Contrary to today's popular belief, Sellers Park was not always the ambient, historic, luxurious baseball stadium it is today.
In the early 1950s, it was thistle clad with broken down wooden bleachers, no shelter and a dirt infield.
But it was Wellington's only genuine baseball field. The rest of the community was sprinkled with makeshift sandlot fields.
One could argue that for every sports facility built in the past 50 years here, there were children in mind.
And that's where Bob Holdaway comes in.
Almost 60 years ago, Holdaway became the first Wellington Babe Ruth baseball coach, and Wellington’s love affair with its youth sports programs had just begun.
New beginning —
Holdaway, along with his wife Joy, is enjoying the retirement life in Wellington these days. She's a para, and he is a Wal-Mart greeter and reading to young first and second graders in the local schools.
But in 1951, he was enjoying life in a whole different way.
Under the leadership of Louis "L.E." Hooten — for which half of Hibbs-Hooten field was named — Wellington secured an affiliation with an upstart national sports organization named after Ruth — arguably the greatest baseball who ever lived. Up until that point, Wellington had youth baseball, but it was mostly church sponsored. The rest was played on sandlots. Semi-pro baseball was dominant in those days - but those were for players much older than the 13-to-15 year olds the Babe Ruth League was seeking.
Hooten needed a coach for his new youth team, and he didn't have to look far. Holdaway, who was barely in his 20s, had just come back from the military, and was eager to coach.
Holdaway loved baseball growing up, so much so that he played semipro ball before he was supposed to and ended up losing a year of high school football eligibility because of it.
"Bob was a helluva player," said Jerry McComb, who was a member of that team and would later go on to break a few records for the Wellington High School football team. "He could play every position and do it well."
But Holdaway's biggest gift wasn't his own talent, but elevating the talent of his players.
The initial Babe Ruth team was quite a gathering of players, who would later become coaches, newspaper editors and hardworking railroaders or other career journeymen. People like Loren Hibbs, McComb, Darrell Robinson, Rex Ressler, Fred Hensen, Jim Hooten, John Lloyd Campbell among others sprinkled the roster. A young "Buddy" Robertson was the bat boy.
"We didn't have a lot to distract us — like video games or that kind of stuff," said James Hudson, a member of the team. "We would play for hours and loved it. I think we had a passion for baseball that you just don't see today."
Perhaps, that passion wasn't just about the era, but who was leading those kids.
Holdaway was the ultimate players' coach. Not much older than the players themselves, he led by example. If there were calisthenics to be done, he would run right beside them. He would never hesitate to mix it up on the ball diamond.
Most of all, he was a father figure on and off the field. He would take a few of the players rabbit and squirrel hunting just so they would have something to eat.
Holdaway said his big coaching mantra was teaching a player to think.
And ask any player from that time, and they would concur.
The first Babe Ruth baseball players didn't have to call pop-up flies, because they knew who was supposed to catch the ball.
Stealing? They didn't wait for the coach's steal sign. They just knew when it was time to run.
Bunting? These old-timers today can’t emphasize enough to you what a lost art that has become.
“You don’t even see good bunting in the Major League these days,” Hudson said.
"Bob hated having a player on third with no outs and not getting the runner in," McComb said. "So if there was a player on third with no outs, the next batter was to suicide bunt no matter who was on third or who was hitting."
The players learned small ball — both offensively and defensively.
"I remember we would work on turning double plays for hours," Hudson said. "So when it came time for the game, we knew exactly where that ball needed to go without any hesitation."
Nobody for this story could recollect exactly how good that first Wellington Babe Ruth team was. Even Holdaway had to ponder the team's record — thinking it finished over .500 against some "awfully good clubs since there weren't hardly any other Babe Ruth teams in Kansas at the time."
But what they do remember, were the plays, the camaraderie, the team unity.
"I can honestly say of all the coaches I have ever had," Hudson said. "Bob was by far my favorite. He taught the players well. And so many of the players would go on to coach others in the same way."
