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Eastman Mets created a movement in fastpitch softball

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Eastman Mets fastpitch softball team members on the first team in 1964 were (front row, from left) Chester Kramer, Ray Byerly, Terry Kramer, Pete Swanson, Gary Lenzendorf, Charlie Wall; (back row) Larry Pelock, John Pelock, John Swatek, John Kramer, Roger Wall, Tom Wagner, Dave Swanson and Mark Martin.

Remnants from the Eastman Mets continued on to play with league leaders Bob’s Bar and Slama’s Bar softball teams, where they mixed their talents with other players from the area. Above are Frank McCormick, Al Gillingham, David Swanson, Dennis Fuller, Pete Swanson, Mel Dearborn, John Kramer, Jim Pitzer, Tom Lydon and Bob Kuckenbecker. Below are LaVerne DuCharme, Ronnie Hollenberger, John Trautsch, Roger Feye, Roger Wall, Loyde Beers, John Swatek, manager Pete Mara, Bernie Zach and Mike Kilburg. Not pictured are John Slama and Dennis Lenzendorf. Visit the Courier on Facebook and Instagram for additional pictures of other area league teams who competed against the Mets.

By Correne Martin

This is a small-town tale about how high school fastpitch softball teams started developing in Eastman and other southwest Wisconsin communities in the 1960s. 

But this story is more than just another account of a masterful and passionate ball team. It’s the kind of story that allows you to envision a group of unpretentious sandlot ball buddies who sparked a community revolution simply by their love of the game. 

In the early 1960s, fast pitch was gaining ground in the area, but there were no young kids playing—except for every noon hour on the Eastman school playground. There, a mess of boys would organize a pick-up game. Some girls grabbed bats too—many of whom were just as good as the boys.

In the summer of ‘64, friends John Kramer and John Pelock formed the beginnings of a team in the basement of Pelock’s house. They were a freshman and sophomore in high school at the time. 

“We were the Eastman Mets. That’s when the Mets first joined  the Major League, and we figured we were about that caliber,” Kramer fondly recalled. “We wore white (sleeveless) T-shirts and stenciled ‘Mets’ on them.”

Inaugural teammates included Terry Kramer, John Swatek, Roger Wall, Chester Kramer, Ray Byerly, Gary Lenzendorf, Pete Swanson, Charlie Wall, Larry Pelock, Dave Swanson and Tom Wagner. The boys’ coach was also player Mark Martin, who Kramer, not surprisingly, remembers saying “a little prayer before each game, with a shot of brandy” to boot—“to calm us down.”

Unlike their “old pro” adult competition, the Mets weren’t formal enough to have local business sponsorship. Yet they played in front of the same mighty crowds, on the same fields and under the same rules of the pasttime. 

They first entered the Bush Park league at the Bush Hollow ball field. Today—like many other ball diamonds from those days—Bush Park is nothing more than a farmer’s field. Back then, it was a local Field of Dreams-like setting. 

“The left fielder played in the middle of the road and he called timeout if a car was coming,” Kramer said. “Right field ended in the cow pasture. All the games were at 8:30 p.m. because it was all farmers who played.”

The Mets rubbed elbows with other men’s league teams such as the Seneca Merchants, Christianson Mill from Wauzeka, Slama’s Bar from Eastman, Prairie Legion, Pine Tree and Bud & Helen’s (a teen bar) from Wauzeka.

“The Seneca Merchants, Christianson and Slama’s, they were the kingpins of the league,” Kramer remembered.

At the end of the season, Bush Park, and the Eastman and Prairie du Chien ballparks hosted tournaments. Kramer said his team lost their first two tournaments, basically, in a few innings. But, by the time Prairie rolled around, the inexperienced Mets changed their strategy and ended up earning the respect of friend and foe, battling their way to the consolation honors.

“When we beat (powerhouse) Bob’s Bar, we were so damn high we thought nobody could beat us,” Kramer remarked. Later, the team lost to Piggly Wiggly but defeated the local Machinists in the consolation finals.  

The local newspaper reporter who befriended the team recounted their effort as “outstanding sportsmanship, fine team spirit and unbelievable calmness under pressure.” He said they “showed every sign of being one of the finest groups of young men we have seen in many a moon.”

1965 turned out to be the Mets’ breakout season. Robert Kazda and Peter Neisius joined the players. By then, Kramer explained, there were fastpitch leagues in the communities of Eastman, Seneca, Steuben, Mount Hope, Stitzer and Cassville. 

After the Mets’ first few years, John Trautsch—who was the same age as the teens but such a great athlete that he played with the adult teams—even decided he wanted to compete alongside his strengthened peers. Kramer said this was truly a time when the boys really turned some heads, recording over 100 games a summer.

The 1966 season was the one where the Mets couldn’t be beat. They turned in a 40-17 record. Kramer laughed about how, after the team’s victories against Slama’s Bar, his and Pelock’s dads would give a “crying towel” to owner Norma Slama. 

He also noted that it was about then that a women’s ball league started at Bush Park. 

“[Softball] is a great pasttime. There were good pitchers in those days, some really big crowds and big rivalries. Everyone’s families would be there; they’d drag the kids,” Kramer said. “[Those experiences] were the impetus for a lot of others to start playing.”

In 1967, Tom and Rich Kozelka garnered the Mets their very own professional-looking uniforms, from Kozelka’s Men’s Wear, at cost. But the Eastman Mets only ended up playing together through that year, before they broke up due to lacking sponsorship and joined other dugouts like those of former rivals Slama’s and Bob’s. 

Yet, their friendships would last a lifetime. Many of the players went on to college together and eventually followed their own children on the field, sharing tips from behind the athletic fence.

Of all the fields that hosted fastpitch softball leagues decades ago, Eastman is the only one that still hosts a league. 

On any given night in the summer, one can pass by the Eastman ballpark. The lights will be on and, if league games aren’t being played, young boys and girls can be seen amid a pick-up contest—bats cracking and balls flying as high as aspirations.

Just as it was home to the locally legendary Eastman Mets, it continues as a favorite gathering place, where innocence becomes passion and a community scores memories together. 

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