Taking A Swing At Picking All-Time Cda Slowpitch Team

They sprinkled the rosters of some of this softball-crazy town’s best teams over the years - The Falls, Lakers, Lighthouse, Action Athletic, C.A. Company, Fred’s Appliance.

One season, The Falls’ outfielder Jack Bloxom had one ball hit over his head that he didn’t catch.

Greg Hart, working swing shift at a sawmill, showed up at about 11 p.m. for a home-run contest, changed shoes and launched a pitch at McEuen Field seemingly halfway up Tubbs Hill. Batters had been swatting homers all day, but the contest was over as soon as Hart’s shot touched down.

The Falls’ Johnny Pixler owned the old short porch (about 235-240 feet) at Memorial Field so completely, some referred to it as “Pixler’s Delight.”

Loren Schmidt, Darren Taylor, Don Owen, Joe Benner, Marlin Harris and Hart were on a team that trailed 28-6 at a 1988 national tournament game before rallying to a 32-30 win.

Dave Chapman, who played for the Lakers and The Falls, lofted towering homers out of Memorial Field.

Lenny Baxley’s glove became the final resting place for fly balls and line drives that looked certain to drop for base hits.

Infielder Dick Schultz, who teamed with Billy Morton to form The Falls’ devastating double-play combination, and rifle-armed Dick Sharon were standouts with the glove and the bat.

Buck Wilhelm managed the best team in town for years - and recruited wisely to make sure that trend continued.

This was an admittedly risky project, putting together an all-time Coeur d’Alene slowpitch softball team. There are bound to be perceived omissions. And comparing players from 30 years ago to the present is virtually impossible with equipment modernization and the explosion of the game’s popularity leading to many classification levels.

In 10 years, perhaps even five, there certainly could be alterations as a new wave of players blossoms. In fact, younger stars Jeff Andrews and Mike Nyquist were close to making this team.

“Guys like Bret Nearing, Steve Richardson, Bobby King, Mike Nyquist, Jeff Andrews… all they need is time,” said voter Bob Legasa, referring to five members of present-day power Sports Cellar.

Many of the 20 voters, consisting of players, coaches and umpires, needed several days to organize their picks, recalling so many years and so many players.

The closest balloting was at second base and shortstop, where Owen and Taylor edged out Morton and Schultz, who once turned six double plays in a seven-inning game.

Like Morton and Schultz, Owen and Taylor have been turning lightning-quick double plays for years. Figure in their batting averages, which usually hover in the .600 to .700 range, and they’re tough to dislodge. Owen and Taylor have been cornerstones up the middle of teams that have dominated local slowpitch in the past decade.

Chapman was the prototype first baseman. A stout power hitter, Chapman played to win, as voter Dave Scates once learned.

“I had an extra-base hit and as I came around first he grabbed hold of my pants and said, ‘Where do you think you’re going?’,” Scates recalled. “I asked the ump if that was interference and he just looked at me and said, ‘What?”’

Schmidt, who missed the last two seasons to recoup from artificial shoulder joint surgery, still holds the Amateur Softball Association state tournament home-run record with 13 in the mid-80s. In his first game back this season, he homered on his second at-bat. His first swing resulted in a single.

“Just a top-notch individual,” voter D.V. Moyer said.

Harris, a current star who began playing in the early ‘70s, has power to all fields, plus a high batting average. You get an indication of how hard he hits the ball from this story, as told by voter Don Reid.

“He hit a one-hopper at a guy at second base in Master’s (League) and broke the guy’s arm,” Reid said.

Hart, whose nickname ‘Crush’ stemmed from the constant punishment he inflicted on a softball, is a premier clutch and power hitter. He began playing while he was in high school in the late 1960s, starred on the strong Lakers’ squads and remains active on a Masters’ team with Schmidt and Baxley.

“You couldn’t get him out on Sunday,” Reid said of Hart.

Benner, a lefty, has one of the purest hitting strokes around. Years ago, some locals at a Bozeman tournament began chuckling when the podgy Benner entered a home-run contest.

The laughter subsided when Benner jerked seven of 10 pitches out of the park.

“They didn’t know about him,” voter Jack Foster recalled. “He never seems to mishit a ball.”

Benner joins Owen, Taylor and Harris on Western Truck Brokers, one of the area’s top teams.

Wilhelm, who also received votes at pitcher, was player/coach for The Falls and later, Lighthouse, during a memorable run in the late ‘60s and ‘70s. The Falls captured three state titles and a regional crown, compiling a 303-47 record from 1967-71. Lighthouse also won a state crown.

“Because we won,” Wilhelm said, “we could recruit them (top players).”

Bloxom, the longtime baseball coach at North Idaho College, was adept at getting on base and setting the table for sluggers that followed. Bloxom’s glove allowed pitchers peace of mind because he chased down everything hit his way.

Pixler took advantage of Memorial’s short right-field fence with precise bat control. The shallow stretch of fence was only about 25 feet long before tapering to deeper measures.

Baxley made difficult defensive plays look easy and his cannon arm left many base runners flabbergasted - and out. “He’s the best fielder I’ve seen in town,” Schmidt said. “Smooth, unbelievable.”

Schmidt, Hart and Harris were unanimous selections, though sometimes at various positions. The extra player/designated hitter went to Schultz and Sharon because they had the highest vote totals behind the position players. Schultz still plays on a Masters club.

Sharon, who played in the Detroit Tigers organization, had big-time power and a big-time arm. His softball career wasn’t a lengthy one in the ‘70s, but his talent was irrepressible.

“He was the best shortstop I’ve seen,” voter Jim Headley said of Sharon, who operates a fly-fishing shop in Montana. “It took him a couple years to get used to slowpitch (after playing baseball), but when he came around…”

Slowpitch came to Coeur d’Alene in 1966, according to Arnold “Red” Halpern, ASA state commissioner. Back then, wood bats were the norm. Aluminum bats came along in the early 1970s.

“I was reluctant to use aluminum because what I was using was working pretty good,” Harris said. “Once I started using aluminum, there wasn’t much doubt.”

As with the equipment, the game has changed over the years.

“It’s different now,” Bloxom said. “There’s more speed now, more running.”

Ask if the current caliber of play is better than 25 years ago and you’re bound to initiate an argument. Years ago, roughly six to eight strong teams housed all the top players. These days, with so many leagues and classification levels, the talent is more widespread. Throw in homerun rules and other contemporary mandates and it’s even more difficult to compare.

“The top teams used to play 75 to 100 games,” Halpern said. “Teams would play seven out of eight weekends. It was a full-time job.”

During the ‘70s and ‘80s, the Lake City Invitational brought as many as 32 top-flight clubs to Coeur d’Alene, often packing the Memorial Field stands.

“There was a waiting list for teams wanting to get in,” Scates said. “Going back, you didn’t have an A, B, C, D (division). Everybody played in one league.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: All-team CdA slowpitch softball team All-time Coeur d’Alene area team (with comments by panel voters) 1B-Dave Chapman (“The home-run hero.”-Anthony) 2B-Darren Taylor (“Quickest hands I’ve ever seen turning the double play; plus he can hit.”-Foster) SS-Don Owen (“He could make plays when nobody else could.”-Moyer) 3B-Loren Schmidt (“You hated to see him at the plate when you were playing defense.”-Plum) P-Joe Benner (“If you did get a glove on his hits, it could drag you for a while.”- Schmidt) C-Greg Hart (“There is no better catcher.”-Reid) OF-Marlin Harris (“You looked for a foxhole when he was up.”-Scates) OF-Johnny Pixler (“Probably the best in Coeur d’Alene and the state at one time.”- Wilhelm) OF-Jack Bloxom (“Unbelievable defensively.”-Williams) OF-Lenny Baxley (“As long as it was in the field, he would catch it.”-Legasa) EP/DH-tie, Dick Schultz (“He just got it done,”-Bloxom) and Dick Sharon (“A cannon for an arm,”-Headley) Manager-Buck Wilhelm (“Great organizer, great recruiter, great on-field coach.”-Harris)

HONORABLE MENTION-Greg Abernethy, Jeff Andrews, Mike Atwood, Rick Belstad, Chris Clark, Dave Corbeil, Tillman Coffey, Gary Elliott, Gary Everson, Jack Foster, Wes Fuller, Dwight Greenfield, Bobby King, John Klingaman, Dean Lundblad, Kim Martin, Johnny Medlock, Billy Morton, Don Murrell, Jim McElver, Mike Nyquist, Johnny O’Neill, Steve Peterson, Don Preston, Floyd Roselund, Mike Schwartz, Pat Seale, Duane Schultz, Mark Simon, Jim Whiteman, Steve Williams, Jim Wilund, Eddie Yurick. VOTING PANEL-Steve Anthony, Jack Bloxom, Jack Foster, Arnold ‘Red’ Halpern, Marlin Harris, Jim Headley, Bob Legasa, Kim Martin, D.V. Moyer, Bret Nearing, John Owen, Jon Plum, Dick Raymond, Don Reid, Jerry Ryen, Dave Scates, Loren Schmidt, Darren Taylor, Buck Wilhelm, Rolly Williams.