Bingo and baseball
Two constants in life of Legion state champion Hess

The memories of the 1967 American Legion Baseball state tournament are a little sketchy. Not only has a lot of time passed since Tim Hess was a member of the last Spokane team to win state at the highest level of summer baseball, but he has also seen a few games since then.
“There have been so many games,” Hess said. “My son played high school, college, summer ball. I’ve probably watched like 500 games.”
He does, however, remember the championship game, when he pitched a complete-game five-hitter as the Gonzaga Prep summer team, sponsored by the American Italian Club, beat Meadowdale 4-1.
According to stories from the time, Hess, who went 6-0 with a 1.44 earned run average, would have been a likely candidate to start the semifinal against Upper Valley but AIC manager Ernie Pupo elected to go with Brian Cripe, who was 1-0 in only 142/3 innings.
“I saw something,” he told a reporter, but didn’t explain what that was.
“I think the reason why is they were good fastball hitters and I threw a pretty good fastball,” Hess recalled. “Whoever we threw was a pretty good junkballer, a lot of off-speed stuff. We were surprised, too, but we knew after we won the semifinal we all thought we would win the championship.”
Though Hess was an all-city quarterback for the Bullpups and started at quarterback as a freshman at Whitworth, winning the championship that August day remains at the top of the highlight list.
“The state tournament was at the Spokane Indians ballpark,” he said. “We were glad to play in that big of a venue. Usually we played at Underhill Park. What I remember is playing at Spokane Indians park was like a high school football team playing at Washington State. That was big time.”
It was big time because Hess and his brother Bob fell asleep at night listening to Indians games on the radio and the exploits of future major leaguers seemed larger than life.
Legion baseball in Spokane differed from most Post teams across the country, which helps explain why the 1955 Rogers team is the only other state champ from Spokane.
“We were really going against all-star teams,” Hess said. “We were Prep, they were all-city teams. They would have two, three or four schools together.”
The baseball team knew it had a chance for a special season when it beat perennial power Lewiston twice.
Hess was more noted for his football exploits, which also provided fond memories.
“We were undefeated my senior year (because) we had a come-from-behind Shadle Park game,” he said. “Shadle Park was a better team, but we won.”
Hess went on to Whitworth, where he won the starting position for a team that went 2-8. Because of his age he was able to play a final, memorable, summer of Legion ball.
His sophomore year was the beginning of the end. After a couple of games he dislocated his shoulder and aggravated it playing pickup basketball. He had surgery and never started again.
“I tried being a linebacker but I wasn’t tough enough,” he said. “I tried being a running back but I wasn’t fast enough. I was the kicker. We only had a couple of victories but I kicked a pretty long field goal to win a homecoming game.”
Hess, 60, went to work for Nabisco after graduating with a business degree and then moved to Seattle with his wife Georgie, a Marycliff grad he married while at Whitworth, 40 years ago next May.
Hess got into the bingo business and baseball. Chris, an only child, started as a sophomore at Auburn High School before the family moved to Kansas City, Kan. Hess is an independent rep for small manufacturing companies that make bingo products.
His preference would be to have the same job in Washington but he really can’t complain.
“We’re still from the Northwest,” he said. “We’re proud of Spokane, we tell people about it all the time. But Kansas has good people, like Spokane.”
Chris became an all-state player and received a scholarship to play at Kansas State, where he became an Academic All-American. His dad’s only regret is that he can’t share the experience of a state legion championship since Chris’ team lost in the title game.