Baseball enthusiast, historian wants honors for old-time pitcher

As a longtime baseball player and fan of the game, local historian John Russell Ghrist became quite intrigued with late 1920s- and 1930s-era baseball players Walter "Lefty" Wiese and Frank "Lefty" Schrieber when writing his "Junction 20 - The Story of Udina" and "Plato Center Memories" more than a decade ago. Ghrist's high regard for the pair eventually led his nomination of the two for the Elgin Sports Hall of Fame. While Schrieber has since achieved that honor, Wiese - who also became well-known as the owner of a liquor establishment - is still unrecognized, something Ghrist hopes to change.

The 1920s and 1930s, when Schrieber and Weise were at their peak, was a very exciting time in baseball nationally, says Ghrist whose own involvement has spanned parks department and church leagues as a youth to his current participation in an over-50 baseball league. Home run king Babe Ruth and "Iron Horse" Lou Gehrig were packing Yankee Stadium. Radio allowed fans to hear their favorite game like never before, and newspaper sports pages blossomed with coverage of the game.

In the Elgin area just about everybody got into the game, newspapers show. This included girls softball teams, students from elementary schools, the YMCA, business and fraternal organizations, and of course, Elgin's largest employer - the Elgin National Watch Company.

Drawing particular attention were dozens of men's semipro teams. These included the Hanover Dodgers and the Elgin Trades Council teams of which Schrieber was a member, and the Parksides and the Platos which Wiese played on. For a time, both Wiese and Schrieber played together on the Platos.

Contests were held at a variety of locations including Elgin's Lords Park and Trout Park and Udina and Plato Center, west of Elgin. Lineups appeared in the Sunday papers with results in the Monday sports pages.

Information submitted by Ghrist to the Elgin Sports Hall of Fame Committee shows "Lefty" Wiese's career spanned from 1924 to 1935. While playing for the Elgin Parkside's in 1931, he ended the season with 17 wins and 4 losses. The following season Wiese batted 0.381 and won 11 out of 23 games, nomination papers shows.

Of dozens of games researched by Ghrist, records shows Wiese struck out 7 batters during one game in 1932. Another time he fanned 9 opposing players. "He was as good a hitter as a pitcher," said his daughter Geri Hagemann, commenting about her father's lifetime batting average of 0.354.

Wiese ended his baseball career in the mid-1930s, opting instead to open an Orange Kist soda pop business, said Hagemann. "It was on South Grove Avenue near the current Grand Victoria Casino. We bottled the pop and put on the labels," his daughter adds. "There were a lot of such small businesses at the time."

From this it was on to a beer distributing company, and in 1949 Wiese took over ownership of the Boulevard Tap - a building previously operated as a barbecue stand by Wesley and Minnie Smiley. In 1960, he demolished the small structure, located at the corner of McLean and Lillian, and replaced it with the current building - ­a site that houses JBs today, says Hagemann.

But, the memories of "Leftys" glory days as a pitcher still live on, she adds. "People would come in the Boulevard Tap and talk of my father's ability as a major league player."

"He had offers to join the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates," notes Ghrist. "Throughout his life Wiese would also become quite a bowler and golfer," adds Hagemann.

Schrieber made it into the Elgin Sports Hall of Fame several years ago, an election buoyed in part by a scrapbook kept by his wife, Laura. Wiese's records are more incomplete say Elgin Sports Hall of Fame officials who would like more documentation before placing him on the ballot.

"I've added to Ghrist's data by researching a number of Wiese's games myself" said the group president Ron Lange. "I also found a difference, although slight, in his lifetime batting average. I also looked up the results of many of the weekend games in the Monday newspapers, but sometimes the box scores didn't appear until later in the week, and we still need those," he added.

"I remember my father telling me that 'Lefty' Wiese and 'Lefty' Schrieber were two players he thought should have made it into the majors," said Elgin City Councilman David Kaptain, whose father Johnny Kaptain was once a catcher on the same team with the duo. While the distinction of becoming a major league player is past, induction into the Elgin Sports Hall of Fame isn't.

But, for now, that honor - should it occur - will have to wait.