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Bottom of the seventh.

Do or die for the Trojans
trailing 3-0 and on deck.

Oh, strike three,
and with the curve.

And he pushes one
to centerfield,

back on the ball
is.

His hit is good!
And Milan can celebrate.

Well,
the record-setting 1998

Sturgis Trojan baseball season
is now history.

♪ For the land of the free ♪

♪ And the home of the brave ♪

He swings
and drives one deep

to rightfield
and that is gone!

Off the roof out there
in right center,

a grand slam
for Ricky Hart,

his team leading
12th of the season.

Around second
and looking to make it

a three-bagger is Maravolo.

Bill Whitely's gonna
wave Scheske around!

Survive that
with Keim in centerfield

time-out in the fourth, reaching
up, making a running grab.

The windup by Vercler.

2-2-6 and the Trojans
are in the final four!

The world looks
much different now

than it did
a half century ago,

but even though
many things have changed

over the past 50 years,

Roth Labs
isn't one of them.

Welcome back
to C.O. Brown Stadium

in Battle Creek,
the Trojans being introduced.

Their starting lineup
along the third baseline,

Sturgis will be
the home team today

and will man
the third base dugout.

I've never seen
this angle before.

Oh, nice vantage point
right there.

We knew
this team was coming.

We knew that there were
a group of kids

that were gonna be
seniors in '99

and juniors that same year
that were coming.

And I remember
talking to Bill Whitely

during that next year,
leading into the season of '99

and just kind of asking him,
"Bill, how-- how's the team?"

He goes, "I think we could be
special this year."

What are you guys
thinking right now?

Well,
we're just trying to relax.

We haven't done it yet.
You know, we got seven innings.

We want to play a good baseball
game and, uh, you know,

we came here to win this thing
and that's our goal.

We'll be disappointed
if we don't. We're gonna

-play this thing to win it.
-I got goosebumps.

He's the best coach I ever had.
Hands down.

And he's probably
the most uncomfortable coach

I have ever played for.

You know,
we're a little bit more jittery

than we were yesterday,
and we need to get through

this first inning, this first
inning is huge, you know.

We just gotta make sure
if we make a mistake earlier

that we don't compound it
with more than one mistake.

Bill Whitely, oh, man, um...

Bill could be a real SOB
when he wanted to be.

Um, I say that
in a fun way,

'cause that's kind of the way
Bill comes across,

especially
if you don't know him.

Probably
the most influential coach

outside of Ryan Scheske

that I've had in my life.

You know,
these guys work their tails off,

they do everything
they're asked to do,

their attitudes are fantastic,
you know,

they let me chew on them,
they let me bet on them,

and I'll tell you what, uh--

He had a bite to him and, uh,
he-- he could redirect you

when you needed
to be redirected.

This is a great day.

And, you guys,
this is your play,

you just have faith in this guy
right here with the glasses.

He'll take you anywhere.

The best coaches
are the ones

that are the hardest
on their best players.

Once you earn the respect
of your best players...

the rest will follow.

He expected you
to not just do your best,

but to make every play,
and if you didn't

make every play, and this is
in practice or games--

if you didn't make the play,
he's on you.

So you're kind of nervous
going into practice.

We always talked about
improving every day,

trying to get better
at every practice,

not being out here,
dinking around.

I just wanna say,
this season's been great,

I mean,
we started out one, two,

and I thought it was gonna be
kind of a bad year, but...

So I was the one
that pitched

in the Mount Pleasant game
that we tied.

It was a wooden bat tournament.

All I remember
Whitely saying is,

I think Ricky was catching.

Sure enough, he would set it
right on the inside edge

and we broke every wood bat
that they had.

It got to the point
towards the end of the game,

where they had to start
borrowing bats from us,

because all their bats
were broken.

During one of our losses,
Whitely actually yanked

the whole starting lineup.

At the end of that game,
Whitely told us

to all get in the dugout

and he ripped us,
big time.

And I really thought
that fighting on a loss

was a turning point
in our season.

The seniors
have been through things,

I thought things were coming
too easy for 'em.

Ultimately,
his story was,

"You guys are a lot better
than this.

You don't know
what your talent is

and how good
you guys can be.

You better start shaping up,

or it's gonna be a hell
of a long season."

And we knew
at that point in time,

that-- that we needed
to change the tone

of the way we practiced.

From that day forward,
everything swung

and nothing could stop us.

I learned later in college,

I played a little baseball
in college,

where you-- the coach there,

super nice guy,
applauded your effort.

And if you did--
if you made a good effort,

he kind of applauded you,
he'd say,

"You'll get them next time."

Nobody played very well
for that team in college.

I always felt that
I could get kids to do things

that they didn't think
that they could do.

If you could get kids to go
the next step

and be more successful than they
believe that they thought

they could be, then
you're gonna have a good team.

You know,
you've heard the saying

is you make diamonds
out of coal, right?

I mean,
you take this piece of coal

and the way--
the pressure he put on you...

some people
just disintegrate.

And their parents
would fly off the handle.

Some kids couldn't handle
the way that he coached.

And I don't know if,
you know, a lot of kids today

could handle
the way that he coached.

He put
all this pressure on you.

You would get to the point
where you just said,

"If he-- if he jumps on me
like this one more time,

you know, tennis looks
pretty good right now."

And I'm not a quitter.

I haven't gone there, but no,

I would have certainly regretted
that for the rest of my life,

especially if they won state
without me.

Bill wasn't afraid
to tell a player

when he did wrong
and he would say it,

uh, in front of the team.

First game of the year,
we played Jimtown

and they ended up winning state
in Indiana that year,

same year we won state
in Michigan.

I believe
it was a one-to-nothing,

or 2-1 game--
it was a very well-played game.

And it is the bottom
of the seventh.

There's a guy on first base
and there's two outs.

Guy hits the ball
to the pitcher,

Steven Pustelnik.

I go to short

and Steven gives me a--
a pretty good ball,

but it's a ball that
I'm gonna have to go fast

to turn this double play
and end the game.

And I went so fast
that I dropped the ball.

Next guy hits a triple
to win the game.

Game over.

Whitely benches me
for the next game

and basically says,
in front of the whole team,

"You might not play
shortstop again this year."

The reason
we didn't play well

is because
we haven't been practicing.

And I remember
telling Paul Gorsuch,

our athletic director,
he was along the fence,

and telling him
that's the last frickin' time

that we'll-- we'll take
a spring break off

to play a baseball game
right afterwards,

and it wasn't quite
that language.

I didn't take stuff home
to my parents

about what my coach
was telling me, right?

If he called me that name,

or said a swearword.

Because back then,
when he said it,

it was true.

You know, correct it right away,
say something and be a coach,

because that's what
a coach does.

Pain is gonna come with failure.
It makes you stronger.

It tears you down like a muscle,
but it makes you stronger.

And he didn't take that pain
away, he made that pain worse.

And he never would say this,
but the deep down

message is, "I believe in you."

Don't try to take away
someone else's pain.

And I think that's what
we try to do in this world,

we try to take away
everyone's pain.

As we move forward in life
and we think about

coaching young people,
or being parents,

you know, I can say
that that's one person

that taught me a lot about
being the person I am today.

Yeah, I wasn't at the game,

I was actually in Chicago
on a trip,

but I listened to the game.

Pinconning
has been here before,

they made this trek
way back in 1971,

when they took on
Detroit Lutheran West

and lost in the State
Championship game 4-1...

That was, like, 20 years ago.

I want to rewind it.

Yeah.

Um, hard to watch.

Hard to see.

Um...

I live in Sturgis now,
so that's kind of crazy.

I talked to Rick
in great detail

and Rick really struggles,
and still struggles to this day

on, um, the game,
because...

they felt they had it won
when the ball went off the bat.

Hi, is Rick available?

This is Brett Scheske.

I'm a filmmaker
out of Sturgis, Michigan.

He's not interested?

Would you by chance know
of anyone in Pinconning

um, from the team
that might be willing

to talk about
the '99 season?

We just want to know
more about the Pinconning team

and we know
Rick was a great coach.

But you have my number now,
so if you guys think of anyone,

or if Rick has a change of
heart, just give me a call.

I appreciate the call.
Thank you.

Success isn't dictated
just by tonight,

right here
where you're standing.

Success is forever.

Success is when you're 40,

when you're 60,
when you're 90.

That's when you see winners.
You see winners long-term.

If you learn tonight
that you lost here

and that was it...

you're one step closer
to being a loser,

and I don't think
there's one person

out here that's a loser.

The Trojan fans
are right behind the dugouts

along the third base line,
a good number have come up

to try to cheer
the black and the orange on

for the school's first ever
baseball championship.

So, you want to know
the crazy part about this?

Yes.

It's the first time
I saw it.

Some reporters would be
in the press box, not me.

I was never
in the press box.

I very rarely,
if they let me in there,

I was never in the dugout.

I was somewhere
along the sidelines.

I wanted to feel
what it was like

to be with the fans
and stuff like that.

Look at this,
look at this, look at this,

here's a stupid kid
down here.

He's stooped over.

You go-- you go write
some sports stories

and use-- use
some of your pictures.

Dave was awesome.
You know, I remember him

coming out and taking swings
with us a few times

and, uh, you know, he was just
always fun to be around.

He had a great personality.

He asked us,
he was kind of, like,

sheepish about it,
but kind of excited.

He asked us to play a game
of wiffle ball with him.

It was like, he'd tape up
these wiffle balls

and it's like he's this, like,
closet wiffle ball player.

Like, he's, like,
from a pro league or something.

He's all coming
to practice and we'd play

wiffle ball with him.
And he was another guy you could

take out your nervous tension
on, because you could just--

you could laugh at him, you
could make fun of each other.

And little stuff
like this mattered.

He was a fan
as much as he was a writer,

and he was a great writer.

"'Juggernaut,
a massive inexorable force

or object
that advances irresistibly

and crushes whatever
is in its path.'

I didn't think Webster ever saw
the Sturgis baseball team,

but it seems obvious
that he was referring to them."

I've always said, "If
you're gonna have a good team,

you better have some skunks,
you can't have all choir boys."

And that group of kids,
I had some really great kids,

nice kids,
but when it got to sports,

if they got a chance
to get you down, they'd do it.

They'd punch you in the mouth
and they'd take all your money

and they'd-- they'd go back
and do it again.

I can't hear you!

Strike first, strike first!

No mercy, sir.

That one's long gone!

Way out of here!
It had to go 400 feet!

And the sophomore has given
Sturgis a 5-0 lead here.

And now he has
42 RBI, five this inning,

and the Trojans now lead
11 to nothing.

Ball wants it,
popped to shortstop,

Matt Scheske all over that one,
freezes it,

and the Trojans
are Regional Champions again

in 1999.

Swung and driven
into short centerfield,

it'll drop for a base hit.

Around third comes Johnson.

The throw to the plate is high,
Ricky Hart reaches up

and grabs it
and the tag is made!

And Sturgis has advanced
into the State Championship game

tomorrow morning
back in Battle Creek.

It seemed easy.

They knew they were good.
They were never cocky.

They were just
tougher than nails.

They were mentally tough,
physically tough, focused.

I mean, I've had some
really good baseball teams,

but none of them come close
to comparing to that team.

I would put that team up
with about any team

that's won a state title.

"The nine.
Mario Maravolo, Chili.

Has key hits
in last two wins."

And now it's gone!

Home run shot from
Maravolo!

"Bryan Keim, Beezer. Threw out
tying a run in last game."

Deep in centerfield,

Keim on the fourth, reaching up
making a running grab!

"Nick Hochstetler.
Got at-bats, got hits."

Yes!

"Tim Kolzow, TK.

Solid punch from left side
and nifty D."

-Yeah!
-Go, go, go, go, go!

"Matt Moses. Possibly
best nine-hitter in state."

Two odds,
two outs for Matt Moses.

And he swings
and drills one.

Straightaway centerfield,
his eyes are on it--

-it's over his head!
-"Steve Pustelnik.

Number one pitcher
with intensity."

Steven Pustelnik
goes all the way.

This is a two-hit in.

"Matt Scheske.
Amazing range and arm."

In the hole Scheske
over to first base, what a play!

"Bryan Vercler.

Solid pitcher
at the number two slot."

The windup by Vercler.

2-2 pitch, and the Trojans
are in the final four!

"Ricky Hart,
AKA Hart Attack.

Power in arm and back."

He swings
and drives one deep

to rightfield and that is gone!

-Grand slam for Ricky Hart!
-"Nate Lung, Lunger.

Designated hitter
with tons of power."

Driven deep

to rightfield,
get out of here.

That was long gone!

I mean,
he threw that thing!

It wasn't-- there was
no strangers on that team.

Even the guys that-- that
may not have played as much,

I still knew just as well
as everybody else on that team.

I think anytime you have
a very good team in any sport,

guys have to understand
their roles.

Not everybody
can be the superstar.

Not everybody
gets to play all the time

and some guys sit
on the bench a lot.

And they have to understand
that it's not their time,

they'll get their chance.

And in that '99 team,

we had a number of guys,
who didn't play that much,

but they were all
a part of the team

and they fit in.

And they're very instrumental
to the success that we had.

Yes, we had some great athletes,
but it was the grunt guys.

It was the guys
that showed up in the summer,

the guys that did
all the pre-season training,

they followed
all the directions

and they gave everything
that they had

within their human body.

Everybody pushed
for each other to get better,

we all challenged
each other to get better.

Everybody was on the same page.

There's not a day
that goes by

to where I don't miss
the camaraderie

and the interaction
that I had with the coaches

and the parents
and-- and the players.

The bottom line
is building a team

that cares about one another.

You don't have to have

the greatest athletes
in America to win.

Doc still, to this day,
doesn't know how much

he helped me
get through baseball

and how much
he helped me succeed.

It all came back to him,
just say, "Hey, Vacuum,"

every time he saw me
in anatomy class.

He never talked about it
any more than that,

he never said, "You're good,"
he never said, "You're awesome."

He just kept calling me
The Vacuum

and I felt like
he truly meant it.

Let them know
they made a mistake.

Number one, own it.
Take responsibility for it.

But more importantly,

I'll be there to help you
get through it.

He lifted my confidence
as much as anybody,

and he probably
doesn't even know that.

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These are the same techniques
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back to back to back AAU
Nashville championship teams.

I remember the only thing
that I ever did

throughout this summer
outside of, you know,

swimming and jumping my bike

was I played baseball
with my friends.

If you've watched
the movie Sandlot,

that literally was us
all the time out in the summer.

We were playing baseball
in the backyard.

My philosophy for the kids was,

"Do your best,
do what's right,

and treat other people
the way you want to be treated.

And you know what?

You're gonna be successful
at whatever you do."

Now, at a teaching,
coaching level,

I thought it was important
that the kids know

the fundamentals
of the game.

We are in Sturgis, Michigan

at Wall Field at the corner
of Lakeview and Lafayette,

still plenty of time
for you to come down

to take in this.

The championship game
of the 1993 Sturgis

Little League All Star
Invitational Tournament.

Not too many clouds
in the sky,

that may play a little havoc
with the outfielders

trying to pick up
a high-fly ball.

But beautiful, not too hot,
about 83 degrees,

absolutely perfect.

Little more enthusiasm!

When I was ten,
11 years old,

my name got
put in the paper

that I got a single
and I walked twice.

It was a little blurb

and that was the greatest day
of my life at that point.

I'm like,
"My name's in the paper."

That was our philosophy,

is that we wanted to make
every kid a star.

Boy,
you want to talk about

people sitting in the stands
and you see people

with headphones on
and earpieces in

that are listening
to the games.

Ricky Hart.

It was--
it was all community.

Little League
and baseball experience

back then was just awesome.

This tournament
started last Monday night.

Sturgis Orange started off
with a victory.

They defeated Mendon 7-0.

They defeated
Three Rivers then 9-2.

They defeated Lagrange
15-5.

And today they defeated
White Pigeon

by the same margin,
15-5.

I always told my kids
that we're out here to have fun.

We're out here to learn
how to play baseball

and we want to win.

Good job, good job,
good job, come on, come on!

Go, go, go, go, go!

I think
we built the program up

and we made it so
that kids enjoyed it.

We wanted to make it so

it was better at every level
that they got to.

And there would be
quote-unquote "tryouts."

Whitely led that.

He was grading
every single player

at eight
and nine years old,

to determine what team
they're gonna be on.

And he'd be flashing, like,
a three, or four, or five,

to tell you
how many stars they were.

I organized and scheduled
everything from eight-year-olds

all the way
up to 16-year-olds.

I always knew
who was coaching.

Uh, we had coaching clinics.

My biggest influence,
uh, beside my dad,

was Mike Clipfell.

It's just been
a real fun year this year.

A lot of the 12-year-olds,
you know,

this'll be my 4th year coaching.

I've been with them guys now
for three years,

and it's just been
a real fun time

to, uh, watch
all the kids mature

and learn
more baseball skills.

There's kind of one thing
we've always wanted to do

and that's win
the championship

and that's what
we're gunning for right now.

It was very competitive.

Even the bottom-tier teams,
you know,

they did their best they could

and-- and that's how
it always was.

Probably one
of the biggest compliments,

I would say,
I ever got secondhand was,

"Scheske wants to win
just as bad as everybody else,

he just doesn't show it."
And that--

that made me feel pretty good,
because they were right.

Again, there were so many kids
in the community

playing the sport,

that it created
a level of competitiveness

that really no other area,

or many areas around us,
had.

I remember
Ricky Hart telling me,

again, we're little kids
at this point,

but he says, "Oh, yeah,
Whitely told my dad

that he can't wait
for us to get to high school.

-He thinks we're pretty good."
-Every dollar that we raised,

whether it was
through sponsorships,

which we had
great sponsorships in town,

and also the money
that the kids paid to play,

um, all of it went back
into the program.

We had this thing running
like a well-oiled machine.

I wish we were Little League
World Series affiliated,

'cause I think
we could have done something.

There's my man!

This has been a very
special group of kids,

not only talent-wise,
but their attitudes.

We had the best kids,
best teams in the area

and I said, "You know what?

"If these kids
can stay together,

these guys could win
a State Championship."

The mentions
here at C.O. Brown Stadium.

322 down the leftfield line,
372 at left center,

402 to dead center,

369 in the power alley
and right center,

333 down
the rightfield line.

So, the leftfield corner
is where you'll wanna...

I'm trying
to Facebook these guys.

I have friend requested
Adam Pashak,

do you know who that is?

-Uh-huh.
-Uh, Jeff Hudson.

-Uh-uh.
-Jeff Dembowske.

I know Dembowske. That's another
big name up there.

Eric Piorkowski.

-Yeah, I don't know him.
-Nathan Gage.

-No.
-Jeff Spustack.

Yeah, I don't know him.

And the Focos,
Jeremy and Justin.

Justin Foco?
I'll check on that one.

I've turned over
all kinds of rocks for Jeremy

and I can't find anything.

-Matt Gorske.
-I don't know Matt.

Gorske's another name up there
that's a huge, huge name.

Um, I don't know
Matt Gorske--

but wait a minute,
Matt Gorske.

Um, I'm extremely
close friends with,

uh, a Gorske that's there

that might be related to him.

That sounds familiar.

My name is Matt Gorske.

I played shortstop.

Other than the last game,

I mean, the year was fun.

And then the game--
that game was fun.

But, uh, hey, 20 years later,
I mean, you look back at it

and that's-- that's--
that's your memories.

That's your life,
you know?

They had some really,
really good baseball players.

Most teams
would have welcomed

their seven, eight,
nine kind of players.

I mean,
I think it was probably one

of the biggest
moments in our lives.

20 years later,
it's a story

that I continue to tell.

You know, Pinconning
is a baseball community.

It's just a generation
after generation

of just tough-nosed kids.

And again,
when you're in a community,

that-- that's what you do,
is play baseball.

Well,
it's easy to pass that on

from one generation
to the next.

You know,
my dad taught me,

"Talk with your bat,
not with your mouth.

What you lack in size, like,

you're gonna have to
make up in effort." That's it.

Go, go, go, go, go!

And in Little League,

we were-- we were friends.

We-- we didn't like each other
on the baseball field.

Like, we-- we wanted to
beat each other, you know?

And you lived, like,
a mile down the road.

Rick Rudrow was,

as far as playing for him,
it was, uh,

"We're gonna freaking win
and that's it.

By all means necessary."

Well, he's the face
of Pinconning baseball

and has been for 50 years,
and he's earned the right.

You know, I mean,
in the baseball program,

winning was just expected.

You know, it's not here
just to-- to play ball,

it's here to play and to win
and to beat the other team.

So, yeah,
winning was number one.

If you made
a mistake and you messed up,

I mean, more than likely
you'd hear about it,

but on the flip side of that,
when you did something good

and you performed,

he would give you praise
for that.

And when you got praise
from Rick Rudrow,

you knew you earned it.

You know, there were no
participation trophies

and you didn't get
a trophy or medal,

unless you worked your ass off
and you deserved it.

You gotta know who to poke,
who to stroke,

and who to leave alone.

And Coach Rudrow
was the master at that.

Respect the game,
always wear your ball hat.

He expected us
to be professionals.

You know, he had
the true core values of baseball

and he wanted to instill
those in us and he did.

You know,
he would never admit

that there was another team
better, you know?

It was always one of his--
I think one of his

greatest strengths,
is he'd never admit defeat.

It was always, you know,
we didn't do something

that we needed to do to win
a game and he played that way,

you know, as a player,
he played that way.

Yeah, he was a stud.

He was an absolute
stud baseball player.

Everyone you ever talked to,

that ever watched him play,

was the greatest
baseball player

they've ever seen
come out of the area.

6'4",
big old handlebar sideburns,

you know,
and he's like your hero.

I mean, he could throw the ball
95 miles an hour,

he could hit the baseball
500 feet.

And wherever you go,
there's just legendary stories

about how great
of a baseball player he was.

We'd throw him
some pitches

and he'd just--
he'd call it off the scoreboard.

I mean, you could just
put them wherever you wanted.

Big lefty and just could hit
the shit out of the ball.

MHSAA, their very first baseball
State Championships was 1971

and he was the starting pitcher

in the championship game.
Lost 4-1.

And then he went to Mott
Community College for two years

and got drafted by the Yankees

and made it up to triple A
in their organization,

before he called it a career.

The year before, in '98,

we made it to the quarterfinals
and we-- and we lost.

They were ranked
number one pre-season, right?

There was a lot of
high expectations for them.

I remember Coach Rudrow
made it a point,

didn't want to be
ranked the next year.

He didn't want any part
of any of that,

because he didn't want
the pressure over us.

And then it's not like

we started off that well,
either, the next year.

At one point,
we were 11 and 6,

and then we didn't lose
a game after that.

We had experience
from the prior year,

I'd say
the sense of urgency was there.

We knew that
we had something special.

We knew we had Jeff Hudson
and Adam Pashak as,

you know,
two horses we were gonna ride

as far as we could ride them.

One thing that I always had
in my back pocket--

calling pitchers,
I had great pitchers.

I had kids that were throwing
the ball 88, 89 miles an hour.

Well, it's pretty
easy to call pitchers

when you got a guy
in high school throwing 88

and they got a pretty good
deuce.

Swing and a miss.
Boy, you could hear

maybe the pop of the mitt
on that one

as Pashak grabs through his
hardest toss of the day.

When I would warm up
before a game,

he made it his goal
to get me as mad as possible.

You know, "These guys are--

you're gonna have a tough time,
you better be on, like,

they're going to
take this away from you"

kind of thing and I--
I would feed into that.

Everybody could get on base.

We had some guys like
Jeff Dembowske and Jeff Hudson.

Not only did they swing
harder than anybody else,

they hit the ball
all the time too.

It's, like, they weren't just
swinging hard and missing,

they were swinging hard
and crushing the ball.

We hit more homeruns

than any team had ever hit
in school history.

We were not afraid
of anybody.

They were athletic,
no nonsense.

Had a little chip
on their shoulder.

Didn't matter
who we were going up against,

we knew
we were going to beat them.

They were baseball players.

Our first regional game,

we-- we beat, I think,
Kalkaska pretty handedly.

We beat in the regional finals
a good Petoskey team

2-1 or two nothing,
something like that.

And I remember going to church
the next morning on Sunday

and being so focused.

All I could think about
was Tuesday.

The quarterfinal game.

Whitehall's Nate McLouth

is the average
up to 270 now,

thanks to three hits
against the Cubs last night.

Of course,
Whitehall is 38 and one and,

I mean,
they had that Nate McLouth

that got drafted
by the-- the Pirates

and was an all star
for the Braves, I think.

And then the list went on
and on and on.

I went to work
for my uncle that week.

I had to take Tuesday off
and he said,

"Well Tuesday will be
the last day you take off,

'cause you guys have no chance
to beat Whitehall."

Nobody in this town thought
we were beating Whitehall.

People weren't on our side
as much.

And this team comes out with--
Eminem was popular--

like, Eminem hair--
they all had blonde hair

and just thought
they were gonna win.

What I knew about Whitehall,
is they're #1 in the state.

They broke the state record
for homeruns that year.

I mean, they were--
they were the Goliath.

I read an article in, uh,
the Detroit Free Press

about a month beforehand.

What they kept talking about
is, yeah,

we don't even sit
on the fastball anymore,

you know, we just wait
for people to throw curveballs

and we just hit them
out of the park,

and kind of almost make
a joke out of it, you know?

So I held that
in my back pocket,

so to speak, for a while

and I, you know,
challenged Adam Pashak,

I just said, "You know,

"this-- this team is waiting
for your curveball

and we're not gonna
give it to them.

We're gonna throw
heater after heater

after heater after heater."

We go out, Adam gets
the first guy out, I think.

Next guy gets on, made
a groundball up the middle,

and Matt and Hudson
turned a double play

and I, you know, I'm a catcher,
I go screaming down

the first baseline
and back it up

and throw it first,
in case something happens.

When we turned the double play,
I put the brakes on

and I looked right in their
dugout and told them,

"It's gonna be
all night like this.

You guys aren't gonna do
anything all night long,

I promise, this is the way

this whole day
is gonna go for you.

Your season ends tonight."

That was in the first inning.

Justin is the kind of guy

that you love to have
on your team,

and you probably
don't like him too much

if you have to play
against him.

And I loved him.

Once we beat Whitehall,
we thought we're gonna

just do this through
the rest of the way,

we're gonna beat everybody up
the way we beat them up.

And I think East Grand Rapids
took us lightly.

Up until
the championship game,

like,
we would just jump on teams.

You know,
that quarterfinal game,

that semifinal game,
it seems like we were scoring

three, four, five runs
those first couple innings

and then it was just kind of
demoralizing to the other teams.

This is the only time
in my career this ever happened

to me, but we went
to the seventh inning up,

I think, 8-1, 8-2, something
like that.

I couldn't catch the ball,
I had, like, seven passed balls

in the seventh inning.

I gave up three runs myself
to the point

where Rick called a time-out,
comes out there, he said,

"Do I need to take you out?"
I said, "No, I got this."

I think
I had already checked out

and went
to the championship game.

County leading off
centerfielder, Bryan Keim.

Batting second,
first baseman, Tim Kolzow.

In the third spot,
third baseman Steven Pustelnik.

In the cleanup position,
catcher Ricky Hart.

Batting fifth rightfielder,
Nick Hochstetler.

The mood when we got
to Bailey Park that morning,

I felt that there was a quiet
confidence among them.

You know,
I remember a lot, actually,

of that game, um,
you know, the tension,

I think
everybody felt it.

Like, I guarantee
I was on edge.

You know, hell,
you don't get many chances.

Rick and Gary
called us into their hotel room

as a team,
and he told us, you know,

he said, "It's our destiny
to win this game."

One of those speeches
where it, like,

sends chills
through your body

and he was like,
"And when we win,

we're coming back here
and we're burning Pinconning

to the ground."

It was a business trip.

We had a goal,
we had a job to do,

and-- and we were confident

in completing that
and being successful.

We already knew
what our lineup was.

There's nothing to prepare for.
We're ready to go.

I mean, there's nothing left
to do but go win a ball game.

You know,
you get that far and I knew

what the hell happened the year
before,

you want to win the damn
thing.

Nobody remembers if you come in
second, believe me.

You're remembered when you win,
not when you lose.

So, yeah, you're damn right,
I wanted to win that thing.

Just underway here

at C.O. Brown Stadium
in the Bailey Park complex.

and it's
straight away centerfield.

Bryan Keim going
back over the fence.

Past the warning track
and off the wall.

So a kid hit
a line drive right at me,

right off the get go,

and I thought it was going to
stay on that same level

and it just kept-- like,
a throw just kept rising on me,

uh, and it got to a point
where I knew I had no shot.

And I can remember
it was gonna be a triple.

I mean, it was just
straightaway centerfield

and I remember rounding first
and they'd just watered,

like, around first base
and I slipped,

had to pick myself up,
still got a stand up double,

but we didn't score
that inning.

And the next man
to take out Vercler

is the shortstop,
Matt Gorske.

So I get up to the plate,
and my job

as a second batter
in the order,

was Adam gets on base
and I bunt him to second.

So what happens is,

they give me the green light,
they let me swing away.

From Battle Creek,
swung on, lifted again,

straight away centerfield,
this time Keim comes in

a few feet.
He's got it.

No advancement by Pashak
for the courtesy runner.

And what my job was to do,

was to make a productive out

and hit the ball
to the right side.

I take responsibility
that I changed

the momentum of that game
the second I was at bat.

You know,
for whatever reason,

I asked coach about that,
you know, later I says, "Hey,

we always bunt there
in that situation.

Why didn't you bunt there?"

He says, "I had a hunch,
we're gonna have an inning."

You know,
once we got in the game,

they had a pitcher that threw
probably harder than anybody,

we'd seen anybody
throw all year.

One word to sum it up
was terrifying.

Pashak has struck out 98 hitters

and walked a 17.

Can he bring the fastball?

And in the first inning
I just remember,

you know, them having
some good at-bats

and I think they had a single
or two to rightfield.

That was kind of a sign
that they knew how to hit.

Uh, I knew that
they were a defensive team.

I remember Coach was saying,
"If we score three, we win."

And Keim
is well aware of that

as he stands in,
waiting for the one-one.

The other way for a solid single
into rightfield.

Line, down the rightfield
on a base hit.

Keim is going to
make the turn at second.

3-1 delivering line
in the leftfield and the bases.

Sturgis taking
an early one-nothing

as Ricky Hart
goes the other way.

Pustelnik stops at second

and the boys
are delivering early here,

in the bottom of the first.

You know, I thought we dodged
a couple of bullets early.

We weren't used to
playing in stadiums.

So, there was-- there was a play
earlier in that game.

Our all-state catcher

is going to catch a pop-up
behind home plate.

And that wind shoved it back
towards the plate.

Hit the netting in front of us.

One strike on Dembowske.

Boy, that was popped up.

In the infield
right at home plate.

Ricky Hart,
trying to find it,

now he won't do it
and it lands in foul territory.

Ricky had trouble with that one
from the get-go.

I was like,
"How did that happen?"

I thought
that Sturgis put

a little more pressure on us
than we did them.

Defensively,
I think we played

probably one of our most sound
games we've ever played.

You know,
Jeremy, specifically.

He made two catches
that kept us in the game.

Boy, that's
driven into centerfield.

Backpedaling,
looking up now, reaching up,

and making a nice grab
on the move is Jeremy Foco.

He's gonna have to hustle up.

He's gonna get doubled off
first base.

Nobody thought he was gonna
catch that ball and he turned

a double play on it,
which saved a bunch of runs.

Driving one
to right-center.

Over on the ball making a diving
grab is Jeremy Foco.

Honestly,
the one that felt the best to me

was the diving catch,
because it was, like,

I've never done
something like that before,

at least that laid out.

He ran like the wind,

batted almost 500,
he had a big arm.

I don't think
he ever realized

how good of a baseball player
he really could have been.

...their senior
first baseman.

Boy, that's flying down the
rightfield line, a base hit.

I hit the ball
to rightfield

and when they threw it in,
the guy missed the cut off

and I saw the ball going by me
and I'm like, "Well,

I'm gonna go."

So I went to second.

I tried to slide around the bag
and they called me out

because they had the ball there
before I got there.

But he didn't touch me at all.
Just-- just to clarify.

Bill Whitely
hot about that one,

as Kolzow tried to go
into second base.

We stranded so many runners,
we had hit after hit after hit

and only,
I think, scored one run.

I mean, it was really--
we played the way we normally do

because we couldn't get
on the board.

Count on the
pitcher. 1-2 pitch, strike!

Fastball tipped into
the mitt of the catcher.

And Pashak comes right back
to strike out

the final two hitters
of the inning.

I remember
watching their pitcher

throw his first pitch
when he goes up on the mound

and I remember looking back
at the dugout.

And Matt turns around,

and he's got
this huge smile on his face

and he's just like, "We're gonna
wipe these guys up."

And that is something
that I regret.

You know, they had a kid
on the mound, Bryan Vercler,

who-- nothing seemed
to faze that kid.

Bryan would just go out there
and throw the baseball.

"The Mute," I mean,
the guy was quiet,

he just did his job
and came off the field.

Right-handed junior
Bryan Vercler on the hill.

Line drive right back!

Vercler who snagged--
I mean that was dead center,

right through the middle

and Vercler stuck up his glove
in defense.

I thought
he almost killed the pitcher,

he had a line drive right up
the middle and he caught it.

Inch one way or the other,
that would have been probably

a different game, but nothing
just seemed to fall for us.

I felt like
their pitcher, uh,

was not a kid
that was gonna dominate us,

I thought it was just a matter
of time before we got him.

I don't know
how fast he was throwing,

but it was hittable,
it felt like it was hittable.

Halfway point
already in this one.

Let up, driven,
deep to leftfield.

Out on the overhead
near to Maravolo,

out near the 372 mark
and it clears the fence!

Looked like it hit, like,
the top side of the fence

right at the 372 marker.

And we are tied at one

as Hudson delivers
his ninth home run of '99.

Maravolo knew
he wasn't gonna get to that one.

His only hope was
it was going to stay in the park

and, boy, that thing
just kept carrying on...

That was a bomb, obviously, and,
um, okay, we're gonna roll now.

Lined into
leftfield past short and third.

Lined into left centerfield.
Keim going back.

He won't get this one,
it's over his head.

And Pinconning
takes their first lead

of this
state championship game.

2-1 on a ringing double
to left-center by Ben Galus.

How superstitious
were you guys?

I'm not superstitious,
but I'll tell you,

the 1999 team
was very superstitious.

Extremely superstitious.

Yeah, yeah, I mean,

everything had to go down
to chalk lines,

but the glasses, you know,
he never showed emotion.

He was Mr. Intensity
the entire time.

The entire time.

It would start
from the pre-game,

before they would warm up,

they'd have to look
for four-leaf clovers.

You would find
four-leaf clovers in the field

and you would pick those

and you would put them
in your hat.

They also had a pattern
that they would get into

for their pre-game warm up
for the stretching.

I believe they actually did,
like, a cross,

like, a T for their warm-ups,
but those guys,

they were always doing
something different.

Well,
we obviously had the stack.

You know, we would stack
all those gloves up

and Ricky was the guy
to stack those up and--

I can't honestly tell you
the foundation,

or remember
the foundation of it,

I just remember, um,

as a catcher,
being the last one

to place my glove
on the top

and then the game ball
would go on the top

and then we would run,
and we always kind of had this--

this superstition,
that, you know,

as a foundation,
as a strong foundation,

as a team,
nothing can break us down.

Sometimes, another team would
come and knock that stack down

and then we knew
we were gonna win the game.

And that never failed.

But again,
it was just a superstition,

but at the same time,
it was a foundation for us

and it was a time
for us to come together,

and that's what
that represented.

I do remember them
stacking gloves.

So the first time I saw it,
it kind of blew my mind that,

"Hey, they really do this,
they're that superstitious."

Now it's funny because
I am so superstitious myself,

that I still--
I talk to the teams about

how that team
stacked their gloves.

There is a superstitious story
that I have.

Do you want me
to share that now or-- okay.

This goes back to when we were
10 and 6, or 12 and 6.

I needed a new drink,

so I bought a different drink
for every game

to try to make a connection,
you know, to a winning streak.

So, I bought orange Sunkist
and we won two games.

Hell, we rattled off,
like, 24 wins in a row

and 24 orange Sunkist
in my opinion.

I bought two right here

at the gas station here
at the light

before we left
on Thursday morning.

One's for the semis,
one's for the finals.

We got to the semis,
I opened up the first bottle.

You know, we beat the hell
out of East Grand Rapids

and I got another one
on ice for, like, 48 hours

and, uh, for the first time

I'm gonna share
my orange Sunkist

with everybody.

Well, I just opened up
the orange Sunkist

and I'm like, "Fellas,

this is the last one
I'm gonna open,"

and, um, one of the players,

"Coach, that's one of those
new orange Sunkist

that's got the--" you know,
some kinda lottery on it,

a little sweepstakes thing.

He says, "Look at the cap
and see what it says!"

"Sorry, try again."

And of course I lie about it.
"I won!"

I kind of, like, put in my
pocket, and we all celebrate

and throw the orange Sunkist
around and go play.

And I tell you, that worked on
me for seven innings.

Well, three out.

That's all that separates
Pinconning

from a State Championship.

A 2-1 lead as we go to
the bottom of the seventh inning

and it's Bryan Keim...

It's almost, like,
I tell the story like we won.

It's almost, like,
I try to reason in my head

of how to get
to a different point.

And I never get to that--
that other point.

I-- I never get there.

So, now you go
bottom of the seventh,

it's still 2-1 and...

the big thing for Sturgis was

they had
their top of the order up.

Sturgis would like
to get the leadoff man aboard,

put some pressure
on the Pinconning team,

3-2 delivering the low
and outside ball four.

Time to board
for the third time today

and the Trojan fans

who really got up
between innings

are on their feet again.

And I thought,
"Oh, here we go."

Because we had the best--

best base runner
in the state of Michigan

on first base and we had
the top of the order in line.

Swing, and a line right back

through the middle
a base hit.

With the hit in front of him,
Keim checks in at second base.

Taking no chances
with nobody out here,

the Trojans have two aboard.

Adam, our leader on the mound,
pitching all year long,

we ran him as long as we could,
I mean, you--

you got to ride your horse.

I-- I was done.

I mean, it was just,
it was the right move.

Time to make a change
and let's just,

I mean, there was no doubt
we're going to win that game.

So, now you got
Stephen Pustelnik,

your number three hitter up.

He could very easily
let Stephen hit away.

You know, what do you do?

Do you bunt him,
or do you let him go?

I had an image in my head
of, you know,

getting a fastball right down
the middle of the plate

and just turning on it
and just seeing

that puppy
fly out to leftfield.

Obviously that didn't happen.

And I remember
standing there going,

"What am I gonna do?
What do I do, what do I do?"

And it went through my mind
a million times within a minute.

And I said,
"We got to bunt him."

Bunting.

It's a good one
in front of home plate.

Galus picking it up,
throwing to first.

Boy, what a play by Hudson
to stay with that thing.

He lost his bearing in his mitt.

His first thought
was to go to third.

As soon as that play happened,

you've taken the bat
out of Ricky Hart's hand.

And Ricky Hart...
no pun intended,

was the heart and soul
of that baseball team.

Obviously in my head,
I'm having a great game.

I'm three for three
and, you know,

I'm-- I'm--
I'm geared for this,

but, uh,
they intentionally walked me.

They're going to
intentionally walk Ricky Hart,

middle of the bases!

It was one of those
good and bad.

You made the right move.

Bad, now we're losing
at that point,

probably the best hitter
in the state of Michigan.

He's gonna not have
an opportunity

to impact the game.

I knew in the--
in this situation,

if we got him
to second and third,

that first base is open

and had a right-handed pitcher
on the mound,

that they would put him on.

But I also knew that we had to
get him to second and third.

I remember going over
the game in my mind

thinking, "You know what?
That was a gamble."

That was a gamble,
because you took

two of your best hitters

and you took the bats
out of their hands.

Get ready folks,

we could have a bang-bang ending
here at Battle Creek.

If you don't feel the tension
and the excitement of this one,

you've probably been dead
for a couple of days.

But it will be
Nick Hochstetler's chance now,

the senior rightfielder
with the bases loaded.

And one out, and the Trojans
trailing 2-1.

We all had
confidence in-- in Nick.

He was a great player
all year.

But he had
some really good cuts.

He was swinging it really well.
Um, he just didn't make contact.

Get it over,
a ball and two strikes.

Uh, Nick Hochstetler.

1-2 pitch,
swung on and missed.

Hochstetler goes down.

I mean,
the first two guys get on,

the pitcher almost
throws it away on Steven's bunt,

I mean,
that could have been game,

that was tie game
right there.

And then we have a strikeout
and-- and, you know,

all of a sudden,
we could lose this game.

And Pinconning
is now one out away

from winning the school's
first ever State Championship.

And then we get
this sophomore kid.

Uh, Nate Lung.

One thing about Bill Whitely
was he always had

extreme confidence
in his guys.

I don't know
if anybody else,

the bottom
of the seventh inning,

down by one, would have wanted
a sophomore up to bat

in that kind of situation,
but Bill never hesitated,

never faltered,
sent him right out there.

I just told him,
"Try to get a fastball."

Um,
but my biggest thing was,

I had a stallion on third base
who wanted to go.

My thought process was,
I was going to steal,

I was just waiting
for the call.

But the problem was,

the kid was going
from the stretch.

All right,
here we go again.

First pitch to long
is a little bit low, ball one.

Hey, a walk
would do the trick, too.

Remember,
there's no place to put Nate.

Foco, the catcher, really
thought that was a nice one,

he framed it on the outside.
Swung on and missed.

Lung took a healthy swing
at that one.

Bill Whitely
telling him to

settle down a little bit
in that box.

Wind up, the 1-1 delivery,
that one's in sight.

Hopping out of the way
is Nate Lung.

Two balls, one strike.

I sat up on the outside,
lift it up,

and we wanted it up and away.

And Jeff threw it
right in the glove.

He put it exactly
where I called for it.

Like I said, I was on deck
and if Nate gets on,

it's a tied game
and I'm coming up to bat

and he hits this ball
and I took my helmet off

and I just throw it
down on the ground.

I don't know if it's gonna
get caught or not,

but it's, like,
when that ball left his bat,

it's, like, career's over.
This is over.

And it seemed to take forever
and I'm thinking to myself,

"We're either gonna win
or lose and--

but regardless I'm done."

What was your initial thought

when the ball left the bat?

"We won."

I threw my mask off,
I threw my helmet off,

threw my chest protector off.

That's-- that's a pop up
to Jeremy, this game's over.

I remember watching that
from the--

what would have been
the third base side,

and he hit it
and I put my head down.

And I'm like.
And I never saw it.

And so I was listening to it
on the radio.

Bryan Keim
is at third base,

Kolzow at second,
Ricky Hart over at first.

2-1 delivery,
swung out,

lifted in the air
to centerfield.

Go, go, go!

-Go! Go!
-Jeremy Foco!

It's over his head!
It's over his head!

The Trojans are the champions!
In '99!

Foco should have had that one,
it was a high fly ball

and it went over his head!

And Sturgis wins
the State final!

Can you believe it?

Wow.

Just got chills.

Shoot.

Hmm.

Well, my grandma passed
right before the state game.

She passed away

and my grandma's always,
you know,

got me whatever I needed
for baseball

and all that
and I told her "Grandma,

we're gonna win
the State Championship

for you this year."

And we sure did.

He's almost
like a robot, it seemed like.

You know, very emotional,
but I think, you know,

there was this
sense of calmness,

uh, that came over him

when he was in the--
in the batter's box.

He knew what was going on,
but didn't really care.

I just remember looking up

and thinking it was gonna be
a somewhat routine fly ball.

My heart sank a little bit,

because we had gotten
to the point

we had dreamed of getting
our whole entire life

and it was gonna come
down to this one catch.

Jeremy Foco is--
It's over his head!

It's over his head!

The Trojans are the champions
in '99!

It went from heartbreak

and "We didn't quite make it"
to jubilation

in a span of about a second
and a half, it seemed like.

Tom Dukes,
his play by play,

that's how I knew
that he missed it.

I didn't see it.

I was just,
I'm like, "Oh, it's over."

I-- I'm like, "It's done."

I'm like, "This is such
a great run" and then it's done.

Then I'm like,
"Oh, my--" it was--

When it first left
Nate's bat,

when he hit it,

the first thing that popped
into my head was,

"Fly ball, centerfield.

Pinconning has just won
the State Championship."

Well, we--
I thought we were State Champs

for four seconds.

I spent, you know,

three to four seconds
as a State Champion.

And then see the ball land,
and then I looked to my left,

and I saw the kid
from second base, you know,

just a couple steps away
from home.

Jeremy Foco,
who has played

just an exceptional
baseball game all day

and that was just
a high fly ball.

The first one,
when you watch it,

just looks like a fly ball
right off the bat.

Shit.

Yeah.

It's hard to watch even now.

Yeah, that's the sad part
of seeing the guys like that.

Like I said, I didn't play
that game, but it was--

Uh.

Yeah.

Wish that was our celebration,
you know?

The way that
I imagine it would have felt

to make an amazing play on that
and win the game,

probably the same way he felt
by hitting that ball.

It was off to the warning track,
wasn't it?

I mean, you've got to give
a ton of credit to that kid

in that situation
to be able to put--

he put pretty good wood
on that ball too,

I mean, he--
something like he hit a little--

a little better
than I thought, you know?

It sounded
like a pretty good hit.

I listened
to the game

then immediately started

communicating
with other people.

They were in shock

because they felt
it was an error.

You didn't go
to the State Championship game,

correct?

What was the first thing
you heard about the game

after it was over?

I feel like
it was a different style ball

that was hit to me
in the first inning,

but it was the same feeling.
It kind of came up.

And then it kind of did, like,
three circles and I--

I mean I don't know I think it--
it two-hopped the fence.

It's a 400 park.

Yeah, I mean, that ball's almost
to the warning track.

I would have bet you $100

that ball never hit
the warning track when,

you know, until after
watching that video,

and that was darn near close
to the warning track.

The ball landed on the edge
of the warning track

and probably in 90,
95% of high school fields

it'd been a home run.

If we're playing at Pink Onyx
field, it's a home run.

He doesn't even get
his glove on.

I should've hit
that ball out.

Some people will tell the story
and they're like--

it makes it sound like
he was camped under it,

like, sitting there
waiting for the ball

and like hit, he just--
no, it wasn't that.

Like,
when he hit it, I was like,

"Piece of cake,
I'm gonna catch this ball."

And it-- and then
as the ball was going,

it wasn't like, you know,
I started stepping back,

start sitting back, like, "Oh,
no, this is go-- this is hit."

Just based on
even looking at that,

if I had played it perfectly,
then I'm-- I'm--

I think I would have gotten
to it, but I didn't.

I don't know
if it just carried, like,

it was one of those things
where it was, like,

carried or did he just hit it
way better than I thought?

You know,
after seeing it, you realize,

you know, what happened.

That, you know,
he hit a freaking bomb.

480, it should have been.

If I didn't dip
my back shoulder.

-They won.
-No!

I just remember
wanting to get out of there.

Like, I was like,

"I want to get out of here
as fast as I can."

I remember
grabbing my stuff,

because there was another game
right behind us

and getting with my parents,
getting in the car, leaving.

It was-- it was like
as soon as that happened,

you wanted to do nothing more
than just get out of there.

We didn't talk about it,
we didn't take pictures before,

we didn't take
pictures after.

You know, everybody just
went on their separate ways.

I know I went home
with my wife

and we stopped
at some bar restaurant

in, I think, Perry,
we stopped and--

and then,
um, we never talked,

I mean, never talked about it,
never said a word about it,

and-- and then
my wife drove me home,

I lived right in town here
and I had, uh,

a 30 pack of beverages
sitting on my porch

and I drank
every one of them.

I sat on my porch all day,
just stared at my feet

in just disbelief, I mean,

I can't tell
how many people drove by.

People,
for years, just said...

"Yeah,
we saw you sitting there and...

what you're going through."
Mm-hmm.

It was the first time
I really felt like...

we had lost
something big

and it was all my fault.

We-- I went
and sat in the dugout

and I was so upset.

They call you out
to give you medals.

I remember
not wanting to go out.

I think my dad peeked his head
around the dugout

and he was like,
"You get out there."

And it was good advice,
right?

Because it was, like,
I didn't want to sit there

and just be a baby about it.

The other guys
were hurting, too.

My dad's work ethic
is second to none.

So Sunday morning,
day after, I get up,

he said, "Well, you can't sit
here and sulk all day.

We need help with the store,
why don't you come help?"

And, uh, and I did.

I don't look at it
in a bad light ever.

I-- I really don't.

That's how good
of a season we had,

how good of a team we had.

I just get down
to the same conclusion of...

how close we were.

They were just as good
as we were.

Uh, I-- I believe that.

And we, you know,
we made-- we made,

you know, one more play
than they did

and came out on top.

Great team, great season,

but not all great teams
can-- can be champions.

And sometimes
you have bad luck,

you know, sometimes
you don't win them all

and, oh, boy,
when you make that run,

you know, it's just--
it validates all the things

that you tell those kids.

"If you do this, this,
this, and this, you know,

you can make a run
to the state title."

You know? And we did.

It gave me
a lot of perspective

as a 17-year-old
that I never would have had.

I felt that sort of,
like, even after that game

it was, like, you know,
"I need to do the things

that I enjoy and I love."
Like, I was talking about

how I played golf the next year
and I did track.

I really had a good time doing
those things and I loved it.

The things
that we commit ourselves to

should be those things.

If I had to choose to--
say like, "Hey,

would you rather be
in Sturgis' situation,

needing to get a hit
to win the game

or in Pinconning's situation,

needing to play defense
and get the last out?"

I'd pick our position
every single time.

And I want that ball hit
to Jeremy Foco every time.

"When the final season came,

the Sturgis baseball community
was a loyal group of family,

community, and anyone
who ever played the game.

The guys who came
before the championship team

knew they had set the scene.

Their leadership
laid the foundation.

These kids and their families
grew up together.

Fathers
and past players coached

and they were respected
and supported by the community."

Well, the craving
for that team, man.

Just, I mean,
that's the best part of sports,

that's part of coaching,
that you--

you hope the kids feel, like,
when my kids play,

I just hope they feel that--
that-- that just that joy.

It's tough to--
tough to-- tough to repeat,

tough to emulate,
but, boy, it's-- it's awesome.

If you're gonna stay on top,

if you're gonna be successful,
you have to stay after it.

These guys have sent everybody
in our program a message.

It was funny because
Saturday after the game

I went to a couple open houses
and I drove through town

and I saw kids out with their
mitts and went by Wall School,

kids were out there playing
and, uh, you know,

I think they had a little bit
more jump in their step,

a little bit more bounce to 'em

because of what these young men
had done Saturday.

And it made Sturgis proud
and the community proud.

All right, Bill Whitely,
we look forward

to seeing you next spring
back out on the diamond.

Thanks, Mike.

I'd rank it to the top.

Very top.

Sturgis
has their first

baseball State Championship

in an unbelievable fashion!

It's surreal, even just
to talk about it right now

I get emotional about it,
'cause that was me living

my non-existent baseball life
through baseball players.

You know,
arms went up over the head,

it was this-- the Sturgis Trojan
in me came out,

I was happy
to see my team win.

The heart's just going
100 miles an hour

knowing that your alma mater
just did something that

not many teams
ever get a chance to do.

Oh, yeah!

Yeah! All right!

Dang.
That's a good memory.

Um.

And I'll tell you what,

when that left
Nate Lung's bat,

that was the final
out of the ballgame.

I think everybody sensed it
in the stands,

we certainly did
upstairs here.

But it was not to be
for Pinconning

and it helped Sturgis win.

Andrew, go!
All right, you guys catch him.

Go by me, Andrew, go by me.

Go by me, guys.
Go, go, go, go! Go by me.

Oh, you all right?

You're all right.

Good to see you.
How're you doing?

-Good!
-You're well?

Shut it.
Grab it.

Ironically, every time
I go over to Chicago

and I go by that sign that says
"Sturgis, turn left..."

man, I'd like to burn
that town down.

I say it every time to myself,
you know, just kind of--

I ran into one of those players
a few years later,

uh, at a--
at a party at Western.

It was at my house,
he came to my house,

it was a house party
and I had to go upstairs

and put my ring on and--
and show-- show it to him

'cause I was--
'cause I might have been a jerk.

Uh.

But-- but yeah, we-- we talked--
we talked about it and,

you know, he--
he was cool about it

and I probably
wasn't so cool about it,

but, um,
super nice guy and, um,

probably
not my proudest moment, but--

You're gonna
take it off,

pop a ball in your mouth,
and then play.

Grab a cheese ball.
Grab a cheese ball.

Balls, grab a cheese ball.

Really crunch
on that cheese ball.

Grab a cheese ball, but don't
look at the cheese ball.

I knew all the umpires
in Bay County,

they all knew me,
I've been playing here forever,

so they let me have a long leash
on how much I could say,

but we hit four or five
home runs against Gladwin

and I'd just go start talking
to their catcher

every time they come out
and tell them,

"Your pitcher's gotta stop
throwing the ball right there,

every time you throw it in there
we're gonna put it

in the cornfield.
You guys gotta stop.

As long as you don't say
anything derogative,

you can never get
in trouble, right?

You can't call him specific
names, but you can

mention a person's name,
you can mention his mom's name,

you mention his girlfriend's
name, you can mention

somebody you know his girlfriend
hooked up with on him.

It's part of the fun
of being a catcher.

I think he was--
he was an old school coach,

so he stood up
for his players.

If there-- there's games

where one of
the Bay City teams,

first at bat, guy walked.

Kid unstrapped his gloves,
set them on the plate,

put the bat
right across the plate,

and came back to the inning
after that,

after the inning was over
and Rick said, you know,

"You gotta--

you gotta take care of that
next time he's up to bat.

It was just one of those--
you just don't show up

the other team
and you don't act like that.

So, you know,
we hit him the next time up

and it's old school baseball.

They didn't hit the batter.

They called time out
and told Adam

to go step off
the back of the rubber, turn,

and fire the ball
into his ribs.

-Where was he at?
-First base.

Like as he's diving
back into first base.

At the pick off move.
Yeah. Yeah.

If someone
tried to show you up

or if they, you know,
were stealing signs,

whatever it may be,
it's just,

you put one in the ribs.

What's with the sunglasses?

I think a lot of it is
so they can't tell

if I'm trying
to pick up signs.

You know, I wear
sunglasses all the time anyways,

but, uh, in baseball
when you're coaching third,

I'm always
trying to steal signs.

You know, whether it's from
the coach in the dugout

or from a catcher.

Um, we're--
we're always trying to--

trying to get an advantage.

We're not doing
the Houston Astral thing with,

uh, you know,
filming in the centerfield,

but we're doing it
the right way

and we're always trying to find
a way to--

to pick up signs
from other teams.

In life,
how would you rank this?

Oh, I'd rank it to the top.

Very top.

Um, meeting my wife,
that was the top.

But--

What do you remember
about Nate Lung

as a baseball player?

I-- I just, I mean, the things
that I remember about him,

he fell a lot, um,
seemed a little bit clumsy,

um, and...

swung as hard as he could
every time he swung the bat.

Um, and I believe
most of the time grunted

every time he hit the ball.

Um--

So, we're up there at Whitely's

and it's freaking
tornado weekend.

I don't know if you guys
experienced that

down here or not,

but it was like freaking
four hours,

nothing but the newsflash,
you know,

watching these different
triangles going,

I mean,
and-- and here's Sturgis

and here's Whitely.
And I says, "Yeah, boys,"

I says,
"You guys don't remember this,

but I was delivering papers
for the South Bend Tribune

when I was, like, ten years old.

And on the front page
there was one shot...

where the wind
was so violent

that it blew
a freaking chicken

right into
aing ketchup bottle.

ing Whitely and Clancey
were like,

"What the
are you talking about?

. You areing
soed."

I said, "Dude,
I wasing ten!"

And he said, "Get the
ing video

and we'll see
that son of a."

I said, "Dude," I said,

"They didn't have videos
back in 1965."

I says, "I will try
to find theing picture

on the South Bend
paper that--"

And then he says, "Oh, you're--"
and I says, "No!"

And, so that's what
he texted you,

I think he said
something about it.

-Yup, that's what it was.
-So you're telling me

the tornado drove a chicken
into a ketchup bottle?

Yep. That ain't no shit.