Wally at the Bat

The last picture that I posted was a fabulous color slide of our baseball team in action decades ago. It is spring on campus and baseball season is underway. This week also sees the launch of a new program here on campus – Wally at the Bat — A Liberal Arts Symposium on Baseball.

Here is a link with more information about the program…

http://www.wabash.edu/alumni/news.cfm?news_ID=7786

One of the images that will be everywhere this weekend is this one…

1909 Baseball State Champions 18-5

Back Row: Gipe, Adams, Puckett, Rowe, Irwin, and Coach Jones. Middle Row: Winnie, Warbritton, Ash, Bowers, Capt.; Lambert and Herron. Front Row: Starbuck, Gisler and Bridges. (caption credits to Max Servies – Some Little Giants)

The baseball team of 1909. I love this picture as it shows baseball in its essence. I believe this photo was taken after a game and the uniforms look as though it was a tough fought game.

This picture is of the 1909 baseball team who posted an 18-5 record and were the state champs. I love these old sports pictures and look into the faces of these “tough guys”. In this photo one of these toughs would go on to become famous as a coach, and rightly so. A neat little piece of history is the player second from the right in the second row. Still wearing his glove and with his head cocked to one side is Ward Lambert [W1911].

Ward, known to history as “Piggy” became head coach at Purdue for both baseball and basketball. He is best remembered as the masterful coach who led Purdue to 11 Big Ten championships in basketball. Among his many great players at Purdue was John Wooden, who later led UCLA basketball to greatness.

This image will adorn the souvenir cups from the event. It looks to be a great program!

Congrats to the organizers!