Chemics celebrate 50 years of baseball tradition

by Brent Koaches

Icy hot, heat wraps, and sore joints were all on display Saturday as Chemic field played host to an alumni baseball game and family picnic in conjunction with Midland High School’s 50th anniversary celebration.

The event recognized three state championship teams including the 25th anniversary of the 1982 squad and pitted odd-year graduates against even-year ones in a six-inning scrimmage.

“This really is a great celebration for Midland Baseball,” said odd-year coach Frank Altimore, who coached Midland High to the 1973 and 1982 state championships and is now the girl’s golf coach at Dow High. “Midland baseball has won a state championship in every decade of its existence. There are few schools that have had the background and the tradition that Midland baseball has.”

Winning tradition

With mythical championships in the 50s and 60s and state championships in 1973, 1982, and 1998, Altimore is right in that Midland High has proven itself one of the premier programs in the state. He says that tradition has been founded on hard work and tough-nosed baseball, something former player Blair Patty knows a thing or two about.

Patty played for Altimore on the 1982 squad and says the team goal that year was to be the first team on the field and the last one off it. That season, the Chemics began practicing at 5 a.m. as soon as high school rules allowed it, and they even stayed on the field after they won the championship to take one last infield.

“It’s a great feeling to come back to where we had a lot of success,” Patty said. “We won the semi-final game here so you get excited coming back to the ballpark today knowing that we’re coming back to the place where we had some good things happen to us 25 years ago.”

Altimore also says the tradition has been kept up by really good fundamental ballplayers who play the game the right way, not necessarily superstars who just overwhelm everyone with talent. Still, the Chemic teams have seen a few prospects come through the ranks over the years, such as current Texas Ranger Kevin Mahar.

Mahar was part of Terry Wilczek’s 1998 state championship team and went on to play for Indiana University, later signing on with the Rangers’ organization.

Dan Jenkins, the assistant coach for Mahar’s high school career, spoke of his recent success in the Major Leagues and what a triumph it has been for the Mahar family.

“I’m so happy for him and his family, they’ve worked so hard together to help his career,” he said. “He was one of the best high school hitters I’ve ever seen, and it’s so exciting to see it finally happen for him.”

Even without Mahar at the game, there was still plenty of young talent present. Pitchers Kurtis Frymier and Brett Benner, both 2006 graduates, enjoyed the game from the dugout for the first two innings before joining in on the action. Benner, a freshman at Northwood, and Frymier, a freshman at Daytona Beach Community College, both saw action on the mound with Frymier blowing away the competition with his patented fastball. And behind the plate catching that fastball? None other than Patty, 24 years his senior.

“Actually it’s not too bad,” Patty said of catching Frymier. “I caught fast pitch until about 2001 but it’s really different when you get someone like Kurtis who can throw ninety miles an hour. But it’s fun, it’s a good challenge and I didn’t get hurt. That was the good thing.”

A family affair

Another thing Altimore hangs his hat on is the family tradition inherent in Midland baseball, something evident on the field during Saturday’s celebration. Many of the players on the field had family members grow up to play for Midland High with Jack Starling being no exception.

Starling graduated from Midland in 1989 and now works as a salesman in Ann Arbor. Saturday’s scrimmage gave him a chance to take the field with his younger brother Matt, who now coaches the Chemics’ JV baseball team.

“I was little lost out there, I haven’t led off of first base in eighteen years,” Starling said during the game. “It feels nice to get the cleats back on, though.”

It also felt good for Rod Ballard. Ballard played on the 1973 team and enjoyed the chance to play with his son Brett, a 2003 Midland High graduate. Brett was a pitcher but played some third base during the alumni game, making a great play on a slow ground ball and gunning the runner out at first. And like most family do, Rod was quick to give Brett a good rib.

“He just made that play down at third, and I didn’t even know he could field a ball,” Rod said.

Not to be outdone, Brett quickly gave it right back.

“It’s just a lot of fun seeing him out there struggling to hit the ball,” he said.

The teasing wasn’t just limited to family members, though, as many of the players gave each other a hard time for displaying deteriorating skills. Perhaps at no point was that as evident as when the players batted against Frymier, and the bench would celebrate if a batter simply made some kind of contact.

Still, there were a number of diving catches and big hits on the afternoon, capped off by a sixth-inning homer off the bat of Chris Corbat that gave the even-year team an 8-1 win.

But in the end, the final score didn’t matter for a group of guys separated by decades but bound by tradition.

“It was tough to get everyone together, but it was nice to reunite three state championship teams on one field,” said current Midland coach Eric Albright. “It was really a great day to celebrate Chemic baseball.”

Jason Wolverton contributed to this story.