What started out as a couple of beers between friends better than twenty-five years ago has become a celebrated spring tradition. John Curtis and Dave Bates have been friends for a long time. Some might say too long based on the antics the pair has gotten into over the years.
Curtis was Bates’ high school baseball coach at Jefferson-Morgan in the early 1980s, so it was a natural progression to celebrate their shared love of the game when the duo became competitors in the years ahead.
In 1997, at Ralph Bell’s Christmas Farm in Jefferson, Bates and Curtis met up while transacting Christmas tree sales. The two exchanged swag from their respective baseball positions. Curtis was already in his seventeenth year as the skipper of the J-M Rockets, and Bates was entering his fourth year as head coach at Lakeview High School in Stoneboro, PA.
“We made plans to bring my Lakeview boys down to Greene County later that spring,” according to Bates. John Coss at West Greene had brought his club to Mercer County the spring before, and we really enjoyed the camaraderie. The spring of 98’ would be a chance for the Sailors, Rockets and Pioneers to play some early season ball at Jefferson-Morgan’s field and enjoy one another’s friendship.
Prior to the “Lakeview southern trip,” Bates and Curtis got together in advance of the series and departed for Waynesburg on a Friday night good will baseball tour. “By today’s standards, they’d call it “bar hopping,” quipped Curtis. “We’d make a stop, run into a few baseball pals, talk ball and then it was time to move on to the next base.”
“In those days, it was probably P.A. Taylor’s Third Base Lounge in Stoney Point,” Bates added with a smile. “We started in Bucktown and work our way home towards the river,” said Curtis. “Along the way, we’d schedule to meet up with as many like-minded baseball guys as we could arrange.”
We’d visit them on their turf. By the time we made it back to Rices Landing, we had fixed a bunch of the world’s problems, baseball and otherwise,” said Bates. In later years, stops along the way would include the Triangle, Rohanna’s, Serb’s Red Star Inn, Carl’s Lounge, Strykers, Third Base Lounge, Caputo’s, Jefferson Hotel, Rices Landing Athletic Club, The Riviera and several American Legion Posts.
Curtis had worked at Greene County Parks and Recreation for several years under the direction of Alan Hughes in the late 1970’s and early 80’s. John was instrumental in organizing the original Greene County Baseball Camps along with Frank Pryor and Larry Piper. Bates and Curtis would revive those camps once more in the early 2000s during the heyday of Mikes’ baseball.
Bates was hired as the Carmichaels head coach for the 2000 season, by which time the gathering was already steeped in baseball tradition. “It was an assembly of baseball guys celebrating our love for the game,” said Curtis. “It was sort of our “kick-off celebration.”
“We’d don our colors and head westward to Waynesburg,” Curtis joked. We were proud of our respective programs and what we had accomplished. We so wanted to share that spirit of good will with the other guys,” noted Bates. “It was an extension of the baseball clinic environment that we enjoyed so much each winter. Learning, sharing, improving…. ‘The Tour’ just gave it a more Greene County flavor.” What started off as a slow burn added additional baseball fire from around the county with the passing of each season. Chris Haines, Bill Simms, Lou Giachetti, and Lenny Lohr all became regulars.
“We knew we had to hire a designated driver to handle transportation.” Driver education instructor, Alan Rafail, was designated for that assignment and handled those duties nicely. “He was our rock,” said Curtis admiringly.
Other notables and local celebrities intermittently filled out the roster (which was an actual line-up card). They were announced on an ancient Mr. Microphone system.
PA Representative Pam Snyder even threw out the ceremonial “first pitch” at Caputo’s. Former players started to plan their homecoming trips around “Tour” weekend so they could attend the festivities. Even members of the dark side, the evil empire of umpires, made their way into the yearly celebration including umpire Bill Schottenheimer and veteran college umpiring great, Joe Volpe.
The night began with the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner. No venue has ever elicited a truer baseball vibe than Caputo’s on the first leg of the Tour. During the night, participants took turns reading from the famous baseball poetry anthology, What I Love About the Game of Baseball.
The jukebox would shut down, the crowd would go quiet, and whoever’s turn it was to recite would select five or ten of their favorite facets of the game to thunderous audience applause. Then, the jukebox would be turned up, and another round would be ordered. By the time the Tour turned 10, a full-sized school bus was required to transport the congregation. It could take close an hour for Milo “Serb” Krewaski to accommodate all of his Red Star patrons as they stepped off the bus. However, glasses would eventually be filled, and then it was onto the next leg of the Tour.
Curtis even ordered t-shirts to commemorate the 20th anniversary tour. One year, his son, Tommy, flew in from Florida with a group of southern baseball enthusiasts.
No matter the form the Tour took over the years, the one facet that never changed was the group’s passion for and deep love of the game and the camaraderie it facilitated. May that passion for the game live on in the next generation of coaches and players. Here’s to the Tour!
