First of all Don, some weeks ago you asked about Russ Zimmerman and I
haven't seen any response from him therefore I will offer some basic
information. I have known Russ since I was 5 or 6 years old. He lived
in Bay City which was not all that far from where I was living at the
time, so when I entered MSB for the first time as a kindergartner in
September of 1960 his family and mine worked out arrangements for
car-pooling. Over the years we shared many trips to and from MSB until
he graduated in 1967. Now onward to Little League. This story can
really be traced back to when Coach Haliczer first arrived at the school
probably in my fourth or fifth grade year. Perhaps someone can
straighten me out on the specifics of his arrival. What he discovered
about me in swimming class was that I was pretty much terrified of the
water. Mr. Frank and whoever had me in the pool previous to Coach
Haliczer gave up on me because I only wanted to stay in the shallow end
of the pool and would not let go of the side of the pool even to use a
kick board. Coach was so patient with me! He never yelled at me, he
never degraded me by calling me names or any such thing. He was always
encouraging and patient. He started to gain my trust by having me kick
with my feet while putting my hands on his as I went forward he walked
backwards. We did this for a period of time until one day I was kicking
with my feet and suddenly his hands disappeared! At that point I knew
that I could trust the kick board and eventually dog paddle with my
hands. It took several years but in time he had me swimming on my back,
swimming lengths of the pool, and even twice having me jump off the
diving board which scared me quite a bit. For some reason Coach liked
me. There were times when I would be deliberately late to class so I
wouldn't have to swim. I think what he finally figured out was that I
rather enjoyed the penalties more than the swimming. I remember one
time he timed me to see how fast I could dress and then undress .
Another time he just had me sit in his office to talk about things. Ok,
so I didn't like swimming! Well, I didn't like wrestling either. Fifth
grade junior wrestling tournament Al Swain beat me 17 to nothing. I
wasn't very good at learning the moves but I was scrappy and managed not
to get pinned although I spent a lot of time on my back. He did pin me
the following year. Eventually Coach started inviting me out for
Little League. After the initial introductory remarks Coach would ask
if there was anybody who wanted to leave, and if so, this would be the
time to do so. I always left. I really can't explain what happened in
the fall of 1971! It may have had something to do with the fact that
Little League was much shorter than wrestling season, somewhere around
eight weeks. Perhaps I felt some indebtedness to Doc Haliczer! He knew
how much I loved bat and field, he would sometimes refer to me as Pepper
Martin. As much as I love baseball I wasn't very good at that either.
The fact is I never was that good of an athlete and I didn't like either
school sport, track nor wrestling! Well anyway, I again went to the
Little League meeting and for whatever reason when the invitation to
leave was offered, I stayed. My coaches were indeed Don Bowman and Al
Swain. Now the fact that I didn't like wrestling and wasn't a very good
wrestler, I still wanted to do my best and win! I remember coming in one
afternoon approximately a pound and a half over weight. The coaches
worked me over good, even took me up to the gym to do some running. I
was rather whipped when it came time for that day's match, and I don't
remember whether I won or lost. I do remember my record for the season
was 3 wins one loss and two ties. We were Little League champions that
year and got the pizza party. I sure was glad that the season was over
and I knew I would never have to wrestle again if I didn't want to. I
have probably never been in better physical shape than that time in
Little League. One little last sidebar to this whole story involves the
six hundred yard dash. The first time I was timed I ran it in over
three minutes. It must have been the fall before Little League I
remember running it in 2 minutes and 48 seconds. The thing that amazed
me was that when I was timed again that same sspring with Little League,
I trimmed 20 seconds off that mark, getting it down to 2 minutes 28
seconds. The interesting thing about that was that I didn't think I was
runnung any faster. I guess that's an illustration of how important
getting into shape can be! Well, That's my story and as Collin Raye once
sang, I'm stickin' to it. Now one more thing before I get out of here,
Lucy, it sounds as if you have moved. If so, e-mail or text your new
habitation info to me as Tigers schedules are nearly completed. All
that's left is the table of contents, the printing of address labels,
embossing, packaging and then into the mail.
Mark Martin, 73.
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