In 94 years on this earth, Carl Schwab has seen a lot of baseball.
He started playing the game when he was 12 and kept playing it for more than a half-century. There's 82 years of baseball knowledge tucked away in his head. He's a smiling, walking and talking encyclopedia, always willing to share his observations of great game which became his most cherished summer pastime.
At 94, Carl's eyesight is still sharp enough to know if it's a fastball, curveball or slider leaving the pitcher's hand and he was treated to some high-quality baseball seeing his grandsons Michael and Zach do their stuff on the diamond this summer.
During the double-A midget provincial championship last month at Citizen Field, Schwab was riveted to the action, sitting close to home plate in the booth underneath the grandstand, watching 16-year-old Michael play for the Prince George Lomak Knights.
Michael played a crucial role this season as the Knights second baseman, helping the Knights win the provincial crown on home turf in dramatic fashion, coming from behind to claim title with a suicide squeeze play in the final against the Ladner Red Sox.
Two weeks before that, Carl was in Burnaby watching Michael's 14-year-old brother Zach play a starring role at second base for the Prince George bantam Knights in the B.C. Minor Baseball double-A provincial championship. Road trips are not unusual for Carl. If there's a tournament somewhere in the province and it involves a family member, chances are, he will be there.
His sports infatuation started when he was just a kid, watching his older brothers and sisters play in baseball and fastball tournaments close to the family farm in Broadacres, Sask., a tiny farming community about 200 kilometres west of Saskatoon. Home to about 90 people when he was living there, Broadacres had a grain elevator and two schools, and not much else.
Sundays were tournament days and with 12 kids in the family, there was always a Schwab playing somewhere close to home. If there were no tournaments, they had their own ball diamond on the farm. Carl's dad died when he was 12 and his older siblings took over as coaches, always willing to share their secrets.
Born in 1922, Carl developed into a solid second baseman, but not right away. With so many siblings locking up infield spots he had to pay his dues chasing down balls in the outfield. In the early-'50s, Carl and his brothers Lefty (Joe) and Johnny were playing baseball in Unity, Sask., against the Delisle team, which had NHL players Max and Doug Bentley and their brother Mel (the team's top hitter) and a guy named Gordie Howe. Lefty struck out Howe three times, but eventually he connected on a pitch and blasted one over Carl's head in left field.
"The ball rolled under a car and by the time I got it, Gordie was home, I'll never forget that," said Carl. "Howe played in the field and he was one of the best hitters. Mel was the best one (of the Bentley bunch) but he didn't go any place because he looked after the farm. Oh, was he a slick first baseman.
"At one time there were six of us (Schwabs) on the team. My brother Johnny had a stiff leg, he got kicked by a horse, and of course in them days you didn't have any doctors. He pitched three games in one day in Unity and won all three. That's pretty phenomenal."
His two-years-younger sister, Anne, was good enough as a fastball pitcher to play for the Saskatoon women's rep team.
Carl and his wife Georgina had four daughters - Debbie, Carol, Kelly and Sandra - and four boys - Dennis, Darrell, Danny and Todd. All the kids played either baseball, fastball or slo-pitch. Carl coached minor baseball, always finding the time to drive his kids to and from games and practices and it was a constant cycle. Around the time hockey season ended, baseball started up. When that came to an end, it was time for football.
"My dad taught us hard work and playing something we love and working hard at it is just something we did," said Todd. "There was never such thing as 'We can't do this,' it was more, 'We've got to do this and let's get it done. Find a way to do it.' That's the way he played sports.
"The way Dad would show us how to play ground balls, there was always a light in his eye when he showed you because he loved it."
Dennis, the eldest son, excelled in baseball and was good enough to play college ball, but for a teenaged Canadian at the time, that opportunity did not exist. Darrell was one of the most gifted Schwabs athletically but died in a car accident in 1986 at age 23.
With eight kids to take care of and three sections of land to tend, carpentry work was more plentiful in the cities and Carl and Georgina moved the family to nearby North Battleford. But after a few good years of building, the housing industry crashed in 1970. There were only three houses built that year, so Carl pulled up stakes the following year and came to Prince George.
They brought their passion for sports with them. One year, six of the Schwab kids formed a slo-pitch team which went undefeated in a weekend event. The Citizen headline the next day read: 'Schwab mob mops up Summit Rental tournament.'
"I got a love for the game from my dad, he brought us up and got us into baseball," said Dennis, who was 15 when he moved to Prince George. "My earliest memory was going to (senior) fastball tournaments and I got to see lots of ball. He coached us and hauled us around with a bunch of other kids for many years.
"It's very nice to be sitting here watching a game with my dad at 94 years old."
Like many Canadians, the Blue Jays are Carl's team. He tries to get to a couple games every year and sometimes goes to Florida to watch the Jays in spring training.
"I doubt there's anything he hasn't seen," said Michael. "He was a second baseman too, but he doesn't like taking about himself.
"He taught me to be patient, be composed. Obviously, with all that experience he understands it, he's been through it all. Just believe in yourself and what you can do and just stick to it. He's taught me not to be thinking too much because the minute you start thinking too much, things aren't going to go your way."
Michael plays second base, Carl's usual position in baseball and fastball, and he's always hustling, always thinking ahead, just like his grandpa used to.
"It's amazing, but he does things exactly the way I used to," said Carl. "He's a little better than I ever was, he's more consistent. You notice how many times he comes over to talk to the pitcher. There's always a reason for that. You gotta to be thinking all the time.
"When you see him slide, I don't know anybody who can get down lower than Mike. The two boys, Mike and Zach, there's never been anything I can tell them that they didn't know already."
Watching the next-generation Schwabs do their thing on fields, arenas and gymnasiums is a perpetual source of pride for Carl and he's enjoying it more than when he used to watch his own kids in action.
"When my kids were playing, I was so damn busy trying to make a living," said Carl. "Now I've got all the time in the world."
