ust about started playing even everyone who better. Tey added followed Amer- two players – Wes icanJ Legion baseball Towe and Russell in 1978 thought the – and went on a powerhouse team at 22-game winning St. Louis Toman streak. Boothe would win “No disgrace the state champi- to John Stockstill, onship. When they but after he left, I found out they think we got better. would be playing a We added two really team from a little good players,” says southwest Missouri McCord. town called Re- Winn, one of public, that didn’t the pitchers who change anyone’s The 1978 Republic Legion team is still Republic’s only picked up the mind. baseball state champion. slack, ended up Toman Boothe being drafted by the had a 43-5 record, Pirates after college. and included two players with He looks back on the 1978 year ties to the St. Louis Cardinals. with fondness. When they made the journey to “It was probably one of my Springfeld for the champion- best summers,” he recalls. “I ship series at Meador Park, they played ball with a bunch of good reportedly already had their guys, good players, that came out bags packed for South Dakota 1978 to play hard every day. Tat was and the national tournament. enjoyable. At the beginning, I had Mike Evans, coach of the Ne- second thoughts about playing, braska team awaiting the winner of the Missouri contest, called but I’m glad I did.” to get a scouting report on Toman Boothe. He didn’t bother Te trip to nationals featured a transportation snafu that put learning anything about Republic. the team at their destination in the middle of the night. Tey had After beating Republic 8-3 in eleven innings in game to play the next day without much rest. one on Friday night, it looked like Toman Boothe wouldn’t be “We got shelled. I think we were a little bit awestruck,” says returning home anytime soon. But Republic had other ideas, McCord. banging out 39 hits in two games on Saturday to win 10-6 and Republic rebounded to win the next two games, and even 14-8, taking the best-of-three series and the state championship. turned a triple play, before being bounced from the tournament in In retrospect, maybe Toman Boothe should have their fourth game. Despite the disappointing end, McCord says known what it was in for. Te Tigers were 45-8 heading into the his experience that summer was one he’ll always cherish. series. Tey had three hitters–Mickey Owen, Tom Trogdon, and “Nationals was awesome, but the whole year was just an unbe- Kent Russell–batting over .400. Number-three hitter Greg Mc- lievable ride with the camaraderie that we had,” he says. “It was a Cord was just below that mark, and only one starter was hitting bunch of guys who really like being around each other.” below .300 for the season. “We were fast. We hit a few home runs. Ten we had this guy in the middle of the lineup (Trogdon), and he hit the ball You can learn more about the 1978 Republic harder than anyone. I’ve seen all kinds of good players, and he hit American Legion team, and read about other it harder than anyone I ever played with,” McCord says. Tiger Throwbacks, on our website. Just go to Earlier in the season, Republic had sufered a blow when pitcher John Stockstill was drafted by the Cubs and left town. www.republictigersports.com/throwback. Tat might send a lot of teams into a funk. Somehow, Republic REPUBLIC TIGER SPORTS JUNE/JULY 2015 27.