Grand Junction Eagles Semipro Baseball Team a Big
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Grand Junction Eagles semipro baseball team a big hit 1950 Eagles: Left to right: Durb Loback, business manager, Tom Kornhouse, manager, Les Miller, Dick Pond, B. Schnobel, L. Tanko, D. Sheurn, H. Jones, A. May, G. Sneltger, C. Jones, Bus Bergman, V. Giles, Ken Murphy and Gregg Carrol, batboy. Bergman family photo collection 1955 Eagles: Front row left to right: Bill Fanning, Ronnie Capra, Jim Nylund, John Geesing, Dick Reimer, Bus Bergman, Bob Sullivan, Larry Klumb, Al Kinsow, and Fred Waitman. Back row, left to right: Vaughn Shell, Bill Evans, Del Peterson, Paul Kovach, Cecil Davis, John Graeber, Ray Erxleben, Pete Correa. Bergman family photo collection. By Kathy Jordan When I recently sat down with Elinor Bergman, wife of the late Bus Bergman, and Bill Fanning to talk about the Eagles baseball team, the refrain, “Those were the days my friend, we’d thought they’d never end”, kept running through my head. The Eagles, a semipro baseball team, was formed in 1948 when Eagles Lodge No. 595 began sponsorship. The Eagles Lodge also supported bringing JUCO to Grand Junction. The Eagles were a grassroots team and originally featured “local talent.” The team was a big deal, and large crowds always turned out to watch them. It was an exciting time for Grand Junction sports enthusiasts. Elinor’s husband, Walter “Bus” Bergman, coached at Fort Lewis College in Durango before he and Elinor moved to Grand Junction. He was baseball coach at Mesa College and joined the Eagles as a pitcher in 1949. That year Bergman and Ken Murphy, a pitching/catching combination were living in Durango and traveling to Grand Junction to play. Bergman served as manager in 1952 and 1953, and then took a sabbatical before rejoining the team as manager in 1956. He retired from that position in 1961. He was one of the men responsible for bringing the Junior College World Series to Grand Junction in 1959. Bill Fanning came to Grand Junction in 1954 to teach school and coach baseball at Grand Junction High School. He played his first year with the Eagles in 1955 as third baseman and remained through the 1961 season. Wally Schang, a onetime Major League catcher who had won four World Series championships, was the manager at the time. Fanning said he was impressed that at age 65 Schang would be out catching during batting practice. Elinor raised her children sitting on wooden bleachers at the ball park. She said that when their son, Walt, was three weeks old she took him to a game for what was to be just a few minutes. Four hours later the game was over, and she took young Walt home. She said that Walt grew up on the third baseline of a field that at first had no fence. Walt shared a great story about Fanning and Bus, who was then the coach, when they were playing for the Eagles in Wichita, Kan. in 1956. Walt said Fanning, who was prematurely gray, was approached by a Wichita newspaper reporter, who asked him if he was the coach. Fanning, who thought he had been set up by the other players, said “yes.” The reporter then asked Fanning for a few comments on his “players”. Fanning told the reporter “That third baseman Fanning is talented. He batted a 400, you need to keep an eye on him”. The next day Bergman was reading the story, laughed and said “I don’t recall saying that”. It was a story told frequently at ballplayers’ reunions. From a story Fanning told, the Eagles had a great sense of humor. They were playing a game in a Texas town, and their hotel was along the railroad tracks. After one of many trains went rumbling through, Larry Klumb, a team member, called the front desk and asked “What the hell time does this hotel get to El Paso”? Support from the Grand Junction community kept the Eagles alive. As a fundraiser, the Eagles started the Hot Stove League Dinner in 1952. It must have been quite the affair, since it was held in the Green Room of the old La Court Hotel, where many of the city’s special events took place. A program from the dinner showed the community spirit and support, because the list of directors were the movers and shakers of the day. In 1956 when the Eagles were raising money to go the National Baseball Congress play offs at Wichita, the management of Uranium Downs donated all general and kennel club admission to the team’s travel fund. The Eagles were celebrities in Grand Junction. The newspaper would publish a list of times and locations of more than 90 businesses where Eagles players would be available to sign autographs. Some professional baseball players came out of the Eagles team. Paul Kovach went to the Baltimore Orioles, and Bill Evans played for the Red Sox. Max Alvis played for the Eagles for a short time while he was waiting for the Cleveland Indians to sign him, knocking Fanning out of his third base position during his stay. Jim Brenham from Fruita went on to play for the New York Yankees. Craig Morton, former Denver Broncos quarterback, was a member of the team. After playing for the Eagles Jim Sunburg played for the Kansas City Royals and caught every game in the 1989 World Series. Yes those were the days..