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BASEBALL IN PENNSYLVANIA

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Baseball Interview with
Mike Surkalo, Former Sports Editor
Of The Butler Eagle

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down at length with
Mike Surkalo. Mr. Surkalo is the former Sports Editor for the
Butler Eagle. He was born in 1920, in Dubois, Pennsylvania.
He went on to college where he majored in journalism. After
World War II, in 1946, Mike moved to Butler where he was the
Sports Editor for over forty years. The first twenty-six years
of service at the Butler Eagle, he was the only sports writer
on staff. He did it all from covering the games to writing
the articles, to laying out the paper.
I had the great fortune
of meeting Mr. Surkalo in the late 1970's. He covered a number
of my summer baseball games, and later, much of my football
career at Slippery Rock High School and University.
I am now
the football coach at Slippery Rock High School, and as recently
as last season, had the pleasure of Mr. Surkalo covering some
of our ballgames on a part-time basis for the Butler Eagle.
I have transposed the areas of our interview that I felt best
covered our topic of baseball in Western Pennsylvania.
L.H.:

Were you familiar with the Negro Leagues in Pittsburgh?

M.S.: When I came here in '46, after the war, the leagues were
breaking up, but I did have the opportunity to see Josh Gibson
play. He really creamed them. But, no I never really got to
see them play. A guy that did play in the Negro Leagues is
a fellow by the name of Elmer Massey.
L.H.:

Sure I know Elmer.

M.S.: Elmer played here for many years for the Butler Athletics.
The Athletics were the best of the Amateur Crop, alot of the
former college players, and a few professional players.
L.H.:

Similar to the Eagle County League Now?

M.S.: No, this is separate. This was in the Tri-County League.
They played Springdale, Dormont, and a number of teams in the
outskirts of Pittsburgh. They had some former major leage stars
that played in this league. It was a good league. Butler won
this league three years in a row.
L.H.:

Was Elmer a good ball player?

M.S.: Oh yes, he played second base. When he started to get
old, and was pushing his mid-thirties, they had a lot of good
second basemen. Charlie Croftchock was one. Elmer Massey was
also a second basemen. The dentist, uptown, Dr. King was also
a second baseman. He was a good one. He played for about three
years. He was really tough, a Lenny Dykstra type.

L.H.:

Did you cover many of these ballgames?

M.S.: I covered them all. All the home games, and a few of
the away games. Being a one-man staff it was nearly impossible.
They had a former pro, a fellow by the name of Frank Komer,
who played third base. He was from Boyers, probably one of
the best base runners I ever saw. Chuck Ekas was a shortstop,
probably one of the youngest guys. There was a kid from Mars
named Don Wicks. He was just out of highschool and he held
his own.
In the outfield they had some good ball players, one
was named Loyle Park. He'd played baseball at Cincinati, and
coached at Boston College. I saw him hit a couple of homeruns
to center field at Pullman Park- That's no easy feat. He was
6'2, 6'3, about 220.
L.H.:

Did they have a lot of good pitchers?

M.S.: Not too bad, a guy named Nabath who was a former
professional. They had a guy by the name of Marie Hamilton.
Had another guy by the name of Mills. I can't remember his
first name. He was a solid lefthander. They had a good player
out of High school, Connie, Connie Lang. His brother Joe was
the catcher. And Eddie Calderone did some catching. Barnie
Barnes.
L.H.:

I have heard of Barney, yes.

M.S.: Barney owns a golf course up in Slippery Rock. Barney
just showed up one day and took over lock, stock, and barrel.
He, and Ed Calderone split time. Barney was the class of the
team ..• a nice guy to talk to. Ed Casener used to be the druggist
in Chicora ••. He ran the team. He put a lot of money into the
team, the team did a lot of traveling. What hurt the league
was when one guy who worked for the phone company used to make
all the long distance calls for free. When he retired, nobody
wanted to take on that task. Slowly, the team just folded up.
L.H.: You mentioned earlier that you were a one-man staff at
the paper. You said that you started there in 1946, how long
were you by yourself •
M.S.:

26 years.

L.H.:

Were you able to get out and cover many baseball games?

M.S. You know
so I would get
the office. I
the University
One time in my

with baseball, games would start about 6:30,
there about 6:15, then afterwards, I 'd go to
also used to cover some independent teams and
when possible. They played those games at 4:00.
career, I covered 13 football games in 13 days.

L.H.:

That's a lot of football.

M.S.:

The cubs would play on a Sunday night and Wednesday

The Cubs were drawing more on Sunday afternoon than Butler
High School. The Sun Telegraph, The Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph
ran a semi-heavyweight division. The Cubs won it three years
in a row With teams from all over the Pittsburgh area. Guys
were getting out of football after the service. They had jobs,
families and kids to worry about--they didn't want to risk gettin
hurt.
Slowly this league just disappeared--guys got too old for
it.
Mr. Surkalo then went on to speak of how he got involved
in journalism. He told me of how he wasn't much of a student,
but how his older sister, who was very intelligent, had pushed
him to go to college. While in college, he was drafted into
World War II. His tour of duty included many different areas
before ending up in Guam. While stationed in Guam, he was
being prepared to go the front line. He claimed that his base
then became very hush as a large amount of brass began coming
in and out of his base. He said that shortly thereafter, the
A-Bomb was dropped on Japan. He seemed to have great remorse
for all of those who died in Japan, however; . he felt the bomb
saved his life as well as hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Mr. Surkalo then spoke of his return voyage to the United States
on a freight troller that was overloaded with U.S. soldiers.
He spent thirty-nine days meandering around the Pacific on what
should have been an eleven day trip. He said that they had been
"sitting ducks" and were lucky to ever see the States.
L.H.:
In covering all of the baseball games that you have in
the past, who would you say were some of the better high school
players in the area?
M.S.:
It will be a little one-sided because most of the ones
I covered were Butler High.
IN the Eagle County League, but they
were more adults than high school kids.Butler High got rid of
baseball in the late 20's and early 30's and didn't resurface
until the early S0's. One of the better players was a pitcher
named Hahn, Eric Hahn. Eric was a good ballplayer, he went
to Penn State.He's in the Pro's now, in the minors.
I'm not
sure how successful he is.
L.H.: That's a different level. Now and then you find a kid
that can throw 90 miles an hour, and everyone thinks he's a
Pro pitcher. You better have more than that to go around.
MS.: The one kid that can throw 90 miles an hour is that Clemente.
Matt Clemente. He can throw 93, 94. He's been successful I
understand that he's gone from Bottom A to Top A in San Diego.
John Gristar was a pick-up catcher for Butler. Ther have been
alot of good players in the area. One of them Connie Lang was
a good pitcher for Buter. And his brother was a catcher for
quite awhile--they practiced alot. They were quite a battery.
L.H.:

How about Eddie Vargo?

M.S.: He didn't play any baseball for Butler. He played football.
He was a real strong runner.
I think he played some legion ball

I guess he was pretty good, but I never saw him play. He was
just a good athlete, a strong kid, and intelligent kid.
I
don't know if he didn't want to play since his father was involved
in umpiring. Eddie Sr. was a good baseball player himself.
He was a catcher, but he didn't have a great arm--not a great
arm, I mean for the Pro's. Before they're gonna spend hundreds
of thousands of dollars on you, they're gonna see that you
can throw runners out at second base. Before Eddie went into
umpiring, he was with the Cardinals. He was fortunate, the
Pirates were also interested in him.
He really had a great
temperment for umpiring.
I don't know if you've ever heard of
Nate Boring. Eddie got him into umpiring school. Boring was
an excellent umpire in baseball. But he didn't have the temperment for it ... the fans and the managers got to him.
L.H.:

You got to have a thick skin for that.

M.S.:
I'm sorry that he didn't make it because he was a good
umpire.
I went with him to cover some exhibition games with
him between Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
I don't know if you
ever heard of a guy named Dale Mitchell, but he played for
Cleveland one time.
He was a good hitter, a slap hitter. He
could hit 300. That's when they finally started to develop
ball players into backup roles.
So when Cleveland played
in Pittsburgh, they put Dale Mitchell at first base. He made
a tag at first base and Eddie called him safe .. and Eddie tells
him, You missed the bag." This is the third inning and again in
the sixth inning, the same thing happens. Mitchell called
Eddie everything in the book. On the way home,
I said, "What
did he say?" Eddie said, "Everything you could think of he
said.
I was gonna throw him out but it was an exhibition game
and a lot of people had come to see him play.
If it had been a
regular game, he'd been out a long time ago."
L.H.:
It takes a pretty special person to keep him in there
under those circumstances. What do you think of the money the
ballplayers are making now? the demands that they are putting
forth?
M.S.: They're partly right, but I also think that the owners are
partly right. Alot of those owners like Steinbrenner thought that
they could buy a pennant. So now they see that one guy gets
alot of money, and they hold out for more.
I think that one of
the ways that they could save alot of money, as well as in
Pro Football and Pro Basketball is alot of these College kids
corning off campus haven't made a put out, caught a pass, or
scored a basket yet they're getting 5 and 6 million dollar contracts.
where guys that have been in the league 5 and 6 years, and
have proven that they belong there, are making less than half
of that. Before World War II, the Pirates signed Bob Pettot
for $100,000. This was the first big money deal and the
Pirates could have run their entire minor leagues for this amount.
Right after the War, when the GI got out, they were no longer

the farm kid they were when they went in. Some of these guys
had come off the farm and never seen anything. Now they'd
been around the world. They talk about the Gulf War, and
guys being overseas for 30 days. Ther were guys in World
War I who been overseas for 3 years. They were in the front
line for a long time and really had a reason to be punch
drunk and shell shocked. So when they came home, they were
used to some better things. Why would they go to see the Butler
Yankees play, when they could drive down the road 35 miles to
the 'Big City' and Forbes Field, and watch the Pirates. Five
Six in the afternoon you would see hundreds of cars heading down
the road to the ballgame.
We skip ahead now after discussing the Great Josh Gibson
and the qualities of Satchel Paige. Mr. Surkalo told a story
of when Satchel Paige had called the entire outfield in and
proceeded to strike out the side.
L.H.: What do you see now as far as baseball and the kids in the
community? Do you think that it is growing or is it a step
backward in the time that you've been observing it?
M.S.: Well I can't say that it has gone backwards .•. it's reached
a saturated point. What's wrong is sometimes the parents get
so totally involved that they run out the good managers and
umpires.
I've known a lot of good guys who after 2 or 3 weeks
have had enough. They say, "The kids are great, but I just
can't take the parents."
I'll give you a great example: a
guy I know said he would be there when his son signed his Pro
contract. His son was 10 years old. There was a game down
here in Butler, the parents were giving the umpire a hard time
and the argument got so severe that they had to call the
game off, and call the entire playoff series off. So the kids
left and there were 2 diamonds there. So finally it wasn't
my place to get involved in the argument and I don't write
on arguments, but I finally opened my mouth and said, "You
guys can argue or not but you're keeping YOUR kids from
playing baseball. Look over at the other ball diamond. What
do you see playing over there? The same teams that were
supposed to play over here are playing over there with no adults,
no umpires, and no coaches. That's what it's supposed to be
about.
Mr. Surkalo went on to say that in talking with reporters
and coaches through the years, and all over the world, parental
influence was a problem everywhere. Mr. Surkalo is a wonderful
man to talk to and the details and knowledge he has are
immense. He asked that I come back anytime and talk about any
subject.
I suggest that any student or professor that needs
information pertaining to any sport in Western PA call this fine
gentleman.
I only left because I had to.
I think we could have
talked for hours on end.
I only wish that I would have had the time.