For love of the game

It all started with a strange sound and horseradish.
Fourteen years ago, Don and Marilyn Maloy moved back to Portland.
Marilyn was born in Portland and was forced to relocate a total of 10 times throughout her 39-year career at a telephone company.
Their 10th and final move brought Marilyn and her husband back to Portland after her company closed her office.
Don worked as a dispatcher and a tank man for Sheller Globe, an auto parts supplier in Union City. There he made chrome-plated grilles and mirror assemblies for vehicles.
The May following their March 1999 move, they started hearing a “ping” noise coming from their back yard. They didn’t think much of the sound until it became more and more frequent.
“We went looking around to see what the noise was,” the 73-year-old Marilyn said.
At the time, the Portland Rockets used metal bats, which the Maloys quickly learned was the source of the mysterious “ping” sound.
The sound led them to Runkle-Miller Field, and they’ve been there every summer since.
Runkle-Miller Field sits on land originally used as a go-kart track. The field opened in 1961 when 38 Portland merchants put $3,000 dollars into the field, and it saw its first game on Independence Day the same year.
The field, located off Blaine Park, sits behind the trailer park court on Sesame Street where the Maloys call home.
“The first game we went to I walked up to the concession stand and asked for a sausage,” said Don, who will turn 75 Saturday. “Then I asked for some horsey sauce, but they didn’t have any.”
To Don’s surprise, the concession stand attendant, Mickey Pensinger — daughter of the late Betty and Ray Miller and sister of current Rockets manager Randy Miller — made sure it was the last time Don’s request would go unfulfilled.
“The next ball game, she had horsey sauce,” he said.
Mickey’s gesture and their curiosity over the “ping” noise were what got the couple hooked on the Portland Rockets. But it was the game of baseball that kept them coming back year after year.
“We like baseball so much,” Don said.
Marilyn echoed his statement.
“We get just as excited about the Rockets as we would Cincinnati (Reds),” she said. “Baseball is baseball. We get excited about having them in the back yard. We enjoy good baseball.”
Despite the frequency of Rockets players coming and going from one season to the next, the Maloys have remained a staple of the Portland Rockets.
“They kind of adopted us and we adopted them,” Randy Miller said. “We check on them and they check on us. We are a safe haven for them.
“Each season a new group (of players) comes in, and they’re receptive. (The Maloys) are always there with their lawn chairs … they come visit with a cooler and a smile.”
Miller said the Maloys have become like family.
“They call you by name, make you feel welcome. They personify that close-knit, warm, fuzzy feeling thing called family.”
Rockets’ left-hander Tyler Reynolds concurs with Miller.
“Some of us don’t have family members that come to the game,” the Muncie native said. “They’re our extended family that gives us encouragement.”
The Indiana Tech southpaw and Muncie Southside High School graduate said he enjoys seeing them at every game, no matter rain or shine, and even during extreme heat.
Early on, the Maloy’s support expanded beyond Runkle-Miller Field and Portland.
“They traveled many times and shared hotels with us,” Miller said.
Don said he and his wife have attended games in South Bend, Michigan City, Cincinnati, Canton, Ohio, and even regionals in Louisville, Ky.
Miller said seeing the Maloys at away games gives his squad a pick-me-up.
“It gives the guys a sense of purpose knowing that they’re our people, that they’re playing for something,” he said. “We all have the same invested interest. Many times we have more fans on the road than the home team does.”
Reynolds added that the team gets a boost to play harder and focus more on the competition to win road games when they’re in attendance.
“Once in a while I’ll hear them say ‘just throw it in there,’” he said. “I try to block out everybody, but once in a while I can hear them.
“It gives me courage to know someone is behind me. Whether I do well or not they are still going to be there for us.”
The family-like bond between the Maloys and Rockets extends far outside the game of baseball too.
Three years ago Don was in the back yard cleaning the lawnmower when a deer tick bit him and left him partially paralyzed for seven months.
“Randy (Miller) would come to see Don in the Fort Wayne Hospital,” Marilyn said. “It meant a lot. He’s not just the coach of the Rockets, he’s a dear friend.”
Despite Don’s illness and his need for a walker to get around, they try to go to as many games as they can.
“Don had to go through rehab to learn to walk again,” she said. “But we still go to our baseball games.
“We can’t go to out of town games anymore. We try to go to Celina, but that’s as far as we can go.”
Reynolds and Miller are thankful for what the Maloys have done over the years.
“They’re great supporters, and I greatly appreciate them for everything they’ve done,” Reynolds said. “They come to all the games so they can support us.”
“They are a support group in themselves,” Miller said. “They give with their time, their heart and their pockets.
“The Maloys are what makes Portland special.”[[In-content Ad]]