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It’s 1952 and we were in the second year of Official Little League Baseball in Elgin, which fielded two teams. I was 12 years old and played for the Kiwanis Blue team coached by Mr. Otto Haverland and Mr. Ray Coffman.
In our young eyes, Coach Haverland was a gruff older man and we were scared of him. I think this was the first time he’d coached kids instead of adults. This was my first time to play organized baseball and he was a town legend as a ball player.
One of our nightly night games against Hutto was rained out, and the game was rescheduled for a Saturday in Hutto. Coach Coffman wasn’t able to attend the game, so Coach Haverland asked Billy Henry, who was still in high school at the time, to assist him.
Hutto didn’t field a very strong team, so Coach Haverland decided to let the younger players start the same and play until the end of the fourth inning of our sixinning game. It was a very warm afternoon when the game started and we fell behind early, but knew we could pull through once all of us older players got into the game.
Now for the interesting part.
Mr. Haverland promptly fell asleep during the early innings. We were behind at the end of four innings. With us being behind and us being scared of Coach Haverland, we were afraid to wake him. Billy Henry finally found the courage to arouse Coach Haverland from his slumber.
After a few minutes, Coach Haverland was fully awake and made the necessary line-up changes to put us older players in to finish the final two innings. I think we scored over ten runs at our last two at-bats and won the game easily.
Now, in my later years, I’m fully aware what sitting in the sun during warm spring afternoons can do. It’s nap time.
Don’t forget that the Elgin Depot Museum is open on Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 4. Elgin’s history with local military men and women is interesting to see in the Veterans Room, formerly the ticket office when the passenger trains stopped here.
Local church and civic groups are welcome to set a time for a special day with a personal docent. Do you know what the El Camino Real de Los Tejas might be? Drop by to see the amazing story of the first and oldest trail in Texas, from far southwest Texas up and through the state and into Louisiana.
