Couldn’t You Just See Hi Simmons Grinning When Kammer Tightened and Fanned the Side?

by Joe Pollack, Missourian Sports Editor
(Columbia Missourian, June 15, 1954)

The game came into the living room and we spent last night in Omaha, restraining a pounding heart and straining with every pitch.
For the Tigers it was a game that counted. A loss would have seen a dejected crew on its way home today. The win puts the Bengals into their second NCAA final in three years.
The three solid hits that gave Missouri two runs in the second inning were cause for rejoicing, and when the Tigers added to the lead, joy was unbounded.
However, right at the start hearts had sunk to shoe-top level on the Spartans’ first-inning threat, but Bob Schoonmaker’s throw to the plate and Kammer’s tightening up made breath come easier.
When he fanned the side in the second, we could visualize Hi Simmons grinning in the dugout, reflecting on the wisdom of his choice when he took the sophomore third baseman and turned him into a pitcher – not a thrower – but the best pitcher in the conference.
From the days of watching him at Rollins Field, it was not hard to see Kammer’s curve breaking across the knees. Bob Schoonmaker handled 11 putouts at first base and the infield turned two fast double plays. As a matter of fact, the Tiger outfield accounted for only six putouts.
On the second double play, the radio announcer grew rapturous over Bob Schoonmaker’s stretch. But Missouri fans have been watching Schoony make that play for three years, stretching to the utmost.
Nowhere does there exist a better team man than the husky graduate, three-letter man, honor student and one who is always giving everything on the playing field. There may be better ballplayers than Schoony, but they don’t come any tougher and none have any more of what Simmons calls “that fortitude”.
Things got tougher toward the end of the game, and we squirmed with Simmons when the Spartans put two men on – and then came through with the runs. And when Chuck Matthews tripled and came home with the tying run in the eighth, you could see the gloom in the living room.
When Bill Hopping doubled in the top of the sixth and then sped to third, some seemed to think the tigers had suffered a mental lapse. That may be, but there is another possible explanation. Perhaps Kammer felt he was a bit more effective pitching from a full windup and decided to gamble on it.
And then Cox walked, used his head to get tot third – and the Omaha stadium dissolved into bedlam on Kammer’s single. It’s a wonderful feeling, isn’t it?