Baseball: At 62, Geishert still hitting away in HTL

Todd D. Milewski  —  5/25/2008 3:49 pm

Vern Geishert describes it like he's still in the moment.

In front of a paltry mid-September crowd at Metropolitan Stadium near Minneapolis that was boosted by a busload of people from his hometown of Richland Center, he entered the game when California Angels ace Andy Messersmith ran into trouble with a 5-1 lead in the seventh inning.

"I was heating it up and I was throwing it in the dirt and all over the place," Geishert said. "It was actually kind of funny. The first guy up to bat -- the bases were loaded with one out, and they pinch-hit a left-hander. The first pitch I threw was up and in on him. He backed away from the ball but the ball hit the bat and it went to the third baseman on a line, and he stepped on third for a double play."

Geishert pitched the next two innings to complete a 5-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins, allowing only a ninth-inning Cesar Tovar home run in picking up his first -- and only -- major league save.

It was Sept. 18, 1969, and maybe the reason why the event stands out over 38 years later -- other, of course, than because his father, sister and plenty of others from his hometown were there -- was because it was part of a special time in Geishert's career.

It was day 25 of a 38-day stint in the big leagues, but that brief fling with the majors at the end of the 1969 season was nowhere near the end of Geishert's baseball career.

For proof, check the box score of last Sunday's Richland Center-Blanchardville game in the Home Talent League. It shows Geishert, 62, with a pinch-hit, two-run single for Richland Center in the sixth inning of a 6-2 victory.

HTL officials said Geishert is one of the oldest players ever in the league, but, more than 50 years into his baseball career, playing is not something he's willing to limit to just once a week.

"Being 62, it's not something I just do occasionally," Geishert said. "Last year, I played for four, five different teams around the area and up north. It's not that I just come out and hit once in a Home Talent League game Sunday."

Geishert is active in the Men's Senior Baseball League in Madison in addition to the HTL, where he gets in as an occasional pinch-hitter and in some late innings to supplement a coaching role.

He is also the junior varsity baseball coach at Richland Center High School, following a few years coaching the varsity at Ithaca.

"He loves to stay active," Richland Center HTL manager Jeff Hilleshiem said, "and he obviously loves the game."

Journey starts in Madison

Geishert's long baseball story started on the east side of Madison, where he played Little League. Even after his family moved to Richland Center before he started eighth grade, Geishert returned to Madison for at least one summer, staying with his aunt to play ball.

As a prep junior, he pitched for Richland Center in the state tournament. The Hornets lost to Madison Central 2-0, but Geishert, who struck out seven and took a no-hitter into the fifth, got noticed by some pro scouts. They followed him throughout his senior season, but he was on his way to the University of Wisconsin on scholarship.

He stayed only one year at UW and never played an intercollegiate game because freshmen then weren't allowed to compete. The Angels called and asked whether he would sign if they selected him in the January 1966 draft, and it was something of a shock to him when they did so in the second round.

"That was a couple of years after high school, and all I'd played was summer ball in high school, other than that little bit at the UW," he said. "So I was actually kind of surprised I got drafted at all. Then I signed, and it went from there."

Geishert spent time in Single-A, Double-A and Triple-A in 1966, his first season in the California system. He still holds the Single-A Midwest League record for the lowest season ERA, 1.13, for the Quad Cities Angels.

When he started the 1967 season with Triple-A Seattle, the organization made him a relief pitcher for the first time. A year later, he was back in Double-A El Paso.

"I pitched all the time but I didn't have a real good record," he said of that third season in El Paso. "Chuck Tanner was our manager at the time, and he just kept starting me every fourth day even though I didn't pitch real well. But we eventually won the pennant. And the next year (1968), he went to Triple-A, and I went back to Double-A to try to get better. After the first month or so, they needed a pitcher in Triple-A, so the Angels moved me to Triple-A. At the end of the '69 season, that's when I got my opportunity to play in the big leagues."

Won first game

It started on Aug. 26, when he made his debut in front of 6,808 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

Geishert replaced Steve Kealey with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third and the Angels leading the Indians 4-2. The first batter he faced -- Menomonie native Vern Fuller -- hit a fly ball to center to end the inning.

The right-hander allowed a single to Jose Cardenal in the fourth but picked him off. He retired the next six batters before allowing a walk and a run-scoring double in the seventh.

He struck out Cardenal and got Lou Klimchock to fly to left, but Frank Baker singled to put runners on first and third.

That was the end for Geishert, who allowed two earned runs and three hits in four innings, good enough for his only major league victory.

"When I was warming up, I was really nervous, obviously," he said, drawing into another clear memory. "It was in Cleveland, and I came in in relief in that game and pitched the middle part of the game and picked up the win. That was a real exciting time, of course."

Four days later, he pitched two-thirds of an inning at Baltimore and was replaced by Hoyt Wilhelm, who was nearing the end of a 20-year Baseball Hall of Fame career.

He started the second game of a Sept. 1 doubleheader at the Washington Senators on one day rest, allowing six earned runs in 4 2-3 innings but getting a no-decision in an Angels victory.

The 38-day journey ended on Oct. 2, when he started in front of 12,042 at Kansas City's Municipal Stadium and took the loss. The last batter he faced, Royals pitcher Wally Bunker, singled with two outs to score a run.

The five strikeouts Geishert recorded that day were his major-league high. In 11 appearances, he had a 4.65 ERA and struck out 18 while walking seven in 31 innings.

He faced future Hall-of-Famers Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew, Reggie Jackson, Luis Aparicio and Frank Robinson (they were a combined 3-for-12 against Geishert).

Trades mark endings

He didn't get back to the majors in part because in the offseason following the 1969 campaign, Geishert was traded to the Cincinnati Reds.

"Cincinnati gave me every opportunity to make the big club" in 1970, Geishert said, "but I didn't pitch well enough in spring training to make the trip north with them."

So it was back to Triple-A, this time in Indianapolis. While pitching for the Indians in 1971, Geishert was traded along with Frank Duffy to the San Francisco Giants for slugger George Foster. (When he left San Francisco, Foster had four career homers. Over the next 11 seasons with the Reds, Foster hit 244 -- including 52 in 1977, the most in the majors since Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961 to break Babe Ruth's single-season record. Oh, and he helped Cincinnati win back-to-back World Series in 1975-76.)

Geishert decided that it was the end of the line in pro ball for him.

"That was one of the -- I don't know if you'd call it the worst trade, but one of the trades that didn't work out very well for the Giants, anyway," he said. "Because I came home and Foster went to Cincinnati and hit all those home runs and helped them win the World Series and all."

When Geishert came back to Madison, he joined Richland Center's Home Talent League team, not without controversy.

The HTL commissioner showed up at Geishert's first game, against Cross Plains.

"He came and told the manager of our team that I couldn't pitch if I was just going to come back and pitch a couple games for Richland Center," Geishert said. "Like, right, I'm going to leave pro ball just to pitch a couple games in my hometown."

Current HTL President Pat Reilly was in the batter's box for Dodgeville shortly after Geishert's return from the pros, and he said the ball looked like it was the size of an aspirin coming to the plate.

Still, Reilly said he got a hit off the right-hander.

"I think I was lucky," Reilly said. "The bat happened to be in the right place."

Brings majors back home

Geishert said he has been doing volunteer coaching and working in clinics since he was in pro ball. Now, the high school players with whom he works occasionally get a taste of the big leagues in Richland Center.

Someone from the busload of people from Richland Center on that September day in 1969 in Minnesota had an 8mm camera with which he took video of the game. Geishert had that made into a DVD that sometimes is in the presentation he gives to young players, even if it does include a clip of him striking out.

"Now I actually have a movie of me pitching in the big leagues," Geishert said. "So it's not all just a figment of my imagination. I can actually say here it is. I have a bunch of memorabilia, too -- clippings and so forth. I always try to, not to toot my own horn really, but just to show them what could be. If they work hard, they'd have an opportunity like I did."

Geishert's pro experience took him from coast to coast -- and beyond. In 1969, the Angels moved their top farm team to Hawaii.

"My wife and daughters were in Hawaii actually more than I was because the road trips weren't just a three-day affair," Geishert said. "When you left from there, you'd go on a two-week road trip, usually. They weren't going to pay for going back and forth a hundred times to the mainland."

He also played winter ball in Puerto Rico for two seasons. In 1969, his team -- managed by Jim Fregosi and including teammates Bernie Carbo and former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Clyde Wright -- won the championship and played in the Caribbean World Series in Caracas, Venezuela.

"Playing pro ball, it was hard on the family issues -- moving around all the time," Geishert said. "We moved seven, eight, nine times a year sometimes, going to spring training, winter ball and various places throughout the year. In the end, I think we enjoyed the experience."

Geishert said he has been fortunate to avoid major injuries in his career, and even if the time he has put into the game is now taking a toll on his body, it's still fun for him to be involved.

He's not pitching in the HTL -- "That's for the young guys," he said -- but he can still throw strikes and can fool hitters.

"It's been great," he said of his baseball career. "The opportunity to play professional, that's something that wasn't expected. So that turned out to be a highlight of the whole baseball experience. It's just fun. I like working with the young people to continue on now."

Plus, as evidenced last Sunday, he still has some RBIs left in his bat.

"I can't run a lick, I can tell you that," he said. "But at least I made it to first base in that game so I did get the RBIs out of it, anyway."

Todd D. Milewski  —  5/25/2008 3:49 pm