Details: Parent Category: Larry's Corner

THEN AND NOW

BY LARRY GALLAGHER

Baseball in Columbia Heights

When I was a young boy growing up in Columbia Heights we had it made trying to learn the wonderful game of baseball.

We were blessed to have a wonderful recreation program that was funded by the community that allowed the Recreation Director hire an outstanding coach, Joe VanCisin as our summer coach. He was the Assistant Basketball and Baseball Coach at the University of Minnesota during the 5 years he spent in Columbia Heights as our coach.

He supervised the entire program from Cub, Midget and Junior Baseball. Cubs were 10-12 (like Little League), Midgets were 13-14 and Juniors were 15 and older. We also had American Legion but that was not sponsored by the Recreation Department. Cubs played only in the community but the Midgets and Juniors traveled to other communities.

Joe eventually left Minnesota to become the Head Basketball Coach at Yale for a long career and then became the Executive Secretary for the NCAA Basketball Coaches Association for 17 years and concluded his work in 1990 when he turned 70 years old and organized the 1990 NCAA Tournament in Minneapolis at the HHH-Metrodome.

Joe really was thorough in his teaching and coaching techniques and philosophies. He structured practice so there was always teaching, learning and advancing our skills. He taught us also to behave as competitors that respected our opponents and gave all of us respectful discipline when necessary. He was great in helping us dream about our futures and gave us 1 on 1 advice and small group discussions on a variety of topics unrelated to baseball but to life. We had chalk talks on rainy days, indoor sliding practice on the floor in the field-house (John Murzyn Hall now), instructional 8 & 16 millimeter film on baseball and even after the rain, sliding practice on the wet grass. He made it fun to be a baseball player.

During the 50’s and 60’s and beyond, Columbia Heights was always competitive with the neighboring communities in baseball. This is no longer true today. I learned a lot about how to be a catcher from Joe and thought I could compete in the Big Ten as a player and after my freshman year at the U of M, I found out that I was not good enough to compete at that level. I missed out on going to 2 Rose Bowls in football and also missed the 1960 NCAA Baseball Championship Team by leaving the U of M. However, like I said, I was not good enough to play and went to Augsburg College instead and did start in football and baseball my junior and senior year there. At the time I played, we lost a year of eligibility when we transferred and freshman could not play as freshman.

I met another Columbia Heights young man at the time I was growing up. He was a freshman when I was a senior in Columbia Heights. He was a catcher too and we actually played on the same team together after I was out of high school. He was a better catcher than me and I went to the outfield that summer. He was really good. His name is and was Ron Wojciack. He actually lived in NE Mpls. and went to Edison High School and later to the U of M. He became one of the best athletes to come out of Columbia Heights and NE Mpls. His 1964 U of M team became National Champions too. In fact, Minnesota has 3 National Baseball Champions from 1956, 1960 and 1964. Ron played very well in that tournament. He had a 1.7 average in the tournament on his throws to 2^nd base on steal attempts. There has never been anyone better than that in the NCAA tournament before or since then. The catcher’s in the big-leagues at the time were averaging 2.1 in games.

That summer he signed a bonus contract with the Minnesota Twins and Angelo Guiliani that signed him. No one in our domain knew exactly what he signed for but most believed it was $25,000. Ron never told us what was and I never asked him.

This story is mostly about Ron and how he made everyone that was his teammate a better player because of his great work ethic in trying to always improve his game. This was a time before pitching machines and batting cages. Ron and I spent many mornings at 7:00 am taking batting practice with about 12 baseballs. First he would pitch to me and then I would pitch to him. Not only did we get better as hitters and bunters (we never neglected that part of the game either), we developed our arms for throwing. He never became a pitcher but I did some pitching after this. I was never any good but I did pitch a 9 inning shutout once in amateur baseball as an adult.

One year after signing with the Twins and spending ½ the season in Rookie ball in Florida, he was feeling weak and was sent home to have a check-up. It was found that he had lung cancer without a good chance at recovering from this illness. He did go through the removal of 2 lobes of his lungs and chemotherapy but it did not succeed. He and I had surgeries during the 1965 World Series that the Twins and Dodgers played here and in LA. We did some walking together during our recoveries. My surgery was not as serious as his.

On October 1, 1966 Ron finally succumbed to his illness. It has been 42+ years since his death and I still miss him. Who knows what kind of player he would have become in professional baseball. Ron spent the last summer before his death finishing up his degree in Fish and Wildlife Management out in the fields and slews at Itasca State Park. Baseball was his first love but the outdoors was a close second.

He never complained to me about his fate in life but he did try to live his life with as much joy as he could. He died on the same day that Barb and I moved into our house that we still own. We were moving in when we had word from his hunting and fishing buddy Randy Amenrud.

The Columbia Heights Athletic Boosters still honor him each spring with their annual sports banquet for the community’s athletes and coaches or other prominent community people that have been important in promoting athletics in Columbia Heights. I received the 1^st Ron Wojciack Memorial Award in 1967 at the first banquet sponsored by the Boosters. Many of the

Twins players attended and we had Halsey Hall as our guest speaker. I have missed only one of these tributes to Ron since their

inception.

I hope that this inspires all of you to make the most of your life as I believe Ron Wojciack did with his.