Wednesday, June 02, 1999
It's Elder's time to shine - again
BY CAREY HOFFMAN
Enquirer contributor
Drivers in their cars honk at assistant coach Phil Brown when he's filling up his car with gas.The barber shop is abuzz. No part of Price Hill is exempted from celebrating Elder's trip to the high school baseball state semifinals.
“I went to church (Sunday) and was getting high-fived by the ushers,” said Brown, whose son, Aaron, is the Panthers' starting catcher. “I was late, mass was going on, and I'm getting high-fived. It was embarrassing.”
And fun.
Elder beat Moeller 10-0 to earn a spot in the Division I state final four. The Panthers meet Toledo St. Francis at 3 p.m. Thursday at Canton's Thurman Munson Stadium.
Price Hill, the capital of Cincinnati's storied west side baseball tradition, should have this joyful routine down pat.
MOST TITLES
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High schools with most baseball state titles:
Elder: 10
Reading: 6
Western Hills: 5
Coldwater: 5
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Western Hills boasts a tradition of producing some well-known names, such as Pete Rose, Don Zimmer and Eddie Brinkman. But it is Elder that has produced the greatest team success.
The Panthers have only had a handful of players reach the major leagues — guys like Jim Brosnan, Buck Hemberger, Tom Flanagan, Ron Moeller, Gordy Massa and Chris Nichting — yet no Ohio high school can match Elder's 10 state championships.
“I think that Elder is basically a baseball school,” Brown said. “They talk up football, but if you talk to the people around ... I live right behind the school and everyone around knows all about (Elder going to state).”
The Panthers have won at least four more titles than any other school in any class.
Since the state started crowing champions in 1928, only four schools have won five or more titles (Elder, Reading, Western Hills and Coldwater).
Elder won its first state title in 1943. Then came an incredible run during the '50s, with titles in '52, '55, '56, '58, '59 and '60 — six state in nine years. The core players from those teams went on to win American Legion national titles during the summers while playing for Bentley Post.
The Panthers didn't win again until 1973. That year, however, was memorable from the beginning of the school year to the end, with Elder posting a 9-0-1 season in football, winning the boys basketball state title and capping the year with the baseball crown.
Two more titles came under coach Jerry Federle in 1978 and 1984, with the '84 title perhaps the most dramatic of the 10. It wasn't clinched until outfielder Billy Meier hit a home run in Elder's final at-bat.
The key to such long-standing success?
“I think more than anything else it's tradition,” said Elder coach Mark Thompson, who witnessed it firsthand as a player and assistant coach at Western Hills. “It's something passed on generation to generation. The students now have fathers and grandfathers who passed on El der baseball to them.”
Thompson estimates at least half his roster has fathers or uncles who are former Elder players. Many taught their sons the game, serving as little league coaches and emphasizing the pride behind Elder baseball.
Outfielder Brian Currin was preceded at Elder by his dad and uncle — Stubby and Rex, respectively — who were all-GCL players back in the '70s.
Second baseman Steve Witterstaetter has brought his grandfather, Richard Witterstaetter, to his last two games. Richard has difficulty seeing the games now, but knows his baseball — he graduated from Elder in 1938 and threw the first no-hitter in school history. He later played for Ohio State and was inducted this spring into the Price Hill Baseball Old-Timers Hall of Fame.
“I grew up going to Elder games all the time,” Steve said. “There was never a doubt where I was going to high school, and playing for Elder was the reason I was playing baseball. My freshman year, all I wanted was to be good enough to make the team.”
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