SPORTS FLASHBACK 1986: SPORTOPICS says good-bye to ‘Charlie O’

I can remember when I met Jake Blatz. He was a young businessman, just starting out in the restaurant trade, and I was a 14-year-old high school student, skipping classes to play a little pinball.

Jake Blatz warned me that while he appreciated my contribution to the machine in his coffee shop, one of the school trustees had a business right next door and kind of frowned on seeing students in the restaurant during school hours.

I remember when I first saw Jake Blatz in a baseball uniform. I was a rookie reporter with The Carillon and he was a pitcher for the Millers fastball team, which I had the pleasure (?) of coaching and managing.

The first time he walked out onto the field, he was wearing a tie under his Millers jersey and I told myself this wasn’t just a ball player. Here was an owner.

When Jake bought Pete’s Inn on Main Street and renamed it Millers Restaurant (in honor of our ball club, of course) it was only a matter of time until I managed to talk him into adding the word Restaurant to the front of our shirts. For a small fee, of course.

The early 1970s was the era of Charles O. Finley, who bought the Kansas City Athletics, moved them to Oakland, and introduced colorful uniforms to the American Baseball League.

Jake Blatz also brought a lot of color to the game and it wasn’t long before we hung a nickname on him. Hello Charlie O.

When Jake took over the Steinbach A&W, he became the sponsor of the Hanover Fastball Association through the championship A&W Trophy.

Looking for a fastball franchise a little more prone to winning than his Millers Restaurant team, Jake decided to sponsor the best Hanover team and move it to a more competitive league in Winnipeg. Peter Dick would manage and coach, I would take care of all the little off-field details, and Jake would see that the bills got paid.

Every good team needs more than one good pitcher and Jake felt he was just a little too old to help Paul Doerksen in that regard, so he sent me shopping for a second pitcher for his Steinbach A&W Stealers.

I remember when Peter Dick told me about a young chucker by the name of Wayne Banman, who needed a little financial help to get through his studies at the Winnipeg Bible College at Otterburne. Summers were spent working or playing ball, and there wasn’t really a whole lot of time for both.

Jake Blatz told me to strike a deal with Banman so he would play ball during the summer of 1977. Student carpenter Banman didn’t lift a hammer that summer, but instead helped Jake build a Manitoba fastball champion.

Jake later said if Banman could preach half as well as he pitched, the investment in his education was worth every dollar.

I remember standing at the fence, taking pictures during the Manitoba final at Charlie Krupp Stadium in Winnipeg, in August, 1977. I casually mentioned to Jake that if his Stealers won this one, we would have just three weeks to raise better than ten thousand bucks to go to the nationals.

Jake was the eternal optimist and always willing to chip in more than his fair share. His raffle ticket sales, conversations with the regional A&W people, and a fair plunge into his own pocket, assured a fastball career highlight for every member of that 1977 Steinbach A&W Stealers team.

As a builder of fastball in this community, Jake Blatz will long be remembered. His were the two ads on the centre field fence that helped pay for rural Manitoba’s finest fastball park.

And his was that spot in the stands behind home base, where he could keep an eye on the umpire while enjoying a game he loved.

When you go out on that Steinbach ball field this summer, to take your place under the lights, take a minute to remember a true friend of the game.

Take a moment to say good-bye to Charlie O.