Top of the 4th: Champions

The Lebanon Little League All-Stars shown in the picture were coached by my Dad.(left) In the front row middle is Mark "WHO" Campbell. After coaching the Midget League White Sox Dad stayed active in Lebanon baseball coaching other teams and being active in the sport at all levels. Dad served as Little League President and also served as President of the Optimist Club. The Optimist were a sponsor of the Babe Ruth League in Lebanon. One of Dad's accomplishments was dividing the league into a Junior Division and a Senior Divison. Gregg, Scott and Mark played in Little League, each of them making the All-Star team, and Babe Ruth league. Gregg and Scott also played High School Baseball making All-District or All-Conference teams. In addition Gregg played Legion Baseball and earned a Baseball Scholarship to Crowder Community College in Neosho, Missouri.

The picture is on a page with an article about the Little League all-stars but also includes an article about Lebanon's Babe Ruth All-Stars advancing to the state tournament in the 14-15 year old division. On that team is Scott Campbell who played shortstop. Seems like Gregg and Scott primarily played 2nd base or Shortstop.

There were several occassions when Dad formed pick-up teams to go play at the Mickey Owen Baseball school in Miller, Missouri. One such occassion had several boys of Gregg's age but included the Hilme & Clark fathers and sons from the Midget League days. During this era Mickey Owen was the Sheriff of Greene County, MO (Springfield) whom Dad had met through other civic activities in Lebanon, notably Boy Scouts. So, who was Mickey Owen and why did he have a baseball school? Mickey Owen was a catcher who played professional baseball between 1937-1954. Most notably he played for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Brooklyn Dodgers. He is most famous for a particular event that took place in the 1941 World Series, Brooklyn vs Yankees. Quoting from an article: "During the championship season, he set a record for most errorless fielding chances by a catcher with 508 perfect attempts. Ironically, Owen earned a place in baseball lore for a costly passed ball that he was charged with during the '41 World Series." The Dodgers led 4-3 in the top of the ninth inning. With two outs and a 3-2 count on the batter, Owen missed a swinging 3rd strike. The Yankees went on to rally, won the game and took a 3 games to 1 lead in the series. The next day the Yankees won the world championship in game 5. -30-