Doug Middleton<\/p>\n
Stars of the International Softball Congress – – – March, 2004
\n(Story by Tim Smith, Sports Editor of the Morris Daily Herald)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s often said that the acorn does not fall far from the tree. The only
\ndifference is that some will occasionally go on to grow into a far more majestic tree than the one from which it came. <\/p>\n
This has largely been the case of All-World softball superstar Doug
\nMiddleton of Blue Springs, Missouri. The youngest of three children, while growing up in Springfield, Missouri, Middleton has been living the life of a grand and majestic oak tree. And while his siblings may not have fallen into fertile soil and matured into a top-level athlete the way Doug did, there is no questioning that his athletic roots took hold at an early age and, with the nurturing of his father Chuck, Middleton certainly stands high and tall to this very day.<\/p>\n
It all started in the early 1970s when Doug and his boyhood baseball mates of the day showed enough softball promise to Chuck Middleton that he entered them into a morning youth league in Springfield. They had promise, all right.<\/p>\n
Enough talent, too. So much so that coach Chuck was able to guide them to four Missouri state titles while Doug was just a lad between the ages of 13 and 18. It was then that \u201cDouble-Duty\u201d Doug was made.<\/p>\n
Through these formative years, the youngest Middleton was attending Kickapoo High School in Springfield and though the Chiefs only broke moderate athletic ground, Doug and his summer fastball team certainly doing so. At first they played under the sponsorship of Empire Bank and later, a beer distributor picked them up and they became the Schlitz Bulls. Really.<\/p>\n
Not content to just conquer Missouri and its best, led by the hitting and pitching of Middleton, the Schlitz Bulls won the ASA Nationals in their age group. Four times.<\/p>\n
\u201cFastpitch softball in the 60s, 70s and 80s was pretty popular. My dad coached the teams,\u201d Middleton said in a recent interview. \u201cWe started playing baseball and he took our team and he had us playing softball, too. It was kind of neat playing for him but we also had a bunch of good guys on the team that played together for years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, Doug also remembers hanging out at the softball diamond from an early age – shagging balls and bats for his dad\u2019s team for whom Chuck played as a catcher.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I was a bat boy and I remember hanging out at the softball field from an early age,\u201d Doug Middleton said. \u201cThis was at a time when people were packing the stands for games. Me and my friends would be there hanging out and running around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually the Empire Bank\/Schlitz Bulls were tearing things up and, while Doug was pitching \u201chalfway decent\u201d (his own assessment), his team was storming the nation. Doug was not just limited to playing baseball and softball though. By the time that he graduated from Kickapoo, he also was a grandeur on the gridiron, too. In fact, the 6-2 and 205-pound Middleton went to Central Missouri State, a D-II school, where he starred as an outside linebacker.<\/p>\n
In total, Doug didn\u2019t miss a start in his four years with the team and he was a four-year letterman each of the four seasons that he played with the Mules. Remember that he was playing baseball in a Mule uniform, as well. \u201cI think I did pretty decent,\u201d he assessed. \u201cIt was just about playing sports every day that made me better.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was back in 1983 that Doug started playing major fastpitch. And his peers throughout the world learned to cringe at his imposing
\ndiamond demeanor and performance. By 1986 while playing for Harold\u2019s Supermarket, Middleton once again tasted success at the National level when his team captured third at the ASA Major Nationals.<\/p>\n
It was in 1988 that he moved up the ladder and played on a team that finished second at the ISC World Tournament held in Decatur, Illinois. Fast forward three years later and Middleton was a centerpiece of one of the greatest softball teams ever assembled.
\nA little team put together in Sioux City, Iowa.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat first year the team had a record of 125-4,\u201d Middleton informed. \u201cWe had some guys on that team. It was very well put together and everything was first class there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result was two ISC World Championships and an ASA National title. \u201cIt was great but there was so much travel involved at that time,\u201d Middleton recalled. Especially when you consider that he was also now playing ball for Team USA in and around that same time. Since then, he\u2019s played in three Pan-American Games and for four U.S. International Softball Federation teams.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Middleton would find his calling back closer to the tree from which his acorn originally fell. He went back home to play for a team out of St. Joe, Missouri where he once again rose up to the highest of platforms. And oh, did he perform.<\/p>\n
Just two seasons ago, Middleton, along with the Frontier Casino crew and fellow pitcher Mike White won the ISC World Tournament in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, as well as the ASA National Tournament. \u201cWe actually lost that first game in Kitchener, but then Mike and I combined to throw seven straight shutouts to win it,\u201d Middleton said proudly. Wow. Simply wow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say that was probably the most fun I\u2019ve ever had. Winning both
\ntournaments in the same year,\u201d he added. \u201cThen, after that, I went and played in the 40-and-over tournament, went out and won that one, too. I\u2019d have to say that it was a career year.\u201d That speaks volumes for a guy who\u2019s been named as an ISC All-World player three times, a second teamer once and has been named as an All-American six times by the ASA. This from a guy who has made a name for himself as a pitcher and as a prodigious four-spot hitter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I hit fourth mostly. Except when I played for Penn Corp,\u201d he stated. \u201cThey had a lot of quality hitters and I moved down in the lineup there.\u201d Having been so accomplished as both a pitcher and a hitter, Middleton was asked which facet of the game that he takes more pride in – wielding the stick or shooting the pea.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the early 90\u2019s I\u2019d have to say as a hitter. In my 20s and 30s I really enjoyed hitting,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the last four or five years, it\u2019s been pitching. I like both, actually. It\u2019s really nice to win a game as a pitcher by a 1-0 score when you also hit the game-winning homerun.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to imagine what more such an accomplished athlete could want from life. Middleton recently expressed his candid thoughts about that very thing. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to remember that softball is just a hobby,\u201d he confided. \u201cWhen the weekends are over you still have to go to work. It takes its toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now I\u2019d have to say that I\u2019m currently retired. I just got back from an ISF event in New Zealand with the U.S. team and I think it was my last tournament,\u201d he continued. \u201cI have been debating it because I have been playing so well. However, I think it\u2019s time for me to spend more time with the family.\u201d That would be his wife Kristin and his two sons Jake (11) and Justin (10). After all, fastball has already been very, very good to Doug Middleton.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really can\u2019t complain. Softball has been good to me. I\u2019ve been a lot of places and it\u2019s been nice to play fastpitch softball,\u201d he said. \u201cIt would have been great to be a professional baseball player, but softball has been nice to fall back on. I\u2019ve gotten to meet a lot of great people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a fraternity,\u201d he added. \u201cI think that\u2019s what I\u2019ll miss most
\nabout it, not seeing everybody on tournament weekends. I can tell you this – – I\u2019ve had a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Middleton\u2019s day in the sun is truly over at the tender age of 41, then the thing that most will likely remember is standing in the shade of the shadow that his mighty oak cast when he was in his glory while on the diamond.<\/p>\n
By: T.G. Smith
\nSports Editor
\nMorris Daily Herald<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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