Quest finds old curveballer (7/9/03)

You never know where a quest will take you or who you’ll meet.

Mine introduced me to Walter Dale.

Still trying to track down the scorebooks from a pair of historic 1907 baseball games between Dunkirk and the Cincinnati Reds, I found myself chatting with Walter in his comfortable home on Blaine Pike in Portland a few weeks back.

Even at 96, there’s the look of an athlete to him. His eyes are clear, and though he can’t throw a curveball anymore, it’s easy to imagine the ball spinning away from his fingers as he demonstrates his delivery.

For 16 years, Walter Dale played professional baseball. But don’t go looking for him in the record books. In all his years of playing, he never made more than $18 a week and all his games were with the patchwork of farm clubs which existed before the modern minor leagues.

I’d stopped by in hopes that he could lead me to the lost scorebooks, but he knew nothing about their whereabouts and sometimes was confused about overlapping memories from his baseball past.

He does remember Norman Younts, the Dunkirk man last known to own the 1907 Dunkirk-Reds scorebooks — in fact, he played ball with him.

“He most commonly played second base,” Walter said of Younts.

Born in the Shadyside neighborhood of Dunkirk in 1907, Walter Dale started playing professional baseball with farm clubs when he was 16. In those early years, his father would take him to play in games in Muncie by horse and buggy.

His career started in 1923 and ended in 1939, at the urging of his first wife, who thought he ought to settle down at age 32.

During the week, he’d work at Indiana Glass Company or, later, for the Penn Central Railroad. But on Saturdays and Sundays, he’d be on the ball diamond, playing as a pro.

For four of those years, he played on the Reds’ farm team in Muncie, then later played on Dunkirk’s team. The Muncie club, Walter recalled, played at a field which is now part of the Muncie Central High School grounds, just south of the White River on the west side of Walnut Street.

Dunkirk had two good ball fields in those days, he recalled. One was across the railroad tracks from what was then Hart Glass Manufacturing Co., now Saint-Gobain Glass Container, and the other near West Jay Junior High School on the north side of town.

On the mound, in those days, you’d likely find right-handed Walter or lefty Amos Byrd, another strong Dunkirk pitcher who was born about 1897.

“He (Byrd) could throw a ball like a goldurn bullet,” Walter said. “I used to put a lot of curve in mine.”

“They knew they weren’t going to get too much when I was pitching,” he said.

From his home, he can catch a glimpse of the Portland Rockets at Runkle Field now and then, and he still follows the game on television. But it’s clear that the best baseball games are those that still live in his memories.

“It was fun,” he said. “Us kids had more enjoyment in it than they do today.”

Standing up to walk me to the door, he added, “I’m gonna make it to 115. I’m 96 now and ’pert near 97. I’m no little kid any more.”

No little kid, but one tough old pitcher with plenty of innings left in him.[[In-content Ad]]