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Greater Akron Baseball HOF inducts big names with new class
BENJAMIN WHITE
Associate Editor
Published: July 15, 2014
Three days of events planned by the Greater Akron Baseball Hall of Fame will usher an especially big-named class of inductees into the Hall as it continues its growth of recent years.
Former World Series pitcher and Wadsworth native Andy Sonnastine will join former Akron Aeros standouts Scott Pratt and Jamie Brown to rank among the 373 inductees of the 32-year-old GABHOF. Two of the 13 inductees, including Pratt, currently practice law.
Former Indians manager Mike Hargrove and current West Akron Baseball League President Mike Dies will be among those to receive the annual Service Awards.
“The Hall of Fame has come back bigger and better than ever before,” said GABHOF board member and 1985 inductee Carl Rakich. “We’re getting involved in the community.”
On Friday, the 2014 inductees will take the field at Canal Park Stadium before the Akron RubberDucks game and throw a simultaneous first pitch. On Saturday, the annual GABHOF Golf Outing will take over Riverwoods Golf Course in Merriman Valley. Finally, the annual Induction banquet will be held on Sunday at the Stow Youth Baseball Hall.
“Akron has a very, very rich history of baseball going all the way back to the 1800s,” Rakich said. “We’re constantly searching for older players.”
Many Indians fans remember Hargrove, also an inductee to the Indians Hall of Fame, for coaching the team to two World Series appearances in the ‘90s. He also played for the Indians in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s after stints with the Texas Rangers and San Diego Padres.
Hargrove received the Hall’s annual Jack Tramante Award for his financial support of the West Akron Baseball League, which his son-in-law and fellow 2014 award recipient Mike Dies serves as president.
“It’s a tremendous honor – I feel very undeserving,” said Hargrove, who found himself on the wrong side of the Ten Cent Beer Night in Cleveland as a Rangers rookie.
“[WABL] gives kids a sense of discipline and a lesson to work as a team,” he said. “Those are valuable lessons.”
Dies, a sale representative at Akron publications Rubber World Magazine and Wire & Cable Technology International Magazine, said he considers himself “blessed to have such great in-laws” and found himself equally surprised at the nod.
“I don’t know why I got it. All I’m doing is what people have done for me,” he said. “Obviously it’s not something you do for the award, but it’s nice to be recognized.”
Dies played in WABL until he was 12 and continued playing at Akron Firestone High School. Years later, he said he went to watch his nephew play in a WABL game when he found an urge to help the league.
“I thought, ‘I really want to get involved in this.’ I contacted the guy that was in charge of the umpires and started umping,” he said. “Just meeting the coaches, I decided I wanted to start coaching – 14 years later, here I am.”
Dies has served as president of WABL for four years and coaches his daughters’ softball team. He received an honorable mention in this year’s Indians’ Mentor of the Year Award.
“I think Mike truly deserved a lot of recognition for what he does with baseball in the Akron area,” said Hargrove. “He’s a good guy with a good heart. He cares.”
Andy Sonnanstine, who broke records at Wadsworth High School and Kent State University before pitching for the Tampa Bay Rays for five seasons, certainly ranks high among the most accomplished of the inductees. After four years in the minors, Sonnanstine reached the big leagues in 2007. The next year he helped the Rays past the Boston Red Sox to clinch the American League pennant, but the team eventually succumbed to the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series. Though injuries curtailed his career, Sonnanstine amassed a 28-31 record with a 5.26 ERA over 540 innings in the big leagues.
Another Wadsworth native, Drew Saylor likely would have made the list of inductees if his baseball career would have ended with his days as a minor league player. In 2006 he won the MAC batting title at Kent State and received First-Team All-America nods from Louisville Slugger and The Sporting News. After four years in the Florida Marlins farm system, his playing days ended.
Now, Saylor is the youngest manager in MLB-related professional baseball. The Colorado Rockies hired him as a minor-league hitting coach in 2011, and he rose to eventually manage their Class A-affiliate Tri-City Dust Devils, where he is in his second year.
Two former Aeros (renamed to the RubberDucks last year) players will also grace the walls of the GABHOF.
Jamie Brown, who pitched four games with the Boston Red Sox in 2004, wrote records at Canal Park Stadium during his five years with the Aeros. In 2005, he held a 2.78 ERA and went 9-5. He holds team records for most victories with 23.
Scott Pratt, a fan-favorite infielder for the Aeros in the early 2000s, also spent five years at Canal Park Stadium while breaking records. He holds franchise records for games played, at-bats, runs, hits, triples and stolen bases.
“The nice field, the great batter’s eye – it’s a great park to hit in,” he said. “The whole experience in Akron was really good.”
Since retiring from baseball after reaching to AAA, Pratt graduated the University of Utah’s College of Law last year. He currently clerks for a federal judge in Utah.
Another attorney in this year’s class is Ron Spears, an Akron solo practitioner. After growing up in Kentucky, he played baseball at Eastern Kentucky University before earning a law degree at the University of Kentucky College of Law. After moving to Akron, Spears earned a name for himself in the Akron AA League. He earned the Frank Garcia MVP Award in 2007 and also played in the Roy Hobbs league for four seasons.
Also among the inductees are Tom Boveington, James Farrell, Dave Poetter, Mike Pokorosky, Rick Quintrell, Rob Reho, Joe Schratz and David Starn.
Tom Floyd, Lonnie Stacy Sr., Andy Uy and Robert Hoffman received Service Awards along with Hargrove and Dies.
The GABHOF, housed in Canal Park Stadium, has undergone lots of change under new president Tom Giffen, who also serves as the CEO and president of Northeast Ohio Roy Hobbs Baseball League.
“He’s the guy that really put the foundation under this reborn organization,” said Rakich. “He’s done an outstanding job.”
The GABHOF also hosts an annual Summit County High School All-Star game every June. For more information about and tickets to this weekend’s GABHOF events, contact info@gabhof.org.