{"id":30919,"date":"2017-04-18T10:04:43","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T17:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=30919"},"modified":"2017-04-18T10:04:43","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T17:04:43","slug":"gordy-schaaf-was-a-mainstay-in-hancock-michigan-fastpitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=30919","title":{"rendered":"Gordy Schaaf was a mainstay in Hancock Michigan fastpitch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_30920\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30920\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mininggazette.com\/sports\/local-sports\/2017\/04\/gordy-schaaf-was-a-mainstay-in-local-fast-pitch-softball\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/hancock_mi_300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"278\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30920\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30920\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click map to view original article (map courtesy of Townmapsusa.com<\/figcaption><\/figure><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mininggazette.com\/sports\/local-sports\/2017\/04\/gordy-schaaf-was-a-mainstay-in-local-fast-pitch-softball\/\" target=\"_blank\">From the Daily Mining Gazette<\/a><br \/>\n<em>By Paul Peterson<\/em><\/p>\n<p>HANCOCK \u2014 Men\u2019s fast-pitch softball hasn\u2019t been seen in these parts for more than two decades, but that didn\u2019t keep the late Gordy Schaaf from promoting the sport.<\/p>\n<p>Schaaf, who died at the age of 89 this past week, was involved in the sport as a player, manager and promoter for better than six decades.<\/p>\n<p>Arnie Putala of Baraga, a contemporary of Schaaf\u2019s during that period, said the Hancock native was always talking up the game.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"pullquote\">\u201cGordy (Schaaf) was always deeply involved in fast-pitch and sports in general,\u201d Putala said this week. \u201cIt really was a lifelong thing for him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Schaaf played baseball for the Hancock Merchants in the 1950s. One of the more memorable games for him came in 1957 when the George Kell All-Stars (comprised of several big leaguers) played the Merchants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust watching those big league players play the game was a thrill,\u201d he said, adding the Detroit Tigers outfielder Charley \u201cPaw Paw\u201d Maxwell blasted two long homers that night.<\/p>\n<p>He went exclusively to fast-pitch and pitched for Stevenson Chevrolet for the most part.<\/p>\n<p>Pete Poggione, an opponent in those days, said Schaaf pitched without a glove some occasions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGordy had the the largest hands I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Poggione commented. \u201cHe didn\u2019t need a glove to field his position.\u201d   <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mininggazette.com\/sports\/local-sports\/2017\/04\/gordy-schaaf-was-a-mainstay-in-local-fast-pitch-softball\/\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to continue reading the Daily Mining Gazette.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Daily Mining Gazette By Paul Peterson HANCOCK \u2014 Men\u2019s fast-pitch softball hasn\u2019t been seen in these parts for more than two decades, but that didn\u2019t keep the late Gordy Schaaf from promoting the sport. Schaaf, who died at the age of 89 this past week, was involved in the sport as a player, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,22,19],"tags":[681,682],"class_list":{"0":"post-30919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-people","9":"category-players","10":"tag-gordyschaaf","11":"tag-michiganfastball","12":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30922,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30919\/revisions\/30922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}