Play Ball!

Because this blog is a gift to Carter, I want him to know the little piece of history he inherited. My hope is that Carter finds something he's this passionate about, something he loves. I don't care if it's baseball or swimming or surfing or anything else (as long as it's legal!).

For as long as I can remember, my Dad has always been associated with baseball. My granddad lived for a baseball game and I think my Dad probably learned to walk on a ball field. When he was young, he broke his leg and wore out the first cast by continuing to play ball. He was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles out of High School, but chose to play for NC State (Wolfpack) on a scholarship instead. He was known as "Zag" and #22. I had a shirt made for Carter that has a 22 on the back and says "GO PACK." If my Granddad was still alive, I know he'd have Carter in his lap in his chair watching baseball games and would have already bought him a glove, bat, and ball.

Not long ago, my Dad received a package in the mail. It was a poster-size display of his college baseball photo with a paragraph underneath. NC State had a Baseball exhibition, during which they showcased only a chosen few of the players from the last 100 years of NC State Baseball and my Dad was one of them! This is what they had to say:

"Zagorski led the Pack in RBIs and doubles and tied for homers during the 1974 season. In 1973 and 1974 he was voted to the First Team All-ACC. According to the 1975 program, he usually batted in the cleanup spot because of his explosive power and mental toughness. "

Last week, the local newspaper published a story about my Dad's Little League team. The text follows:

During the 1960s in Havelock, young boys spent their summers playing baseball.
"There was a game on every corner," said Donny Koontz. "It was what you did."
Koontz recalls games with taped balls and broken bats. After all, not every child could afford new equipment for sandlot baseball.
The Havelock Little League offered kids a chance to play organized baseball with bats that weren’t nailed together from being broken one too many times.
And for one magical season in 1966, these players felt what it was like to win a championship.
A group of 11- and 12-year-olds from Havelock electrified the city by winning the 1966 state Little League championship.
"It was exciting," said Koontz, a member of the team. "It was the first state title won by a team in Havelock."
And, Koontz said Havelock celebrated the championship in style.
"Dick Parker Ford supplied about five or six convertibles and they carried us everywhere through town," Koontz said. "They had state championship signs on the cars. The town was very excited."
Koontz said the team’s drive toward a state title began the previous year in 1965, when Havelock lost 9-0 in the championship game.
He said many of the players on that team returned on the 1966 all-star team.
"Most of us had played the year before, so we knew what tournament baseball was," he said.
During the 1960s, baseball tournaments were single elimination, and Koontz recalls a couple of close games on the way to the state title game, including a 2-1 triumph over Newport.
Havelock advanced to play an all-star team from Charlotte in the championship game, which was held in Morehead City.
"Everyone from Havelock was there," Koontz said. "I’d never seen that many people at a Little League field."
Don Zagorski, a member of the team who eventually became an all-Atlantic Coast Conference player at N.C. State, said the big-city Charlotte players looked down upon the small-town kids from Havelock.
"They were laughing at us, all of us being so little wearing these wool uniforms that looked like they were handed down from World War II," said Zagorski, who now lives in New Bern. "Of course in Charlotte, they had big money."
Koontz said Havelock’s coach, Jimmy Hodges, wouldn’t let the players be intimidated.
"He told us not to look up at them and not to talk to them, that we came to play ball and we would do our talking on the field," Koontz said.
Zagorski hit a home run in the game — though he admits he doesn’t remember it now — and Koontz pitched a shutout as Havelock earned a 2-0 victory.
"The whole team ran out on the field," Koontz said. "It was a big celebration."
Zagorski said the players felt they had made up for the loss the year before.
"For us to win, it was redemption," he said. "It was a good feeling."
Havelock advanced to the regional tournament, where another victory would have meant a trip to the Williamsport, Pa., for the Little League World Series.
Havelock opened with a 3-0 lead on a team from Cookville, Tenn., only to be eliminated in a 7-3 loss.
"You don’t think about it at the time, but I think about how blessed and how fortunate we were to go through that," Koontz said. "We played for the state title two years in a row and won it one time."
He said what made the team so good was that each player contributed big plays throughout the process.
"There were some very talented players," said Koontz, who later played collegiately at then Atlantic Christian College. "It was a great bunch of guys to play with."
Koontz and Zagorski admit that they don’t think about the championship often, or even talk about it when they get together. But, both say they have fond memories of growing up in Havelock, playing baseball and winning a state title.
"It was a thrill. It was a wonderful time," Koontz said.
"As I grow older, the fact that we won a state title gets bigger and bigger for me," Zagorski said. "It was great for our little town."