I'm a sucker for any article titled "Where Are They Now?"
I have a gnawing curiosity about what the fates have dealt people who popped into my consciousness way back when.
So, recently, when my thoughts were on the 1958 Centralia Legion baseball team that might have made it into the national championship if it hadn't been for a bad call by an umpire, I chatted with one of its leaders, Bill Lohr, one of my former students.
What follows is what Bill remembers about that team that won the state championship, and engaged in two battles in the regional tourney with the equally powerful Billings, Mont., club, led by Dave McNally, future Baltimore Oriole star.
The sad news first: Those lightfoot lads of '58 are now grandfathers, no longer able to hit the curve, or to rifle the ball from center field to catcher. In fact, alas, three of them, plus the manager, Jim Robinson, have died. They are:
Paul Conzatti: outfielder and backup catcher, who after baseball was an electrician.
Alan Allie: speedy center fielder turned coach.
Joe Suter: shortstop from Morton, where he was a three-sports star. His death brings to my mind A.E. Housman's poem "To an Athlete Dying Young." Only a few years after he hit that line drive that led to the bad call resulting in the loss in the final Billings game, he died in a logging accident. Those woods from which he came to the '58 team also ended his 19 years of life.
(Also dead, at the age of 60, is Billings' McNally. Despite his thrice being a major league all-star, he is probably best remembered as the center of an arbitration case that led to the free-agent era.)
As to be expected, some became coaches and teachers:
Allie was that at Pe Ell High School.
Ron Seimers, left fielder, is retired from Pasco High School.
Ken Anderson, pitcher from Rochester, returned to his home town as superintendent of schools.
In other occupations:
Ray Butler, third baseman almost sure to put down at least one drag bunt per game, became an electrician in the Olympia area.
Dennis Rohr, who didn't seem quick enough at second base but always was where he should be, became an electrical engineer and is now a consultant, living on Fox Island.
Chatty catcher Pat Bates entered real estate in Salt Lake City.
Just as his team excelled, so did Doug Lohr, outfielder, in his career. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in the Army, having been commander of an Alaska post.
Three achieved the dream of any youth baseballer: playing professionally.Â
Bruce Jacobson, No. 2 pitcher, was in the Yankee organization, reaching Class A before returning to Centralia and working in delivery services.
Dave Dowling, No. 1 pitcher, made it to the majors, pitching with St. Louis and the Chicago Cubs for a short time, before becoming a dentist in Longview.
Bill Lohr, the home-run-hitting lefty first baseman, has spent almost his entire life in baseball, and it isn't over yet. After a few years playing pro ball, ending with the Reno club, he began scouting in 1978, first for the Orioles, then the Cardinals, and now the Twins.
His three sons — Mickey, Billy and Mark — came through that same Centralia youth baseball program.
Currently, Lohr, the scout, has his eye on a potentially great slugger. He's been tossing Wiffle Balls to his 4-year-old grandson, Kolby, and reports he has a Mickey Mantle swing.
Sign him, Bill, as soon as he can write.
But first, the Centralia youth program.
Gordon Aadland, Centralia, is a longtime Centralia College faculty member and publicist.
