Malad Revisited: A Place from My Youth

 Malad is where we would make an annual journey from Hyrum to play in a baseball tournament.  Sometime we would make an additional journey to play a couple ball games.  For the most part, Malad has not changed much.  The ball diamond where we use to play is still there with its rock stairs and walls.  The bowling alley is still there, as is the American Legion, where we stayed several times as youth.  The Dude Ranch Cafe and the swimming pool are also still there.  The high school still stands but is vacant.  The elementary next door is still used.  The new high school is in the south part of town.  It has many more ball diamonds than just the one in town center.  The old hospital where we stayed is no longer there.  It was next to where the library is now.  There is new business where you exit from the I-15, including a Burger King.  

Outdoor and Night Games: Hyrum in the 60s

Some of the games we played growing up were large community games.  These were games such as kick-the-can, hide-and-seek.  We lived kitty-corner from Todd Nielsen and I remember going there for some very large kick-the-can games.  This was hard on whoever was "it" because it was almost impossible to capture a large group before someone kicked the can and set everyone free.
In this game someone is "it" and attempts to capture everyone while also defending the can (a can placed in an open location.)  this could become tricky as if you went on direction to capture someone, somebody could come from the other direction and set everyone free.  However it was a good evening game in the summer.
Tag was also common.  Again we would often play in the Nielsen yard.  They seemed to have a big front yard and many of us would congregate there.  Different tag versions included regular tag.  However we would also play frozen tag, where the person "it" had to capture everyone.  If he touched you you were frozen until someone not touched yet could tag you and then you were unfrozen.  This game seemed to be a bit more even than kick the can and not quite as difficult for the person "it."
Other communal games would be participating in sports.  On day we went to the Nielsen'a for a big game of football.  Everyone had their own t-shirt upon which they had put numbers with magic marker.  I remember I tended to Willie Wood of the Packers.  One child, whose mother didn't want to mark a shirt, came with the numbers pinned to the shirt.  Some people just don't understand.  You can't play with pinned numbers because they are dangerous if a tackle sport.
We would also organize baseball games in our community.  When we first moved to Hyrum, there were two vacant lots next door.  We used these for a baseball diamond.  We would have friends from a couple blocks away come to play.  This would include the Wengreens, the Nielsens and the Burnetts.  Even Denny McClain would come at times.  We had quite some adventures.  This lots included hills form soil removal when they put in our house.  This made a nice home run fence.  Our bases were not always conventional.  We had a big rock as our third base.  Charlie was playing third.  One game a low liner was hit.  The ball hit the rock and bounced up and caught Charlie a good one in the face.  I can't remember where, but it was bloody and painful.  We replaced our third base after that.
We had some good fun.  When they finally built homes next door it did not destroy our baseball games.  We then moved across the street next to the Burnetts where there was a pasture which sufficed for a good baseball playing field.  Weldon would usually put these games together.  It is interesting because when he was 15 he started running Hyrum Little League games and organizing leagues on a broader basis.

Hyrum Invitational Llittle League Tournament 1979

In 1979, at the end of the year, Hyrum sponsored a little league tournament.  I think this is the only year Hyrum sponsored a tournament.  We actually sponsored two tournaments, one for 11-12 year olds, and another for 9 and 10 year olds.  Both tournies where double elimination.  It went without a hitch, until we got rain on Saturday for the  championship game of the 9-10 year old age, and we had to come back on Monday and finish it up.  The other thing is Hyrum had two teams in both leagues.  The Hyrum teams represented the Blacksmith Fork league which included Wellsville, Paradise, Hyrum and Nibley.  Kamran Preece pitched for the Hyrum team two.  Rod Stuart and Devin Fackrell for team one.  Team one took the championship without losing. 

Malad Tournament:

This is the last year of the Wardles running and coaching Hyrum Baseball.  Weldon had graduated from College and moved on.  I coached this year but would be involved with school the next year doing field placement, and then move on to graduate school. 
This year we sponsored a four city league, and called ourselves Blacksmith Fork Little League (We were no affiliated with the national organization but used the term Little League to represent an age group.)  From this group we selected an all star team which represented us at the Malad Tournament.  As you can see from the the tournament schedule we won two games and lost two games, not quite making it to the third place game.  We had some good players.  Terral Baldwin from Wellsville was our catcher.  Rod Stuart and Steven Banks right handed pitchers, and Devin Fackrell left-handed pitcher. Steven developed arm problems, and I'm not sure if he actually pitched at Malad.  Dennis Gittens also helped pitch and provide power at the plate.  Ryan Brown was an infielder.

St. Louis Cardinals Baseball: 1968

This is the scorecard for St Louis Cardinal Baseball.  I went an saw them twice growing up.  They lost both times.  However the team was very good as the won the World Series and 1967, and were national League champs in 1968.  This game they lost 1-0 to the Chicago Cubs with Ferguson Jenkins pitching for the Cubs.  The other game I saw they lost to the Giants 2-1 with Bob Gibson pitching for the Cardinals, and Willie Mays hitting a home run for the Giants.

Soda Springs and Broken Arms

The first year Weldon coached Hyrum Little League, he was only 15, and I was 13, his assistant.  The kids on the team were only a year younger than me, and three years younger than Weldon.  However we had some good players.  James Keeley pitched, and he was as fast as anyone on the other teams.  Kenny Jensen was a natural ball player.  He played shortstop and had a high batting average.  We also had Nicky Bowen at third who had a high on-base percentage.  Jay Shaver was the fastest on the team, and was often called upon to steal a base.  Our league rules did not allow a base runner to leave the base until the ball passed the batter.  This made stealing a base a difficult affair.  Sometime we would employ delayed steals--taking off when the catcher threw the ball to the pitcher.  Jay was the only would who was for successful at a strait steal.  This was before the head first dive was outlawed for little league.  That was Jay's favorite slide.
We would take our all-star team to traveling tournaments at the end of the year.  We were not part of the Official Little-League.  Soda Springs was the first tournament.  Their diamond was a dirt infield and was fairly hard.  One game, Jay was called upon to steal second.  I don't remember if he was safe.  However with his head first slide he broke his arm.  It was a pretty bad break and obviously broken.

Jay Shaver is kneeling, facing the camera, in the middle

He ended up at the Soda Springs Hospital.  With no one over 16 in our group, we walked to the hospital.  It was a long walk.  The hospital was on the edge of town.  We made it there did did our best to cheer Jay up.
As for how the tournament went, I don't remember.  We were a win a game, maybe two before losing out of the tournament in those days.
http://whilhelmsthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/07/summer-baseball-malad-soda-springs-and.html
I had my turn at the same hospital the next year.  Soda Spring also hosted a pony league tournament on the same diamond, with the fence and bases back farther.  We were playing Pocatello, and I was called upon to bunt for a suicide squeeze.  I laid the bunt down the first base line, scoring a run from third.  However as the first baseman went to tag me in front of the base, I had a momentary idea that if I crashed into him, maybe he would drop the ball and I could make it to first.  However he tagged me from the side, and I lost my balance and did a somersault tumble, breaking my left arm.   The umpire kicked the first baseman out of the game, more because of one of the kids in the Pocatello dugout laughing than for what he had done.

Me batting at Soda Springs the day before I broke my arm

The Unknown Grave about the Prophet Joseph Smith

The Unknown grave   By David H. Smith (Posthumous son of Joseph Smith)

There ‘s an unknown grave in a green lowly spot,
   The form that it covers will ne’er be forgot.
Where have trees spread and the wild locust wave
   Their fragrant white blooms over the unknown grave
   Over the unknown grave.

And near by its side does the wild rabbit tread,
   While over its bosom the wild thistles spread.
As if in their kindness to guard and to save
   From man’s soot-step intruding the unknown grave,
   Guarding the unknown grave.

The heavens may weep and the thunders moan low,
   Or the bright sun-shine and the soft breezes blow,
Unheeding the heart, one responsive and brave,
   Of the one who sleeps there in the unknown grave.
   Low in an unknown grave.

The prophet whose life was destroyed by his foes
   Sleeps now where no hand may disturb his repose.
Till trumpets of God drown the notes of the wave
   And we see him arise from his unknown grave,
   God bless that unknown grave.

The love all embracing that never can end,
   In death, as in life, knew him well as a friend,
The power of, Jesus the mighty to save
   Will despoil of its treasure the unknown grave,
   No more an unknown grave.

(From David H Smith Hesperis,, A book of Poems, Plano, Illinois 1875)

Hyrum Little League Baseball: 1980?

I hope I have the year correct.  This, I think is the Hyrum team which represented the Blacksmith Fork League.  We have three players from Wellsville on the team, Darrin Meyers, Rod Stewart and Terrel Baldwin, first three in back on the left.  We also had Devin Fackrell who threw left-handed (I think the tall boy in the back.)  Travis Gittens in front left.  We had a very good team.  We traveled to Malad for a double-header.  We didn't have much success at Soda Springs.  We fared better at Malad winning two games.  We also had a tournament in Hyrum, playing against Logan and Rexburg, and came out on top.  Please help if you can identify any of the others.

Malad Baseball Tournament

Malad Baseball Tournament by: Billy Wardle
When we were younger, we like to play baseball, but mostly we coached.  Our baseball escapades gave us the opportunity to go to tournaments in Malad every year.  We also went to other cities, but it seemed Malad was always our favorite.  So much so that the city of Malad always held something magical for me.
    The Malad tournament was held in August every year, usually the second weekend.  It was about an hour drive from Hyrum.  We would go up and camp out.  We stayed in placed like the American Legion Hall, the old hospital, camped downtown; and camped by an old church.
    The town always bustled with excitement.  There was pinball to be played (this was before all the video games came out), a free swim pass to use, a free bowling pass, free movies as well as free prizes from some of the local merchants. 
    Of course there was the baseball too.  Our teams varied in their performance, but we seemed to get better over the years.  It was always more fun to win.  It allowed you to stay more days at the tournament.  It also allowed you to hold your head up high when you ran into kids from any of the other fifteen teams.  It was especially good when you were in a championship game—which happened a few times.

Lost Dianna by: Dianna

Lost Dianna by: Dianna Norman From Childhood Experiences of the Wardle Family, editor Charlie Wardle
When I was five years old my family and my sister’s family went to Soda Springs, Idaho to watch my brother Bill play in a Pony League Tournament.
I was very restless watching the game and so I took my nephew, Buffie, and we went to a little park to swing.  I came back just as the game was over and went to get in the car with my sister and family; but she told me I couldn’t ride back to Hyrum with them and I was to wait for my folks.  I decided I would go back and play on the swings while I was waiting and when I came back I looked everywhere for my folks and couldn’t find them.  I started to cry and some older girls came and asked me what was the matter.  I told them I couldn’t find my mother and dad.  They took hold of my hand and told me not to cry and took me to the police station.  The policeman had me get in the police car with me and we drove around Soda Springs looking for my folks.  I finally recognized someone from Hyrum (The Lundbergs).  They told the policeman they would take me home after we had dinner.  I really was glad to have someone take me home but I felt dumb because I didn’t have any money to pay for my dinner.
When my folks got home they were really surprised because I hadn’t come with my sister and family.  They called to the police in Soda Springs and they told them they had found me and the Lundbergs were bringing me home.  I was so frightened and I never went wondering off again without letting my parents know where I was going.