Rain Delayed
A Personal and Collective Recount of the Whitworth Pirates' Journey Through the NAIA Baseball Tournament in Sioux City, Iowa: June, 1960
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Twenty minutes later and rain was still falling, although there was a fantasy of hope that it had lessened in intensity. Whitworth had taken an early lead (a strategy Coach Merkel cultivated throughout the season) and their ace, Ray Washburn, was on the rubber, doggedly holding Georgia Southern scoreless through three innings. How long he could keep his arm warm, the muscles loose enough to continue pitching was a question on everyone’s mind as they milled around the dugout, saying little. Ray was a competitor; 6’1” and 200 lbs., a strong right-handed pitcher with a blazing fastball. During the tournament he had also proven adept at mixing in sharp curve balls and sliders, and every once in a while a killer breaking ball. The ability to effectively mix up his pitches caught the eye of more than one major league scout. In all, 15 of the 16 major league teams had scouts in attendance at various times throughout the tournament. As the teams waited, gasoline was once again spread along the infield base paths and ignited, burning off as much of the standing water as possible. The stench was over-powering, but most of the spectators who were in attendance had moved to warmer, drier locales. Only a few remained, including Bill Trenbeath’s parents, who had driven down from North Dakota to see their son play in the national tournament. **************************************** Bill Trenbeath was one of three players who rotated in at second base. He had come to Whitworth the year before as a transfer student from the University of North Dakota where he had been a chemical engineering major. He later described the move as the smartest one he ever made. Bill’s familiarity with the roads between Spokane and South Dakota proved especially beneficial to the uninitiated travelers and made him a useful resource when determining the best route to take on the way to Sioux City and the logical choice to drive much of the way. **************************************** The wait was unnerving. It was the championship game. Tomorrow they would be driving home. Georgia Southern represented Area 7 (Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia) and came into the tournament with a 17-9-1 regular season record, boasting wins at Kentucky, South Carolina and Florida State. Whitworth’s record was, by comparison, unimpressive at 13-7. In a pre-game interview Coach Merkel acknowledged that Georgia Southern had two terrific pitchers in Travis Rivers and Ray Mims and that they expected to see Mims on the mound that afternoon. He also admitted that, despite a day of rest, Whitworth was still considered the underdog. There was a reason for that.
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About the Book
“Readers will find Walline’s chosen narrative style to be much like watching an actual baseball game... capturing the delightful way a fan can come in and out of the action, enjoying the dalliances and diversions of the afternoon as attention drifts and dips with the cadence of the game.” – Molly Schick “Just throw strikes.” Coach Merkel’s singular instruction to his pitchers reflected his faith in both the ball players and the game itself. He preferred to let the game play out as it would and trust that if the pitchers threw strikes, the rest of the team would back him up and make the plays necessary to win. In June, 1960 Coach Paul Merkel, took that philosophy and his Whitworth Pirate baseball team to the NAIA Baseball “World Series” in Sioux City, Iowa. With a team composed primarily of a fire-balling right hander, a fiercely talented shortstop and an otherwise diverse potpourri of multi-sport athletes, the Whitworth Pirates made their way from Spokane, Washington to Sioux City on a shoestring budget. Their collective determination and ultimate success is the stuff of which baseball is made and is what lived in the heart of Coach Merkel until the day he died. But this is more than just a story about baseball, the devotion it inspires and the sacrifices it demands. It is also a story about family, the maturation of childhood perceptions, and the blossoming appreciation of all that is singular and remarkable about a parent.
About the Author
As the eldest of Paul Merkel’s five children, LINDA MERKEL WALLINE grew up a typical coach’s daughter, at turns awed by her father’s position as baseball coach and dismayed by the demands and sacrifices that job entailed. She was ten years old when her father and his Whitworth College baseball team journeyed to Sioux City, Iowa for the 1960 NAIA baseball tournament. An otherwise life-long resident of Spokane, Washington, Ms. Walline currently lives in Seattle. She is a 1972 graduate of Whitworth College (now University) where she majored in French and Art. It was during her many years working in the legal field as a paralegal that her interest in writing solidified.