THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2008
State Baseball Champs Reunite After 50 Years
Off The Record | By TODD WESSELL
They're all around 67-years-old now, less fleet of foot, the sharpness of their eyesight having evaporated into the abyss of time long ago.
Running out a base hit is much more difficult. So is the ability to catch a fly ball much less, see it coming.
The fond memories, however, remain as strong as ever. And so are the friendships that were kindled 50-years ago on the baseball diamond at Maine Township High School which today is called Maine East.
Twenty-three members of the back-to-back Maine Township High School state championship baseball teams of 1958 and '59 will be among nearly 60 invited guests at a 50th reunion party tomorrow (Thursday) night at the Park Ridge Country Club.
Among the guests of honor will be Al Carstens, the man who guided the team to state titles both those years as well as Vic Giovanini, Carstens' assistant coach in 1958. Gaston Freeman, the team's assistant coach in 1959 will not be in attendance. He passed away earlier this year.
Carstens also coached the Maine West High School baseball team when it won the state title in 1963.
Rich Peterson, a Park Ridge resident and one of three star pitchers on the 1958 team, is organizing the event. He's retired now having served for many years as president and CEO of Scott Forsman Co. in Glenview, which publishes college textbooks. Giovanini and Carstens retired several years ago as coaches and teachers at Maine West. Giovanini is 78-years-old and Carstens is 84.
"Don't ask us to throw or hit anything," said Peterson during a telephone conversation with this reporter Monday.
"We had a great team with three All State pitchers," said Giovanini: Rich Peterson, Jim Humay and Bob Gruber.
"The hitting was just great and in 1958 there was only one guy who hit under .300 during the championship tournament."
The 1958 tourney went four games with Maine winning all contests including the championship title tilt against Niles East High School, 2 to 1. Games were played at Bradley University in Peoria.
According to Peterson, both the 1958 and 1959 teams chalked up 22-3 records. The school was nicknamed "Mother Maine" before the opening of Maine West in the fall of 1959 and Maine South in 1965.
Following the state title victories in 1958 and a year later, police and fire vehicles escorted the squads in parades through Des Plaines and Park Ridge. Crowds in both towns lined the streets where the parades were held to cheer on the victors.
"We had a big banquet. It was a fun time," said Giovanini. "The kids were great. They've all grown to become very successful people. It was a good team to coach and we had a lot of fun and people were relaxed."
Giovanini marveled at the way Carstens was able to not only handle the team but the local press anxious to get the story.
"Al knew exactly what the kids were going to do," said Giovanini.
"I was just out of college for two years and he said this kid was going to do this and that one that, and that's the way it happened. I said to myself 'who is this guy, God.' "
The seasons of 1958 and '59 are the only back-to-back baseball championships by one high school team in the history of Illinois. A year earlier in 1957, Giovanini said Maine had just as good chance of going on to win the crown, but a home run that barely made it over the fence resulted in a 2 to 1 loss.
Single incidences like that are hard to forget.
Tomorrow night, the boys of Maine Township High School will have plenty of time to remember and reminisce about a time when Park Ridge and Des Plaines were baseball title towns and happy thoughts centered on their field of dreams.