We never asked him to play

The Winter wiffle ball field on the upper left corner of Sandcreek and Imboden drives. Don Schultz’s house is to the right of Imboden Drive.

My mom often includes clippings from my hometown newspaper when she sends me mail. A couple days ago, I received my birthday card, and inside was an article about Don Schultz finally gaining admittance into the Illinois Amateur Softball Association Hall of Fame.

I wouldn’t have known who this man was save for a note my mom attached to the article, indicating this was our neighbor to the north, across Imboden Drive, in Decatur, Ill. He was the man whose yard was beautifully landscaped. He was the man who sometimes yelled at us for retrieving wiffle balls out of his yard.

Wiffle ball in the Winter yard was an annual occurrence, first on weekends as the weather got warm, and then more days than not once school let out. We installed an old home plate from South Shores Park into our yard, wood base and all.

We were fortunate to live on the corner, which provided ample space for a wiffle ball field, and living next door to us were David and Jennifer Boltz, similar in age to me and my brother. This allowed for natural games of two-on-two wiffle ball, complete with bases, home runs and the occasional dodging of cars to retrieve the little white ball with holes around the top half. Yes, we were wiffle ball snobs. Only the official, skinny yellow bats and balls were allowed.

A hit was a home run if it landed on Imboden Drive. After a bounce or two, the wiffle balls would invariably end up in Schultz’s yard. We would have to retrieve them, sometimes from under evergreen bushes or his huge pine tree. And sometimes, we would hear it from old man Schultz, who was in his late 50s and early 60s during the heyday of wiffle ball in the Winter yard.

Wiffle ball continued to be a part of my life for many years. I played in tournaments at South Shores Park with my boyhood best friend, David Gordon, winning the tournament title every year we played, except one, when David was sick and I teamed with my brother to win the title. David and I went to Beloit College to play baseball, and had intramural indoor wiffle ball there for two years, following official wiffle ball rules. We won the championship both seasons.

By the time we interacted with Schultz, his playing days were done. For 20 years, according to the article my mom sent me, Schultz was an outfielder for Decatur fastpitch and Industrial League softball teams, and also dabbled in baseball. Schultz has a scrapbook filled with team pictures, articles about him, including one where he is called “the best center fielder in Decatur. He’s an outfield by himself.”

The article said Schultz has been eagerly awaiting induction into the Hall of Fame. His playing career has been over more than 40 years, but finally, he’s getting the recognition he deserves. Maybe that’s why he was grumpy with us, because he couldn’t play anymore, or maybe it’s because we never asked him to play. If I would have known about his background, I certainly would have. Something tells me he would have belted a lot of home runs into his own yard.