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Kowalko's Korner

People in the Game

In the days of The Fastpitch Chronicle newspaper, Dennis Kowalko of Saskatoon, Saskatechwan did a monthly feature on players of the game. Dennis' feature articles appeared in every issue of the newspaper for 11 years. I'd like to get back to something similar to Kowalko's Korner on the website. In honor of Dennis Kowalko, I'm going to call this page Kowalko's Korner just as we did in his writing days for the newspaper.

If you are interested in submitting a feature story on one of your favorite players, umpires, managers, sponsors, fans etc. simply type up the article and submit it to me here at The Fastpitch Chronicle website mail to: faspich1@aol.com to get it here. I will proof your feature, edit a bit if needed and post your feature.

I will be formulating a questionaire that can be used to do the features just in case you're not as journalistic as you'd like to be. Everyone will be able to access the questionaire from this page once it is done and on the site.

Include a picture as well.

I look forward to your features.

Profiles Here include

Chris Deithert - Stillwater, Minnesota Ed Kirner - Aurora, Illinois

Chris Diethert - Stillwater, Minnesota

By Bob Tomlinson - 3/30/05

Some people find fastpitch softball after a baseball career comes to and end. Some simply stumble upon it. Others actually have a fastpitch pedigree.

Chris Diethert (pronounced Deedirt) has a pedigree.

Diethert’s father, played for the old Grain Belt team from the St. Croix Valley area for many years. His boys were all introduced to the game when they traveled to their father’s games with him in those days.

Chris, now 30, had his first official fastpitch at bat at age 12, in the small Northwestern Wisconsin town of Wanderoos. It took place during the annual tournament there. His dad stuck him into pinch hit and the speedy, young left-handed hitter dropped a bunt down the third base line for a base hit.

At the young age of 15, Chris hooked on with a team named The Millroad Inn out of the St. Croix Valley. That transpired at the same time he was playing baseball for the Stillwater Ponies baseball team. “My baseball coach was a former fastpitch player himself for the old Croix Valley Glass team in Stillwater, so he knew that fastpitch would actually sharpen my eye for the ball in baseball and make me quicker on defense,” stated Chris. “I had fallen in love with fastpitch before that, but that Millroad Inn experience really made me hunger for the game.”

Chris says he literally “grew up” on the Lily Lake softball fields in Stillwater as well as the legendary diamond at Scandia. “There were hundreds and hundreds of games of “hot box” at those places when my dad was playing,” he added. “Like every ball yard in those days, that’s what the players' young children did. That’s how we learned how to play ball.”

In addition to The Millroad Inn club, Chris has also played for the Scandia Class B Men’s Team and the East Side Beverage club out of Stillwater.

One of Chris’ favorite and most proud moments/memories was winning 28 games in a row in 1999 and claiming the Minnesota ASA Class B state title when he played on that Scandia Class B team. “That was a great run and great fun,” he quipped.

Now Chris plays for Vannelli’s/Rice Street (see their web page at http://www.fastpitchchronicle.com/vannellis.htm) and is primarily as second baseman but sometimes moves around to other infield positions. He is in his second year with Vannelli’s and was instrumental in 2004 for recruiting young Travis Kunz of British Columbia to the Twin Cities area.

About midway through the winter, Chris was working diligently, with the aid of some other great fastpitch people he chats with on the internet, to secure some pitching for the Vannelli’s club for 2005 when he learned that the primary fund-raising arm of the team had chosen to fold up the club.

Chris was devastated and quickly tried to find another team to hook up with because he knew he couldn’t go without playing the game. Things were looking pretty bleak in terms of finding a competitive team that traveled around even a little bit.

Then he hit it big!

No, he didn’t win the lottery nor inherit a huge sum of money.

What he did do was coax Fastpitch Chronicle website publisher Bob Tomlinson to add a message board to the FPC website. On the very first day that Bob fired up the message board, Chris connected with a new friend and the rest is history.

The new friend was interested in helping out a team with their finances and as long as Chris kept the bulk of his team from the state of Minnesota, the new anonymous sponsor promised to help him out.

The internet conversation quickly swung to the possibility of getting Travis Kunz back for another year and the two primary players in the mix came to an agreement. It was an agreement that made it possible for the Rice Street club to get back into the game.

Chris quickly contacted the old Rice Street players and was able to get most of them back in the fold. Instead of playing in the Wednesday night league in West St. Paul they chose to go to the Thursday night league at Dunning Field in order to get the old team together.

If not for Chris’ constant internet connections, Vannelli’s/Rice Street would not exist in 2005.

“Meeting great friends at the ball yards and then finding new friends on the internet and then meeting those people face to face is a pretty great thing,” Chris added. “I’ve made some incredible friendships in fastpitch with the likes of Bob Tomlinson, Lee Cose, Blair Ezekiel and many others. Guys like Bob, Al Doran and Jim Flanagan who provide everyone a chance to stay up on the game take a tremendous amount of time and effort and I really appreciate it and am sure that I speak for everyone. That’s how I stay connected to the game year-round.

“I might add that the new Fastpitch Chronicle caps that Bob has are awfully sharp and I have already added a number of colors of them to my cap collection. I enjoy that as well.”

"Without our new sponsor's anonymous donation, our team would not exist and now, we’re heading to the Red Rock Tournament at the end of April. “To our sponsor I say, "You know who you are and thanks from everybody associated with the Vannelli’s/Rice Street team.

“We are really excited about the Red Rock Tournament,” Chris added. “Bob Tomlinson has told me about all the great new friends I will meet there like Roy Stout, Ken Hackmeister, Chris Santos and others. I am really looking forward to the scenery, the competition and all the new friends that will be there to meet.”

Chris says he talks to lots of fastpitch softball people but wanted to make sure to thank a few other people within this profile. He pointed out Richard Quigley, the Scandia sponsor/coach; and Les Novak, the Gopher State ISC commissioner. “The names I mentioned in this interview are great fastpitch people and I appreciate every one of them. I’m just a bit player in the scheme of things.”

He may think he’s a bit player but a quick check among the members of the Vannelli’s/Rice Street team will surely give you a different idea of how much they appreciate his efforts.

He’s a home run hitter for them!

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ED KIRNER - - - Man of Many Hats – Many Talents – Many Achievements

Stars of the I.S.C. - - - - - - - - April 20, 2005
By Gordie Wise - - - ISC Information Officer
http://www.iscfastpitch.com/
sgwise@woh.rr.com

(A Tribute to the Past, Present, and Emerging Stars of the I.S.C.)


The dictionary defines the word “Versatile” as: Capable of turning easily from one to another of various tasks. It defines the word “Valuable” as: Of considerable use, service, or importance.

Those two words might BEGIN to describe the career of one ED KIRNER. Doubt it? Just take a listen to some of roles he has filled in his long career with the sport of men’s fastball:

Start with player, coach, manager, general manager, team organizer and founder, umpire, league secretary, public relations director, editor (and publisher) of a softball newspaper, free-lance writer, publicity director - - - plus the role of ISC Commissioner and the title as the “longest serving President” that organization has ever had!.

And that is just for tasks he has performed for the sport of fastball!

Want more? How about journeyman printer, fund-raiser, promoter of professional wrestling matches and of harness racing!!

And how about his role as a state finalist in the MILE RUN as a sophomore in high school!!

And Ed Kirner had a mighty hand in breaking the barrier which kept many of the nation’s top teams from competing in both ASA and ISC competition.

Not bad for a guy who endured heart trouble as a young man - - - troubles which cut short his playing career and re-directed his energies to - - - - - well, you can see the rest, can’t you?

Kirner’s nomination to the International Softball Congress Hall of Fame came from ISC pioneer Marv Casteel. He was elected to the Hall in 1989.

In Casteel’s nomination of Kirner, he noted that, “In 1980, through the efforts of Carrol Forbes, Ed Kirner, and Chuck Lockinger, Aurora Home Savings and Loan entered the ISC. They became the first ASA team of national level competition to do so. This opened the door and now nearly all teams play in both the ISC and ASA.”

Ray Anderson, a legend of the game for his longtime publishing of the Fastpitch Softball News Bulletin, observed of Ed Kirner: “I am in constant contact with teams and their PR people. Whenever any media called on Ed for information about the Aurora team, Ed was quick to furnish it efficiently and quickly - - was a big help in the publicity for the game - - Ed is one of the best, if not THE best, in the game. Fact is, if all teams had a PR man like Ed Kirner, the game would be much more prominent in the sports world.”

Dan Murr, then Sports Editor of the Aurora Beacon News, wrote a feature article focusing on Kirner. Some of the career highlights which Murr mentioned included:

Associated with the sport since his graduation from high school (East Aurora H.S. – class of ’51);
Secretary of the Aurora City League for seven years;
Associated with Hartman’s Supermarket team through eight city championship seasons;
Publicity/Public Relations Director for the Home Savings and Loan team beginning in 1973;
Publisher/Editor for 15 years of Grand Slam Fastpitch, a newspaper dedicated to men’s fastpitch - - each year spending three months selling ads, writing stories, and soliciting articles from teams across the U.S. and Canada - - with all profits going to help finance the Aurora team;
Raised more than $9,500 to help weather a financial storm for Ray Anderson and his Fastpitch Softball News Bulletin;
Developed the concept of a team “Yearbook” in 1981; wrote all the contents; sold the ads, did the layouts and paste-ups, and sold the books to finance the Aurora team’s trip to Japan for that year’s Friendship Series.

When Dale Lancaster, former Sports Editor of the Aurora Beacon News, wrote a weekly column for the Kendall County Sentinel, he focused on the “hats” which Kirner was wearing (or had worn) with such comments as: “Ed Kirner is a man full of hats”. Lancaster noted that Kirner had organized the May Jeweler softball team shortly after his high school graduation; had developed and supplied press releases for the Home Savings and Loan team to70 newspapers and broadcast media; and had been honored for “Outstanding Contributions to Softball” by the National Associations of Softball Writers and Broadcasters on two separate occasions.

Ed Kirner has been involved with the I.S.C. since that memorable year of 1980 and , as noted earlier, holds the distinction of serving as President for the I.S.C. for longer (12 years) than any other President.

Kirner was honored in 1992 by the Aurora Men’s Fastpitch Association as “Man of the Year” and was cited “for Outstanding Contribution to Fastpitch Softball” - - certainly an award richly deserved.

Hats off to ED KIRNER - - - - Hall of Famer; versatile and valuable, a walking testimony to service to his sport and to the greatness of the sport of fastball!

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Next Profile will feature Larry Lynch of Waterloo/Kitchener, Ontario