Bauder

This is the fourth in a series of seven articles profiling the 2009 inductees into the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame.Baseball and Bauder. The words are almost synonymous.Now they'll be together forever in the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame.Bauder, a 1926 Portersville graduate who enjoyed a five-decade career in the Eagle County League, will be inducted into the Hall at the 44th annual banquet April 25 at the Butler Days Inn.Bauder died in 1998 at the age of 91."My father loved baseball from the time he was old enough to play it," said Bauder's daughter, Lynda Ness. "I've heard stories of him telling his mother he was going out to play baseball, not telling her where."He'd walk for miles to get to a game on some days. If there was a baseball game nearby, he wanted to play in it."Bauder played four years of baseball and basketball at Portersville. A stellar player, he was offered a basketball scholarship by Geneva College.He spurned it, opting to go to work in the coal mines."That was just his work ethic," Ness said. "He thought it was what he should do at the time."Bauder began playing sandlot baseball in 1922 and spent nine years in the Sunset and Lawrence County League. He was involved in the Eagle County League as a player, manager and official from 1932 through 1975.He remained an active player until age 60.Bauder played for Portersville from 1932 through 1945, then played and coached for Middle Lancaster from 1946 until 1975. He also served as league president for 12 years.He started the Middle Lancaster team in the Eagle County League and financed much of the team's expenses out of his own pocket."They used to pass the hat to pay the umpires and there was some sponsorship for the uniforms, but the balls and bats and any additional costs, Dad paid for all that," Ness said."He was primarily a pitcher. I remember him pitching a game in 1963, the year I graduated from high school. My sister kept score at the games and I always wanted to play."Baseball has always been a big part of our family," she added.Bauder's son, Bill Jr., now 79 and living in Florida, played baseball for his father's Portersville and Middle Lancaster teams."He's as deserving as anybody in there," Bauder said of his father's upcoming induction.Pine-Richland High School football coach and athletic director Clair Altemus referred to Bauder as "the only steady thing in that league" during the 17 years he played for Bauder's Middle Lancaster squad."Bill was one of the league's founding fathers," Altemus said. "I saw a lot of things come and go with that league, but Bill was always there."When the league dwindled to three teams, Bill helped keep the dream of playing baseball alive for a lot of kids like myself."Mars, Middle Lancaster and Harmony were the only three teams left in the Eagle County League at one point. The league eventually regained momentum and grew to 18 teams."A lot of guys were playing softball when there were only the three (baseball) teams," Altemus recalled. "Bill paid for almost everything out of pocket to keep the league afloat. He and George Marburger were driving forces there."Marburger was Eagle County League secretary when Bauder was president.In 1946, Bauder, at age 40, fulfilled a lifetime dream: He bought a piece of farmland in Middle Lancaster and built a baseball field on it."That was something he always wanted to do," Ness said.The field was sold to Lancaster Township in the 1990s and was turned into a softball field. Now named Bauder Park, the field is still used by the Southwest Butler County Church Softball League.Bauder threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the ballpark's dedication, when he was well into his 80s at the time.Bauder's wife died March 9 at age 98, one week after receiving the news of her late husband's Hall of Fame induction."They're probably sitting together in heaven right now, very proud, laughing at us all," Altemus said.Tickets for the banquet are available at Bill's Beer Barn or from any Hall of Fame committee member.