Equipment manager honored for 50 years of serving Wheaton baseball teams

For more than 50 years, Ron Elenbaas has been the go-to guy for ordering uniforms, sorting through equipment and getting Wheaton's baseball and softball teams ready to play each season.

On Saturday, the 74-year-old will be honored for all his years of service, nearly three decades of which he has spent as the only equipment manager the park district has ever had.

Ballfield No. 17 at Atten Park, 1720 S. Wiesbrook Road, will be named after Elenbaas during a ceremony that starts at 10:30 a.m., rain or shine. A youth baseball game on the field will follow at 11 a.m.

"It's an awful lot of recognition for something one so thoroughly enjoys doing," Elenbaas said. "It's a very, very nice gesture."

In 1963, shortly after graduating from Wheaton College and starting his career at Illinois Bell, Elenbaas decided to join the Wheaton Baseball program with a co-worker.

He started as a coach, but a year later started managing equipment - a task he did out of his home until 1967, when the park district offered space in the basement of its administrative building.

It wasn't until the early 1980s, however, that the baseball program was taken over by the park district.

Elenbaas worked in what he called "the dungeon" until 1990, when the park district's new community center opened. The building included, Elenbaas said, "a nice, big, beautiful equipment room for me."

In the busiest seasons, when the park district ran between 180 and 190 teams, Elenbaas volunteered about 600 hours a year. Now, he estimates he dedicates between 450 and 500 hours to the program annually.

Elenbaas says his primary responsibility is to "make sure that each team has an equipment bag and that the stuff in it is in good shape."

That includes everything from batting helmets and catchers equipment to practice balls and chest protectors - all the things, he said, that "the team has to have to play the game."

He also puts together bat bags for each team and packages boxes filled with the players' uniforms - usually about 22 jerseys, 17 pairs of pants, and 12 pairs of socks and hats for the kids and coaches.

Elenbaas has kept a record of how much inventory he has gone through over the years, and estimates he has saved the park district tens of thousands of dollars.

For example, he has washed about 20,000 pairs of pants - some twice, after scrubbing them down by hand - so they can be used again. He has also restrung about 500 catchers mitts, reglued padding into hundreds of helmets and retaped several hundred bats.

"Quite frankly, over the last few years, I think it's good for me because it certainly keeps my mind going," he said. "It helps me mentally, it helps me physically."

Elenbaas said he has also stuck with it because of how much he has enjoyed working with great coaches, park district staff and volunteers over the years.

"It's not only what I have given to the program, but also what the program has given back to me," he said, adding that he plans to be the equipment manager as long as he is able. "It's been a great time."