(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by ANP Photo/Flip Martens & Marco Stoovelaar)
IN MEMORIAM
...Carl Angelo...
(1932 - 2020)...
(© Photo: Battle Creek Enquirer
used with permission) |
 Haarlem Baseball Week and Sullivans-icon Carl Angelo passed away
Nederlands
 BATTLE CREEK, Michigan (USA) -
Legendary pitcher and coach Carl Angelo, who participated with the wellknown team of the Grand Rapids Sullivans as a player in nine Haarlem Baseball Week-tournaments in the Netherlands, passed away on Wednesday (July 1), at the age of 88.
The news of Angelo's passing came in the week that the 30th edition of the international tournament was to be held in Haarlem.
Due to the measures against the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the tournament was cancelled in March.
Instead, an Online-edition of the tournament is held on the days the event was scheduled, June 26 though July 5.
The 30th tournament has been postponed to 2022.
The memorial service will be held outside the Chapel at Memorial Park Cemetery at 12:30 PM on Tuesday, July 7.
Those who want to attend Tuesday's service is asked to practice social distance and to wear a mask.
A larger memorial to celebrate the life of Carl Angelo will be held at a later date after the coronavirus pandemic.
Carl Kris Angelo was born on April 25, 1932 in Battle Creek, Michigan.
It was there that he lived his entire life and became involved in one of the most successful baseball-teams in the country.
Carl Angelo, whose looks resembled that of legend Babe Ruth, was involved in baseball for seven decades, either as a player or a coach.
He started playing baseball somewhere in the forties and retired in 2002.
In the sixties and seventies, Carl Angelo became a household name in Dutch baseball, thanks to his participation in the international Haarlem Baseball Week.
In 1961, the Netherlands Baseball Team made a trip to Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo in Michigan.
There, the Orange squad played several games against the Sullivans.
That team was establed in 1953 by Bob Sullivan, who then was in his early twenties and had started Sullivan's Carpet & Furniture a few years earlier in Grand Rapids.
Sullivan became an icon in both business and baseball in Grand Rapids.
Sullivan also sponsored American football and basketball, was involved in boxing and started Little League Baseball in Grand Rapids.
Bob Sullivan also served as a scout of Detroit Tigers for 36 years.
Through the years, many players of the Sullivans went on to play professionally and more than fifty of them played in the Major League, including Paul Assenmacher, Kirk Gibson, Willie Horton, Jim Kaat, Al Kaline and Dave Rozema.
The Sullivans won many regional and national baseball-titles, including the National Baseball Congress Championship-title four times (1960, 1970, 1983, 1984).
Bob Sullivan was the Manager of the team himself in all these years.
...Carl Angelo playing on his trumpet during the 1968...
...Haarlem Baseball Week in Haarlem (Netherlands)...
(© Photo: ANP Photo(1968)/Flip Martens) |
Carl Angelo played baseball for more than fifty years and became a legend of his own.
Later, he continued playing recreational baseball at a high age.
For many years, Angelo owned a restaurant in Battle Creek and he became the righthand of Sullivan at the baseball-team.
Angelo's Restaurant, which he owned until 2001, was located across Bailey Park, which was the home-site of the Sullivans baseball-team.
Initially, Angelo was one of the pitchers of the team, but later, he became an Assistant Coach.
In his long baseball-career, Carl Angelo won 353 games, lost only 69 and threw 13 No-Hitters.
He is considered the winningest pitcher in amateur baseball history.
Carl Angelo had been inducted into ten Halls of Fame.
In 1963, the Sullivans participated for the first time in the Haarlem Baseball Week, the second edition of the international event, which was held for the first time two years earlier in Haarlem (Netherlands).
Carl Angelo was one of the pitchers.
It was the first of seven tournaments he participated in, the last time in 1976.
However, sixteen years later, in 1992, Angelo returned to the mound in Haarlem.
Then, in 1996, he again pitched 1/3 inning at age 64, making him the oldest player to participate in the Haarlem Baseball Week.
With that, he participated in nine Baseball Weeks as a player.
He also was a member of the Sullivans solely as a coach during four more 'Weeks' to give him a total of 13 tournament-participations.
Angelo missed one of the Sullivans fourteen trips to the Netherlands.
Carl Angelo was very popular with the spectators, but that wasn't the case initially during his first appearance in 1963.
In his first game as pitcher, he threw the first pitch over the press box outside the stadium.
He got a warning from the umpire and he was yelled at by the spectators.
Later on in the tournament, Angelo created more fun at the field and started to become popular with the fans.
During his participations in the sixties, Carl Angelo did many funny things.
He walked backwards around the bases after hitting a homerun or came to the mound on a bicycle when he was a pitcher.
Or he climbed the mound wearing a Scottish kilt.
He also entered the mound one game dressed as a fireman or stepped up in the batter's box in shorts.
One time, he wore wooden shoes while coaching at first base.
...The area in the Netherlands Baseball and Softball...
...Museum dedicated to Carl Angelo and the Sullivans...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
It earned him the nickname 'Carl the Clown'.
Initially, Angelo was somewhat surprised by that, but later accepted the nickname.
During his first antics, some spectators thought he showed up the sport and didn't take the Dutch fans serious.
Henk Knol, who then covered baseball for the Haarlems Dagblad-newspaper, asked Angelo why he did all the clowning around.
Angelo answered that it was a character that he had created especially for the tournament.
He did it to entertain the spectators, as he thought, the fans had to have fun in the stadium and had to be entertained.
When it was clear that Angelo just wanted to entertain the fans, he was embraced by them and they started to wonder what he would do next during a game.
After that, Carl Angelo quickly became one of the most popular persons in the history of the tournament.
Carl Angelo was very serious while playing or coaching baseball and simply wanted the best for his team.
He was a talented player in High School and at College.
In 1954, he briefly played professionally in the organization of the Chicago White Sox, playing in the Minor League in the then D-level.
...Carl Angelo's trumpet in the...
...Netherlands Baseball and Softball...
...Museum in Haarlem...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
In 1982, Carl Angelo accounted for one of the most memorable moments in the Haarlem Baseball Week-history.
During the Opening Ceremony, he played the National Anthems of the three participating countries, USA, Japan and the Netherlands.
The evening before, he was very nervous, but when representatives of the organization liked and okayed his versions of the anthems, Angelo went ahead.
After his impressive performance, Angelo was given a standing ovation of several minutes.
Earlier, in 1968, Angelo also played on his trumpet, but back then, he just played some songs to entertain the fans.
In 1992, the Award for the Most Popular Player was named after Carl Angelo.
When he was informed of the decision, he was very emotional.
Since that year, the Carl Angelo Trophy is handed out to the tournament's Most Popular Player.
The Sullivans participated fourteen times in the Haarlem Baseball Week (1963, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998).
Twelve of them as Sullivans, two as Little Caesar's (in 1992, 1994), when this pizza-chain was the team's main sponsor.
The team won the Haarlem Baseball Week six times (1963, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1988, 1990).
In 2002, Carl Angelo returned to the Netherlands.
This time, he was on holiday.
During the 21st edition of the Haarlem Baseball Week that year, Angelo and the Sullivans were honored.
In the Netherlands Baseball and Softball Museum, a special section dedicated to the Sullivans and its role in the history of the Haarlem Baseball Week was opened.
Angelo donated the trumpet he had used to play the National Anthems in 1982.
Carl Angelo will surely be missed by his many fans and friends in the Netherlands.
He will never be forgotten and for always will be associacted with the rich history of the Haarlem Baseball Week.
The webmaster of Grand Slam * Stats & News offers his condolences to Carl's family and his many friends and wishes them a lot of strength with this big loss.
(July 3)
|
