Back When Stan was the Man

Back when Stan Musial was about to retire for St. Louis, and Bob Gibson was going to pick up where “The Man” left off, another influential man stepped onto a diamond not far from St. Louis. My grandfather, Ewald Holzinger, picked up his glove for an over-40 softball league at his military post. He never played any type of organized baseball, softball was the closest thing to baseball he ever got.

Ewald just never chose to go into baseball, in fact, it was a sensation in America whenever he was growing up. However, he decided to go with basketball in high school over baseball. During high school at St. Paul, he was a pretty good basketball player, but never played at the collegiate level after high school. Regardless, he was in good shape through high school and also through the war he was in. My grandfather decided to go into the military corps from 1948 through 1953 also known at the time as the Korean War. After his service, he worked as a carpenter in the Chicago area of Illinois for not very long after discovering he could be a mail clerk on the railroad in Chicago. He continued to work there for 38 years into retirement.

This is where baseball connects with me, his glove, and him through baseball. Through the VFW post in Highland, Illinois he was able to enjoy softball and baseball games in retirement. While he was still working as a railroad clerk, he joined the league at the post and played a lot of games with his fellow post members. In this over-40 league, my grandfather was able to actually play out his passion for baseball, just in a softball form. He used a glove that was left in his garage that later my brother and I claimed.

This glove is very old fashioned, obviously styled in the 1960’s. It has no “webbing” or padding in the glove unlike today’s gloves, which means you basically have to catch the ball with just your palm. It’s almost like if you were trying to catch a baseball with your bare hand with a very thin layer of leather over it. These same gloves were used at the same time by MLB legends and role models like pitcher Bob Gibson and outstanding fielder Willie Mays. I would like to think he modeled his play much like his role models in the major leagues.

He loved watching the St. Louis Cardinals with some of his favorite players like Lou Brock and Tim McCarver. Even as his days grew short, he very rarely missed a Cardinals games, and thankfully witnessed them winning a championship in 2011. Unfortunately, Ewald passed away this past year in November of 2016.

Like I said, I found his glove in his garage after he passed. My father originally wanted to skin the gloves for leather and turn them into wallets, but I will never be able to bring myself to letting him do that. Ewalds glove now sits in my room or in my garage and occasionally I play catch with it and imagine myself in his shoes. I miss him more and more each passing day, but that glove reminds me about how lucky I was to have such an amazing grandfather that loved me and cherished every living moment with me.

*Inspired by my late Grandpa-- 11/7/16