Simmons Field has served as the home of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League’s Lima Locos since 2008.
LIMA — Of course, every season has its traditions with one during the summer being Father’s Day this Sunday.
While there will be those who point out that the official calendar version of summer won’t begin until June 21, for most , Memorial Day begins the summer. Among the season’s many traditions that involve things like cannonball pool splashes, tall, cool glasses of lemonade and waiting until those Kingsfords show a glowing embers beneath white ash is baseball, a sport that has bonded so many for generations, parent to child, sibling to sibling, spouse to spouse and friend to friend.
While Ohio’s major league teams require more than two-hour journeys, with roundtrips to Cincinnati to watch the Reds at around 250 miles and to Cleveland to watch the Guardians at 350, there’s one far shorter trip that those who love America’s most time-honored sport can take several times by heading to Simmons Field to watch the Locos, Lima’s boys of summer, and gaze appreciatively at those pink shafts of light in the sky at dusk that are often seen above the outfield fence before the light towers take over.
When it comes to top-tier amateur baseball, the Locos take a back seat to few teams. They are members of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League, one of the most respected wood-bat leagues in the country, a league where balls struck on the sweet spot won’t emanate a ping but rather that unmistakable crack made possible when a baseball is impacted by the ash, yellow birch or maple surfaces of the bats that Loco general manager Tim Clark ordered as one of the many preparatory tasks incumbent upon a man in his position.
The league’s inaugural season was 1987, making this an anniversary year of sorts. For this the 35th summer, the league features 13 teams divided into a North and South Division, with the Locos being the southernmost of the North Division teams, a fact, Clark points out, that may have contributed to an inordinately long season-opening home stand of nine games that began when the Michigan Monarchs came to Lima last weekend for a three-game set.
Looking for silver linings, Clark says, “As a nonprofit, we always have to keep an eye on our finances, and the long home stand certainly cuts down on travel expenses this year with RTA transportation, food and lodging.”
Clark has been a volunteer fixture in the Loco organization for the past decade and a half, serving in a variety of capacities and, along with his wife, Shelly, have frequently filled the role of summer innkeepers, often rooming and boarding players. Although part of Clark’s life resume is his noteworthy career in law enforcement before his retirement in 2016, the sport of baseball also must be included in his biography. The former assistant baseball coach at Lima Central Catholic is indeed a baseball lifer.
Among the clubs that will compete for this summer’s traveling trophy and bat painted in the team colors acknowledging a league championship, there is no current team in the league more successful or more venerable than the Locos. During the past 35 summers, Lima has earned six league crowns and last year fell just short of its seventh, losing in the championship game to the Hamilton Joes, 3-1 at Simmons. The team also is the league’s only charter team, playing during the first year as the Lima Blues with a transplanted Brooklynite, the late Loco-loving Marty Glazier, serving as the team’s publicist and Lima News sports writer Tom Usher just beginning a role he continues to fill as the team’s beat writer. The team’s catcher was Eric Wedge, the future major leaguer and later manager of the Cleveland Indians and Seattle Mariners. When the late Barry Ruben and Tom Francis took the team over in 1988, the name was changed to the Locos as an homage to the city’s strong ties to the railroad industry.
As part of the 35th anniversary, Clark and others in the Loco front office have done some research, and the numbers tell quite a Loco story.
During the past 35 years, more than a thousand players have come to Lima to spend their summers and play in the dirt, first at OSU-Lima and then at Shawnee before settling at Simmons Field in 2008, and well over 200 of them have gone on to play professionally, including several who’ve made it to what Kevin Costner’s character in the 1988 movie Bull Durham, Crash Davis, called “The Show.”
Currently, former Locos on major league rosters include four pitchers, the Reds’ Art Warren, Dodger Mitch White, Padre Craig Stammen and Cardinal James Naile and Mariner outfielder Kyle Lewis, who longtime Loco fan Harry Johnson considers the best player in Locos history.
Clark points to the historically strong Loco coaching and the excellent competition the league has provided as major factors in so many Locos blessed to have played for pay.
“We’ve had several of those players who’ve spoken so positively about their Lima experience, calling it kind of a launching pad for what they were able to achieve. We’ve always been able to attract kids from schools with really strong baseball programs, which, of course, helps. And, over the years, we’ve been blessed with so many strong coaches among the 12 head coaches we’ve had. You just can’t get much better than men like Rob Livchek, Gene Stechschulte, Chad Ernsberger, Brian Garman and first, Dan Furuto and now our current head coach, Dan’s brother, Matt.”
As for the formulation of the roster, as has been the case every year, pitching always is paramount. This year, there are 18 to go along with 16 position players. Clark points to the reason why the roster needs such pitching depth.
“Our fans will remember our coming up a little short against Hamilton in that championship game last year, primarily because Hamilton had two really good pitchers ready to go. There are always nagging injuries, and some of our pitchers come with innings-limitations from their college coaches, which we always honor.”
As for the selection process, Matt Furato and his assistant Matt Rau have the bigger voices, but Clark also plays a role in searching for players, especially from the Lima area. This year’s squad includes four, from Shawnee, Jake Hutchins, a returnee from last year’s squad, Lima Senior’s Caleb Dugan, Elida’s Brayden Lybarger and Clay Jacobs from Indian Lake.
So where does the money come from to run a nonprofit like the Locos? While Major League Baseball does provide funds to cover some expenses for baseballs, umpires for the playoffs and league insurance, other sources of income are vital, such as local business sponsorships, donations from individuals, concessions, ticket and souvenir sales, raffles and similar revenue streams. Clark points out that the goal each summer is typical of other nonprofits, and that is to break even.
Of course, the lifeblood of the Locos has always been the many who’ve volunteered for years, including those willing to room and board players each summer. The only individuals paid a stipend are the coaches, the team statistician, Ryan Schadawald, and the game announcer, Todd Walker, who’s been announcing Loco home games since 1993.
As for scheduling, since the emergence of the pandemic, it would be an understatement to say it’s been a challenge.
Clark points out that COVID wiped out the entire 2020 season, and last year, the league had to work around several restrictions. For instance, one franchise was from Canada, and league teams weren’t allowed to cross the border. This year, with an odd number of teams, that imbalance creates some challenges as well, which may have had something to do with the long season-opening home stand. Following the home stand, nine home games remain spread over the second half of June and in July before the playoffs begin.
At times, it appears that the Clark wears two hats, that of general manager and another as one of the team’s most ardent cheerleaders.
Says the ever-enthusiastic Clark, “I truly believe the Loco experience is Lima’s best-kept summer secret, one I hope this summer becomes far less of a secret. The quality of play, the ambiance of Simmons, our promotions and fireworks after victories, well, I just don’t think it gets much better than that.”
