THE WAY THEY WERE

By John Kovach

Slovak league

Two players from a 1939 Struthers sandlot baseball team continue to keep their colorful history alive.

111As people battled back from the Great Depression and the steel mills were beginning to hum once again, baseball was the most popular summer recreational diversion for players and fans alike who were beginning to rebuild their lives.

The most popular circuit at the time was the Slovak Baseball league — in its final year of existence — which packed in the spectators at various area fields, including Oakland, Shady Run and Idora Park in Youngstown, North Side in Struthers, and Gordon Park and Loftun in Campbell.

It was not unusual for Slovak League games, which were played only on Sundays and were a popular family attraction, to attract 4,000 or more fans, including women and children.

One of the most successful and famous teams from that nostalgic era, which also produced America’s “Greatest Generation” that won World War II, was the Struthers North Side Civics.

Sponsored by George Tablack and managed by Mike Mestrovich, the North Side Civics won the 1939 Slovak League championship for the third straight year, and also went on to win the Mahoning Valley and State Semi-Pro tournament titles at Idora Park.

As a result, the Civics qualified for the National semi-pro tournament in Wichita, Kan. — even though they were amateurs — and won their first game before losing the next two games and being eliminated.

They completed the season with a 17-1 record, including 10-0 during the regular season to win the league crown, and wound up with a three-year record of 33-7-1.

Now, almost 70 years later, two surviving players from that team — Phil Stropich, 93, of Boardman, and Joe Stacey, 90, of Detroit — continue to keep their colorful history alive.

The two former teammates and World War II heroes recently held their two-man annual reunion in Boardman to celebrate the 69th year since their team went all the way to a national tournament.

Stropich, a 1933 Struthers High graduate, was a 24-year-old outfielder, strong hitter and one-game “underhanded” pitcher at the time, while Stacey, a 1936 Struthers High graduate, played third base and was a defensive standout with a strong arm.

Stropich said the Civics did well in the national tourney despite being all amateurs.

“Most of these were semi-pro and pro players,” recalled Stropich, who earlier had the top batting average of .526 in the six area and state tourney games at Idora Park.

He said that he only pitched one game in 1939, in the first game of the state tourney.

“I pitched underhand,” said Stropich, who injured his shoulder in 1936 and couldn’t throw overhand. “But the only reason I pitched is because the pitcher didn’t show up until the eighth inning, and [he] went in the ninth and saved it for me. I got the win and he the save.”

Stropich credits a lot of the team’s success to experience and camaraderie.

“We played together for a few years, so that was a big thing,” said Stropich, noting most of the players were on the team for the three years. “We were just like a bunch of brothers.”

Stropich said fans turned out in droves to watch the games.

“We had as high as 5,000 people at the games,” said Stropich, noting that the Sunday games also were very popular with women. “We had a lot of women following us. I would get hugs and kisses from women. Women followed us all over. There were young children, mostly boys.”

After World War II broke out, Stropich spent 45 months with the U.S. Army in the 82nd and 13th Airboirne Divisions in the European Theatre, helping to defeat Germany.

“I flew in gliders in the 13th Airborne Division and I was a squad leader. I flew in these planes. We were trained for that. We got $50 a month extra for that,” said Stropich. “There were 13 of us in the glider besides the pilot. I was a squad leader.”

After Stropich returned from the war, he launched a career as a tavern owner for 37 years in Struthers. He operated Phil’s Tavern at two different locations, first at the entrance to the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. Rod Mill on Bridge Street, the second near the Sheet & Tube Offices on Walton Avenue.

Stropich said Stacey served in the U.S. Fifth Army from 1941-45 as an infantryman, spent three years in North Africa and has seven bronze stars.

“[Stacey] moved to Detroit and operated a gas station with his brother for at least 30 years,” said Stropich. ”Joe comes to visit his nephew in Lowellville every summer and he calls me and we get together.”

kovach@vindy.com