Before They Fathered Star Athletes . . .

As you can imagine, some of the players now starring for city leagues' teams are the sons of
guys who also starred. Since I'm ancient (smile), I wrote stories about them during their high
school careers.
We hope you enjoy this new feature (a takeoff of Before They Drew X's and O's).
Would you like to see a story about someone who starred in the Public, Catholic or Inter-Ac
leagues and now has a son doing likewise (assuming I did one on him)? Send me a note at
silaryt@phillynews.com.
Thanks,
Ted

This story was written in May 1981 about Lincoln shortstop Rus
Slawter, in the context of a beyond-crazy game. His son, Kyle, is
an impact basketball and baseball player at Archbishop Ryan. (An
older son, Rus, also starred there.)

LINCOLN TIGHTROPES PAST NORTHEAST

By TED SILARY

Shortly after 6 p.m. yesterday, a certain AM radio station aired a

commercial plugging the impending arrival in town of the Barnum & Bailey

circus.

For a reporter who'd just witnessed one of the all-time wacko baseball games

- in the Public League or any other - and sagged wearily into his car, the

timing could not have been better.

A circus. That's one way to describe Abraham Lincoln's 7-6 win over host

Northeast, which helped the Railsplitters clinch a playoff spot for the first

time since 1970. A zoo? That would surely be another. A freak show? Long live

the memory of Boris Karloff.

Lincoln scored the decisive run in the seventh thanks to Steve Holiday's

double, Rich Zimmerman's single and walks to Mark Cocco and sub leftfielder

Don Dysart. That run was decisive because Northeast's Joe Lynn left third

base a full step too soon in the sixth when Bill Vorse launched a would-be

sacrifice fly to left.

Plate umpire Jim Cronin, forgetting emotion for a second, made the call that

had to be made. However, if he'd called Lynn safe, then stuck out his tongue

at John Constantine, Lincoln's volatile coach, few folks would have blamed

him.

CONSTANTINE BLEW A gasket after the first five batters in Northeast's sixth

drew walks from three different pitchers (starter John Schoell, Bob Clark,

Brett Haas), an occurrence that sliced the Railsplitters' lead to 6-3. Rather

than slice his throat, Constantine whined to Cronin the baseballs were too wet

and the game should be halted for the second time.

The coach and umpire jawed for a second, then the former was told to back

off. At that point, Constantine mumbled something like, 'Oh, boy, that does

it,' and huddled with catcher Terry Hettel, ordering him to slam the ball on

the ground.

Hettel sheepishly followed orders and Cronin thumbed him. Next, when

leftfielder-turned-catcher John Hannan was denied practice throws by Cronin,

Constantine launched another verbal assault - even venting his spleen at full

volume to this reporter: "You're a newspaperman. Can't you do anything to

give kids a break from umpires like this?" - and then disappeared.

With that, captain Rus Slawter , one of the city's top shortstops, assumed

the role of . . . drum roll, please . . . player-coach Rus Slawter .

"Mr. C gets excited sometimes," said Slawter, who went 1-for-3 with a

sacrifice fly, then stationed himself in the third base coach's box as Lincoln

batted in the seventh. " He got ejected on Tuesday against Washington, too.

We hit a ball that should have been a ground-rule triple, but the ump said it

was only a double. Mr. C flipped out.

"TO A CERTAIN point, the umps handled everything well today. When there

were so many walks, they could have stopped for a while. They had it tough,

though. We were dying to keep playing when things were going our way and we

wanted the game stopped when Northeast came back. "

Following the dual ejections, Cocco uncorked a semi-wild throw on a grounder

by Lynn and two runs scored. Stefanko then entered the game and fanned Keith

Milke on three pitches. At that point, the sky decided to make like a river

and the game was delayed for 23 minutes. As play resumed, Dan Howell rumbled

for home on the first pitch and reliever John Nemerofsky put down a perfect

suicide squeeze to tie the game. The "early departure" double play followed.

After Holiday doubled and Zimmerman singled, promptly stealing second,

observers wondered if Slawter would employ any special strategy.

"I gave some thought to having Mark squeeze," Rus admitted, " but I wasn't

sure if Mr. C would agree. Mark hasn't been in a real good groove lately, but

I figured, 'Ah, let him hit away. ' The walk was a bonus. After John Hannan

popped out, I looked up the hill and Mr. C motioned that Joe Quinn should

pinch- hit.

"At first, another kid wanted to coach third. I told him he could coach

down there if I got up to the plate again. It felt weird being in charge, but

(my father) also Rus, short for Rusling coached the 9-10 team at Penn

Academy and I've helped him.

"REALLY, STEVE HOLIDAY, Randy Nicholas and I are the captains. We do a lot

in practice in terms of running the drills and making sure that everybody does

their work. I'm not sure why I wound up coaching. Maybe Mr. C told them to

have me do it. "

Meanwhile, Northeast went down 1-2-3 in the seventh, but the sequence was

far from boring. Cocco bobbled Sean Hull's grounder, but got the out because

of his gun. Zimmerman raced far to his left to flag John Bucher's liner to

right. Slawter gloved Jim Zahner's grounder on his knees and made the play.

"As soon as Joe Stefanko came into the game, we played with more

confidence," Slawter said. " He's something like 5-0 with two saves. For a

while, it looked like no one would ever throw a strike. I thought for sure

that Northeast would take the lead. "

The last time the Railsplitters made the playoffs, in the days when only one

team from each division qualified, they bested Southern and Mastbaum to win

the title.

"We'd like to go all the way again," said Slawter. " We've been talking

about that since the beginning of the season. Except for Terry Hettel and

second baseman Frank Paz, the other starters are back from last year. Plus,

John Ward was the only pitcher we lost. "

Yesterday, the only thing lost was some sanity. But who ever said circus

performers are totally sane?