Roosevelt High School Baseball

K (his real name) first learned the game from his father, a professional baseball player for a company in the Butte Mines League. K later honed his skills playing alongside his older brother Jim (RHS '43, two time All City selection), and Jim's friends. Playing with kids four years your senior makes you good in a hurry, an experience K credits for developing him into a three time All-City pitcher and 3rd basemen for the Riders.

K's Roosevelt career got off to a fast start when in his sophomore pitching debut he tossed a complete game no hitter against Cleveland. Naturally the combination of pitching a no-hitter along with the name K, the baseball symbol for strikeout, made him an instant media darling - something that followed him throughout his baseball career.

The highlight of K's Rider career occurred at Roosevelt field in a game against Ballard, when in the bottom of the last inning, with two outs, K hit a walk-off home run to win the City Championship for the Riders. In those days the backstop at Roosevelt was in the northwest corner of the athletic field. The ball K hit landed on the roof of the school somewhere near the chimney. Remember this was the wood bat era.

While at Roosevelt K played on two City Championship baseball teams, along with two City Championship and one State Championship basketball team.

After leaving Roosevelt, K played three years in the outfield for the Washington Huskies, being selected to the All-Coast team following his Junior season.

Deciding it was time to move on, K signed a professional contract with the AAA Seattle Rainiers in 1949. K spent his first professional season with AA Vancouver of the Western International League; leading the team to the pennant while compiling a .349 batting average, amassing 200 hits and placing among the league leaders in virtually every offensive category.

K joined the Rainiers in 1950. However, it was 1951 that proved to be the watershed year in his professional career. K started the season by tearing his rotator cuff in spring training. In those days there were no surgery or rehabilitation techniques like there are today for that injury, so you simply played through the pain. The injury dogged him for the rest of his career.

Later that season while playing outfield, K dropped a routine fly ball. Rainiers Manager, Hall of Famer Roger Hornsby - a notorious bad personality, pulled K from the game in the middle of the inning. K came into the dugout and simply exploded in front of Hornsby. Hornsby was quick to return the favor. K soon learned that the price for losing his temper was a quick demotion to Vancouver. K says that outburst was the biggest mistake he ever made in his athletic career. Like the torn rotator cuff, the outburst followed him for the rest of his career.

The next season with Hornsby gone, K and his torn rotator again found himself with the Rainiers. K's Rainier career continued until 1955 when the team told him they were going to sell him to Tulsa. K felt what the Rainiers were doing was unethical as Tulsa wasn't going to be told about the rotator cuff problem. So at 26 he decided it was time to retire from baseball and join the real world.

Today K lives in Bellevue, and is a semi-retired sales executive for a company selling industrial grade fuel additives.