komleague
KOM Flash Report for Week of June 18, 2017--Future slugger
The KOM League
Flash Report
for week of
June 18, 2017
The latest Flash Report is posted at: www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/34960728500/
***
It is now down to just a few names of fellows who played in the KOM league or signed contracts and never played in an official game, who I never located or determined their fate. Some leads look promising and turn out well. Others not so much. This edition features two men who fit the “well and not so well” categories.
***
The Iola Register (Iola, Kansas), Tuesday, May 29, 1951, Page 8. ... Bartlesville acquired the services of Oghi de Guisti (sp), 17, Putnam City (Oklahoma City) high. That blurb grabbed my attention when the initial efforts were made to locate former KOM leaguers. Over the years of research I never found where the aforementioned appeared in a game.
In the Iola Register article it mentioned the May 28th game between Carthage and Bartlesville where every Bartlesville player got at least one hit. Whether DeGiusti got into that game or not is a mystery to me since I have yet to find he entered any game. However, I’m convinced he was sitting on the bench in that contest. Many years ago Ronnie Kline, who made it to the big leagues, shared all his material from the 1950-51 seasons spent at Bartlesville. In one of those photos was DeGiusti.
A lot of time was spent looking through box scores for the slender teenager just out of high school but nothing was found. At one KOM league reunion, Brandy Davis, another member of that 1951 team, who also played big league ball, spent a lot of time going over names of guys with whom he played. He never heard of DiGiusti. That would fit the timeline for Davis started the season at Hutchinson, KS, in the Western Association, before reporting to Bartlesville in June. By the time Davis got there DiGiusti was gone.
There is a “thing” among baseball researchers that don’t give players any credit for being with a team unless they enter at least one game. Thus, I have never, knowingly, placed a fellow on the list of a team roster unless he made a game appearance, albeit brief, such as a pinch runner being picked off first base and then released the next day. Can anyone say Ernie Chastain of Iola in 1952?
Oghi DiGiusti’s name was in a scrapbook I received this week from the wife of a former Miami Eagles pitcher in 1951. It prompted me to recheck the name of a former Bartlesville Pirate and here is the result.
Oghi Antonio DeGiusti Sr.
Memorial service for Oghi Antonio DeGiusti Sr., 68, of Tuttle, Oklahoma, will be held at 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, January 16, 2001, at the St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Union City.
Oghi Antonio DeGiusti Sr. was born December 27, 1932, in a small town outside of Venice, Italy, and died Friday, January 12, 2001, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
At the age of 3, he came to America with his family, eventually settling in Oklahoma City. After graduating from Putnam City High School, he played for the Pittsburg Pirates. He then joined his father in establishing Southwest Terrazzo in Wheatland, Oklahoma. Under Oghi's expertise and master craftsmanship, the company flourished for 45 years until his retirement in 1997. His award-winning marble flooring is a testament to his hard work and dedication. His legacy can be enjoyed by future generations in numerous hospitals, schools, banks, museums, and other buildings across Oklahoma and other states.
He loved the outdoors, and when not working could be found hunting or fishing with his many life-long friends. He passed on his love of the great outdoors to his children and grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by: his parents; 1 son: David; 3 brothers.
Survivors include: wife: Barbara DeGiusti of the home; 1 son: Tony DeGiusti and wife, Pat; 3 daughters: Patricia Marlow and husband, Larry, Donna DeGiusti, Susan Orr and husband, Jimmy; 5 grandsons, 7 granddaughters, 1 great grandson. Also dear to Oghi were his brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law and numerous nieces and nephews.
Services are under the direction of Sevier Funeral Home.
Memorial contributions may be made to the charity of your choice.
Ed note:
There are a number of references to the DiGiusti family on the Internet and by doing some independent research you might find some items of interest.
Putnam City sure brought back some memories for me. When I entered college at Bethany, Oklahoma, in 1958, there was a large high school just a few blocks east on old Route 66. The school butted up to the village of Warr Acres and I could never figure out why it was called Putnam City High School. Anyway, at that time Putnam City was the largest consolidated high school in Oklahoma.
One Friday night I was invited by a young lady, who attended Putnam City High to a football game. The team they were playing was from metropolitan Oklahoma City known then as Northwest Classen. No offense to the young lady who sat next to me at that game, but the most lasting memory I have of that night, was of the halfback for the Classen eleven who ran over and around the Putnam City defense. Before I got out of the nearby Oklahoma college I was reading about the Classen halfback as he was running all over every defense that the Oklahoma Sooner’s played.
Soon I was hearing about this Classen running back being a high draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys and catching the eye of many young ladies. It soon became the stuff of soap operas. Since this is a family report I’ll leave it up to the readers to view the life and times of Lance Rentzel. www.google.com/search?rls=aso&client=gmail&q=Lanc... It turned out to be a sad life. However, I will say Lance Rentzel was the greatest football player I ever saw in a high school game. I must admit I didn’t see all that many over the years and most likely will never see another.
And yes, there is a link to Joey Hetherington in that global URL on Rentzel.
***
Will the real Paul Binkley—stand up?
In the many years of researching the KOM league the fate of a short term member of the 1947 Bartlesville, OK Pirates has never been determined. Tracking his current status or fate has not been conclusive. While on the disabled list, this week, I had plenty of time to access the Internet and ponder what I located. The following was the hottest lead so far.
www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=104699...
Birth: Sep. 28, 1921
Lancaster County
Pennsylvania, USA
Death: Aug. 27, 1998
Lancaster
Lancaster County
Pennsylvania, USA
Paul G. Binkley, 76, of 2680 River Road, Creswell, died Thursday evening at ManorCare Health Services after a brief illness.
Binkley was a carpenter and construction foreman for Wickersham Construction and Engineering Inc., Lancaster, for 39 years, retiring in 1987.
An avid hunter, he was a lifetime member of Pequea Valley Sportsman's Association, Willow Street, and Mountville Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8757.
He was a member of the Pequea Boat Club.
From 1956 to 1964, he coached Creswell and Conestoga Little League baseball teams.
An Army Air Forces veteran, he served in Europe during World War II.
Born in Manor Township, he was the son of the late Harry G. and Elizabeth Benedict Binkley.
He was married to Mildred M. Frey Binkley for 52 years on June 16.
Surviving in addition to his wife are a son, Dennis E., husband of Patti A. Binkley of Lancaster; a daughter, Brenda E., wife of Robert G. Newswanger of Washington Boro; four grandchildren; a great-grandson; two brothers, Donald, husband of Helen Binkley of Conestoga, and Gerald, husband of Loretta Binkley of Willow Street; and three sisters, Susan, wife of Albert Eshleman, and Bertha Murry, both of Millersville, and Erica Frost of Willow Street.
Intelligencer Journal [Lancaster, Pa] 29 Aug 1998: B-3.
The foregoing seemed like something that demanded further research. My first inclination was that the son of the deceased might know if his father was ever signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates. A call placed to that family was answered by a very nice lady who said she was the widow of the deceased. I asked if her husband ever signed a contract to play professional baseball and she answered in the negative. We had a very nice conversation and she seemed to be very in touch with the events over her 92 years as a resident of Pennsylvania.
Thus, based on that conversation, I can’t say I have determined the fate of another KOM leaguer. However, I’m holding on to this information for I have come across quite a number of family members, of former players, who didn’t know or don’t recall that a loved one had a very short encounter with professional baseball.
The epilogue:
In the initial comments of this report it was mentioned I found the reference to Oghi DiGiusti in a scrapbook sent by the wife of a former Miami, OK Eagle’s pitcher. She has spent countless hours in reproducing that document. Like her husband she has reached the “Three Score and Ten” a number of years ago. With her advancement in life she has maintained her mental faculties. She commented “I’ve shed a lot of tears during this work—can’t trust his memory at all anymore...It’s so sad to see him now, physically healthy but with few memories of the good old days…Wish I’d met you and Mrs. Hall many years ago.”
There are many items from ‘the good old days,” in this former player’s yearbook that I recall better than most things that have happened to me as late as yesterday. I saw him pitch both at Carthage, when the Miami team came to town, and when the Carthage team took me with them to Miami. There are box scores in that scrapbook of games I recall attending and photos of guys I vividly remember such as: Gaspar del Toro, Tommy Warren and Pedro Serpa.
It must be said that when work was first started to write about the KOM, I really didn’t recall very many names of guys on opposing teams. They were remembered because of a personal incident I had with them or that they were “characters.” The Miami trio of del Toro, Warren and Serpa were not only characters but guys with whom I had personal contact. I won’t go into many details here except for Serpa, for I have written about the other two, many times. He was a native of Havana, Cuba and the second he’d hop off the Miami bus, at the Carthage park, he’d find me and ask “Batboy know girls?” I always answered in the negative since I knew the Carthage players wouldn’t want me to share the names of “their girls.”
At that time in history I was probably not even 5 feet tall and weighed less than two duffle bags of baseball bats I had to lug around on road trips. I wasn’t awed by the physical stature of Serpa like I was of another KOM pitcher at the time, Ronnie Kline. When reading the scrapbook, from the wife of the former Miami pitcher, there was mention of the height of Serpa. He was 5’ 4”. That would put him in a tie with another guy who played for Miami a couple of years earlier, Tom Tarascio. The late, Tom Tarascio was a good friend and a big man, in every other aspect. Serpa and his buddies were featured in another Flash Report, back in 2011, that was appended to this photo. www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/18465479505/ Serpa, del Toro and Warren were also in this photo, in 2015, that was appended to this site: www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/17913806974/
There isn’t much more I’m going to share regarding the scrapbook from the lady who lives either on Oklahoma street in a Michigan city or a Michigan street in an Oklahoma city. I’ll let readers guess about that. However, in that scrapbook is a great photo of her and Dick Wakefield. www.google.com/search?q=Dick+Wakefield&oq=Dick+Wakefi...
Why the bonus baby of the Detroit Tigers, from the 1940’s, wound up in Lawton, OK, is a story I’ve told in a previous Flash Report. If you missed it, and would like to see one, send your request on the back of a $20 gold, silver or Federal Reserve Note and it will be sent your way, faster than a speeding something or another.
***
This Flash Report was prepared due to the fact that more hits were on the Flickr site this past week than usual. I’m not saying that more people went there than normal for that isn’t possible. It could be that only one person read the report and then went back a few hundred times in an attempt to understand it.
KOM Flash Report for Week of June 18, 2017--Future slugger
The KOM League
Flash Report
for week of
June 18, 2017
The latest Flash Report is posted at: www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/34960728500/
***
It is now down to just a few names of fellows who played in the KOM league or signed contracts and never played in an official game, who I never located or determined their fate. Some leads look promising and turn out well. Others not so much. This edition features two men who fit the “well and not so well” categories.
***
The Iola Register (Iola, Kansas), Tuesday, May 29, 1951, Page 8. ... Bartlesville acquired the services of Oghi de Guisti (sp), 17, Putnam City (Oklahoma City) high. That blurb grabbed my attention when the initial efforts were made to locate former KOM leaguers. Over the years of research I never found where the aforementioned appeared in a game.
In the Iola Register article it mentioned the May 28th game between Carthage and Bartlesville where every Bartlesville player got at least one hit. Whether DeGiusti got into that game or not is a mystery to me since I have yet to find he entered any game. However, I’m convinced he was sitting on the bench in that contest. Many years ago Ronnie Kline, who made it to the big leagues, shared all his material from the 1950-51 seasons spent at Bartlesville. In one of those photos was DeGiusti.
A lot of time was spent looking through box scores for the slender teenager just out of high school but nothing was found. At one KOM league reunion, Brandy Davis, another member of that 1951 team, who also played big league ball, spent a lot of time going over names of guys with whom he played. He never heard of DiGiusti. That would fit the timeline for Davis started the season at Hutchinson, KS, in the Western Association, before reporting to Bartlesville in June. By the time Davis got there DiGiusti was gone.
There is a “thing” among baseball researchers that don’t give players any credit for being with a team unless they enter at least one game. Thus, I have never, knowingly, placed a fellow on the list of a team roster unless he made a game appearance, albeit brief, such as a pinch runner being picked off first base and then released the next day. Can anyone say Ernie Chastain of Iola in 1952?
Oghi DiGiusti’s name was in a scrapbook I received this week from the wife of a former Miami Eagles pitcher in 1951. It prompted me to recheck the name of a former Bartlesville Pirate and here is the result.
Oghi Antonio DeGiusti Sr.
Memorial service for Oghi Antonio DeGiusti Sr., 68, of Tuttle, Oklahoma, will be held at 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, January 16, 2001, at the St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Union City.
Oghi Antonio DeGiusti Sr. was born December 27, 1932, in a small town outside of Venice, Italy, and died Friday, January 12, 2001, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
At the age of 3, he came to America with his family, eventually settling in Oklahoma City. After graduating from Putnam City High School, he played for the Pittsburg Pirates. He then joined his father in establishing Southwest Terrazzo in Wheatland, Oklahoma. Under Oghi's expertise and master craftsmanship, the company flourished for 45 years until his retirement in 1997. His award-winning marble flooring is a testament to his hard work and dedication. His legacy can be enjoyed by future generations in numerous hospitals, schools, banks, museums, and other buildings across Oklahoma and other states.
He loved the outdoors, and when not working could be found hunting or fishing with his many life-long friends. He passed on his love of the great outdoors to his children and grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by: his parents; 1 son: David; 3 brothers.
Survivors include: wife: Barbara DeGiusti of the home; 1 son: Tony DeGiusti and wife, Pat; 3 daughters: Patricia Marlow and husband, Larry, Donna DeGiusti, Susan Orr and husband, Jimmy; 5 grandsons, 7 granddaughters, 1 great grandson. Also dear to Oghi were his brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law and numerous nieces and nephews.
Services are under the direction of Sevier Funeral Home.
Memorial contributions may be made to the charity of your choice.
Ed note:
There are a number of references to the DiGiusti family on the Internet and by doing some independent research you might find some items of interest.
Putnam City sure brought back some memories for me. When I entered college at Bethany, Oklahoma, in 1958, there was a large high school just a few blocks east on old Route 66. The school butted up to the village of Warr Acres and I could never figure out why it was called Putnam City High School. Anyway, at that time Putnam City was the largest consolidated high school in Oklahoma.
One Friday night I was invited by a young lady, who attended Putnam City High to a football game. The team they were playing was from metropolitan Oklahoma City known then as Northwest Classen. No offense to the young lady who sat next to me at that game, but the most lasting memory I have of that night, was of the halfback for the Classen eleven who ran over and around the Putnam City defense. Before I got out of the nearby Oklahoma college I was reading about the Classen halfback as he was running all over every defense that the Oklahoma Sooner’s played.
Soon I was hearing about this Classen running back being a high draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys and catching the eye of many young ladies. It soon became the stuff of soap operas. Since this is a family report I’ll leave it up to the readers to view the life and times of Lance Rentzel. www.google.com/search?rls=aso&client=gmail&q=Lanc... It turned out to be a sad life. However, I will say Lance Rentzel was the greatest football player I ever saw in a high school game. I must admit I didn’t see all that many over the years and most likely will never see another.
And yes, there is a link to Joey Hetherington in that global URL on Rentzel.
***
Will the real Paul Binkley—stand up?
In the many years of researching the KOM league the fate of a short term member of the 1947 Bartlesville, OK Pirates has never been determined. Tracking his current status or fate has not been conclusive. While on the disabled list, this week, I had plenty of time to access the Internet and ponder what I located. The following was the hottest lead so far.
www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=104699...
Birth: Sep. 28, 1921
Lancaster County
Pennsylvania, USA
Death: Aug. 27, 1998
Lancaster
Lancaster County
Pennsylvania, USA
Paul G. Binkley, 76, of 2680 River Road, Creswell, died Thursday evening at ManorCare Health Services after a brief illness.
Binkley was a carpenter and construction foreman for Wickersham Construction and Engineering Inc., Lancaster, for 39 years, retiring in 1987.
An avid hunter, he was a lifetime member of Pequea Valley Sportsman's Association, Willow Street, and Mountville Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8757.
He was a member of the Pequea Boat Club.
From 1956 to 1964, he coached Creswell and Conestoga Little League baseball teams.
An Army Air Forces veteran, he served in Europe during World War II.
Born in Manor Township, he was the son of the late Harry G. and Elizabeth Benedict Binkley.
He was married to Mildred M. Frey Binkley for 52 years on June 16.
Surviving in addition to his wife are a son, Dennis E., husband of Patti A. Binkley of Lancaster; a daughter, Brenda E., wife of Robert G. Newswanger of Washington Boro; four grandchildren; a great-grandson; two brothers, Donald, husband of Helen Binkley of Conestoga, and Gerald, husband of Loretta Binkley of Willow Street; and three sisters, Susan, wife of Albert Eshleman, and Bertha Murry, both of Millersville, and Erica Frost of Willow Street.
Intelligencer Journal [Lancaster, Pa] 29 Aug 1998: B-3.
The foregoing seemed like something that demanded further research. My first inclination was that the son of the deceased might know if his father was ever signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates. A call placed to that family was answered by a very nice lady who said she was the widow of the deceased. I asked if her husband ever signed a contract to play professional baseball and she answered in the negative. We had a very nice conversation and she seemed to be very in touch with the events over her 92 years as a resident of Pennsylvania.
Thus, based on that conversation, I can’t say I have determined the fate of another KOM leaguer. However, I’m holding on to this information for I have come across quite a number of family members, of former players, who didn’t know or don’t recall that a loved one had a very short encounter with professional baseball.
The epilogue:
In the initial comments of this report it was mentioned I found the reference to Oghi DiGiusti in a scrapbook sent by the wife of a former Miami, OK Eagle’s pitcher. She has spent countless hours in reproducing that document. Like her husband she has reached the “Three Score and Ten” a number of years ago. With her advancement in life she has maintained her mental faculties. She commented “I’ve shed a lot of tears during this work—can’t trust his memory at all anymore...It’s so sad to see him now, physically healthy but with few memories of the good old days…Wish I’d met you and Mrs. Hall many years ago.”
There are many items from ‘the good old days,” in this former player’s yearbook that I recall better than most things that have happened to me as late as yesterday. I saw him pitch both at Carthage, when the Miami team came to town, and when the Carthage team took me with them to Miami. There are box scores in that scrapbook of games I recall attending and photos of guys I vividly remember such as: Gaspar del Toro, Tommy Warren and Pedro Serpa.
It must be said that when work was first started to write about the KOM, I really didn’t recall very many names of guys on opposing teams. They were remembered because of a personal incident I had with them or that they were “characters.” The Miami trio of del Toro, Warren and Serpa were not only characters but guys with whom I had personal contact. I won’t go into many details here except for Serpa, for I have written about the other two, many times. He was a native of Havana, Cuba and the second he’d hop off the Miami bus, at the Carthage park, he’d find me and ask “Batboy know girls?” I always answered in the negative since I knew the Carthage players wouldn’t want me to share the names of “their girls.”
At that time in history I was probably not even 5 feet tall and weighed less than two duffle bags of baseball bats I had to lug around on road trips. I wasn’t awed by the physical stature of Serpa like I was of another KOM pitcher at the time, Ronnie Kline. When reading the scrapbook, from the wife of the former Miami pitcher, there was mention of the height of Serpa. He was 5’ 4”. That would put him in a tie with another guy who played for Miami a couple of years earlier, Tom Tarascio. The late, Tom Tarascio was a good friend and a big man, in every other aspect. Serpa and his buddies were featured in another Flash Report, back in 2011, that was appended to this photo. www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/18465479505/ Serpa, del Toro and Warren were also in this photo, in 2015, that was appended to this site: www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/17913806974/
There isn’t much more I’m going to share regarding the scrapbook from the lady who lives either on Oklahoma street in a Michigan city or a Michigan street in an Oklahoma city. I’ll let readers guess about that. However, in that scrapbook is a great photo of her and Dick Wakefield. www.google.com/search?q=Dick+Wakefield&oq=Dick+Wakefi...
Why the bonus baby of the Detroit Tigers, from the 1940’s, wound up in Lawton, OK, is a story I’ve told in a previous Flash Report. If you missed it, and would like to see one, send your request on the back of a $20 gold, silver or Federal Reserve Note and it will be sent your way, faster than a speeding something or another.
***
This Flash Report was prepared due to the fact that more hits were on the Flickr site this past week than usual. I’m not saying that more people went there than normal for that isn’t possible. It could be that only one person read the report and then went back a few hundred times in an attempt to understand it.