18, 1959
Oak Harbor dropped a pair of games to University Legion (Seattle), 20-1 and 14-0.
University blew the first game open by scoring 15 runs in the final two innings.
Zylstra and Fakkema collected Oak Harbor’s only hits. Larry Kitchel led off the bottom of the first by being hit by a pitch and scored Oak Harbor’s lone run.
In the five-inning second game, University tallied 10 runs in the third to put the game away. Mike Smith was Oak Harbor’s only base runner, getting hit by a pitch in the first inning.
July 25, 1959
Shelton swept the doubleheader 11-3, 11-0.
Ole Carlson doubled, walked twice and scored a run for Oak Harbor in the first game. Zylstra, Smith, Fakkema, Tom Weindl and John Sommerfeld singled.
Carlson and Dick Faris picked up Oak Harbor’s only hits in the second game.
Babe Ruth
July 1960
Gary Gray and Dick Arias combined to pitch a no-hitter in the White Sox 3-2 win over the Braves.
July 28, 1960
Scott Doman hit a walk-off, two-run triple and pitched a one-hitter as the Braves beat the Cardinals 5-4.
May 25, 1961
Rick Nunn hit four singles and a double and Steve Weatherby had a double and triple as the White Sox clubbed the Cardinals 18-0.
June 1961
Weatherby pitched a no-hitter and Jay Tinker hit a pair of doubles when the White Sox blanked the Cardinals 13-0.
June 1961
George Gamble pitched a one-hitter and rapped three hits, including a triple, to help the Cardinals beat the Pirates 5-3.
June 15, 1961
The Braves were no-hit by Butch Hayes and Frank Jonte but beat the Pirates 6-2.
July 3, 1961
Kent Williams hit a three-run home run in the Pirates’ 4-3 win over the Cardinals.
July 11, 1961
Skip Rhode hit two singles and two doubles and Bob Williams had three singles to pace the Braves in a 12-5 win over the Pirates. Williams had three singles and a double for the Pirates.
July 1961
Doman hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning to send the game into extra innings, and the Braves went on to win 7-6 in 10 over the White Sox.
July 1961
The Braves defeated the White Sox 2-0 in a game that decided the championship. The Braves’ Doman and the White Sox Weatherby each fired two-hitters. Mike Rodgers had a single, scored both runs and stole two bases for the Braves.
July 28, 1961
A team of coaches swept a double header from the league’s all-star team 5-3, 4-2.
In game one, the coaches rallied for three runs in the seventh for the win. Bill Meche started things off with a triple, followed by singles by Bruce Groves and John Sommerfeld. Bob Gibson’s sacrifice plated the final run.
Ron Hunt finished with two hits and two runs, Pat Clyde singled and walked three times, Grove stroked two hits and Sommerfeld collected two hits and pitched a three-hitter.
Nunn walked twice and scored twice for the all-stars, and Skip Rhode slashed a two-run triple.
In the five-inning second game, Gibson tripled and pitched a two-hitter with 13 strikeouts. Clyde singled twice for the coaches.
Rhode doubled and scored for the all-stars.
Mustang
June 1, 1966
Steve Lange had 17 strikeouts in the Cardinals’ 5-4, eight-inning win over the Braves. Randy Kilburn and Mike Fleharty combined to pitch a two-hitter for the Braves but surrendered four runs without allowing a hit in the first inning.
June 1966
Lange hit three doubles and a single and struck out 11 in the Cardinals’ 18-1 win over the White Sox.
June 7, 1966
John Holmes pitched a two-hitter with 10 strikeouts and smacked a single, double and triple in the Braves’ 10-0 win over the White Sox.
June 9, 1966
Lange had four hits, including a walk-off double, as the Cardinals beat the Braves 6-5 in 10 innings.
June 1966
The Braves defeated the Cardinals 12-10 behind a home run and three singles by Holmes.
June 27, 1966
Holmes and Lenny Hassler pitched a two-hitter with 11 strikeouts and the Braves defeated the White Sox 5-1.
June 28, 1966
Jim Waller’s grand slam helped the Pirates rally for seven runs in the seventh inning to clip the Cardinals 11-8. Bill Pieschell added two singles, a double and a home run for the winners.
Lange and Bob Yates hit back-to-back doubles in both the first and second innings to as the Cards jumped to a 7-0 lead.
July 12, 1966
Yates recorded 18 strikeouts and took a no-hitter into the sixth inning in the Cardinals’ 6-3 win over the Braves. The Braves started the sixth with two singles, then Kilburn homered.
July 18, 1966
Yates pitched a one-hitter as he took another no-hitter into the sixth when Cardinals defeated the Pirates 6-0. Yates finished with 15 strikeouts.
July 19, 1966
Fleharty pitched a one-hitter and Mike Curran had three hits to lift the Braves to a 13-0 win over the White Sox.
1966 Standings
Cardinals, 11-4; Braves, 10-5; Pirates, 7-8; White Sox, 2-13.
1966 Leading Hitters
1, Holmes, Braves, .555; 2, Lange, Cardinals, .489; 3, Fleharty, Braves, .389; 4, Jeff Brown, Pirates, .352; 5, John Holbrook, Pirates, .333; 6, Yates, Cardinals, .326; 7, Wayne Aichele, White Sox, .325; 8, Mike Curran, Braves, .306; 9, Piechell, Pirates, .295; 10, Waller, Pirates, .293.
May 24, 1967
Craig Cross hit two doubles and a single and Randy Allen pitched a three-hitter with 10 strikeouts and hit a double to push the Pirates to a 10-3 win over the Braves.
June 1, 1967
Mark Lett pitched a no-hitter and struck out 13 as the White Sox topped the Braves 9-0. Dan Tull had three hits for the winners.
June 6, 1967
The White Sox Rob Beck struck out 14 in a 3-2 four-hit win over the Braves. Lett collected three singles for the Sox.
June 13, 1967
The Pirates pounded out 15 hits to out-slug the Cardinals 23-12. Allen had four hits and Jeff Ford three. Waller had two hits, including a double, walked four times and scored five runs.
June 12, 1967
Russ Lett struck out 12 and hit two doubles in the White Sox 8-1 win over the Braves.
June 15, 1967
The Pirates had another big offensive day, piling up 19 hits while dumping the Braves 19-9. Otha Wilkerson clubbed a home run, double and single; Waller had three singles and a double; Doug Rowand singled three times; Tim Quinn homered; Terry Akins doubled twice; and Rob Valdez had a single and double.
July 1967
Herb Hemann, Mike Healy, Paul Anderson, John Nichols and Jim Johnson all got two hits in the Cardinals’ 11-2 win over the Braves.
July 5, 1967
Waller pitched a one-hitter with 12 strikeouts and helped out at the plate with three hits and Quinn hit a home run as the Pirates beat the Braves 9-1.
July 12, 1967
The White Sox beat the Pirates 7-4 in a game that eventually decided the league championship. Mark Lett had two singles and double and struck out 12 to pace the Sox.
July 13, 1967
The Cardinals hit seven doubles in an 18-4 win over the Braves. John Nichols and Paul Anderson had two each.
July 17, 1967
The Pirates finished the regular season by thumping the Braves 11-3. Waller hit two singles, a double and a triple; and Wilkerson singled twice and homered.
July 1967
The White Sox and Pirates combined players and swept a double header from the Anacortes all-stars 1-0 and 4-0 despite getting only one hit in each game, both by Wilkerson. The Lett brothers, Mark and Russ, each threw shutouts for Oak Harbor.
Mark Lett pitched a two-hitter in the opener with 11 strikeouts for Oak Harbor. Van Gamble led off the game with a walk and eventually scored on an error for the contest’s only run.
In the second game, Oak Harbor took advantage of four Anacortes errors and three walks to snare the win.
1967 Standings
White Sox, 13-2; Pirates, 12-3; Cardinals, 5-10; Braves, 0-15.
1967 Leading Hitters
1, Waller, Pirates, .458; 2, Wilkerson, Pirates, .439; 3, Anderson, Cardinals, .429; 4, Tull, White Sox, .400; 5, Ford, Pirates, .368; 6, Mark Lett, White Sox, .348; 7, Nichols, Cardinals, .346; 8, Mike Brady, Pirates, .341; 9, Rowand, Pirates, .333; 10, Gamble, White Sox, .327.
