(Columbia Daily Tribune, April 3, 1954)
The Missouri Tigers, opening the baseball season at Ft. Leonard Wood this afternoon, were scheduled to face a trio of Hilltopper hurlers back from last season's National Baseball Congress championship team.
Coach Dick Campbell planned to start Lefty Pete Burnside and follow with Jim DePalo and Ed Staab. Bert Beckmann was to open on the mound for the Tigers, with Emil Kammer and Ed Cook each working three-inning stints.
The Hilltoppers, who come to Columbia for a return game next Tuesday at Rollins Field, will have most of the same talent that won the NBC tournament at Wichita last season.
Heading the pitching staff is Bill (Bud) Black, a University City boy who started his major league career with the St. Louis Browns and was traded to the Detroit Tigers before entering the army.
Only two newcomers will be in the Hilltopper lineup and both have had professional experience. They are shortstop Phil Mateja, who played for Chattanooga in the Southern association last year, and first baseman Chuck Weiss, a Yankee farmhand.
Veterans Dick Gray at third base and Bob McKee at second round out the infield and another returnee, Keith Schmidt, will be behind the plate.
Vince Magi, Whitey Herzog and Pete Vitale, the Hilltoppers' outfield trio, were named All-Americans in the national tournament.
I almost got out of baseball at Mizzou before ever pitching in a game, though, all because of a fashion misunderstanding.
I had made the traveling squad, and we were about to leave on one of the first trips of the season, but I didn’t show up for the bus. When I came to school, I had three pairs of jeans, a couple of shirts and a suit. All of my dress clothes were winter clothes. In basketball, all I needed was a coat and tie. I assumed you needed the same in baseball, but I wasn’t going to wear my winter suit on the trip, so I just didn’t go.
When the team returned to Columbia, I saw the coach, John Simmons, coming down the hall, and I thought I was through with baseball. He asked me why I missed the trip and I told him. To my surprise, he said they didn’t require guys to wear suits. I was a baseball player again.
(Norm Stewart in Stormin' Back)
NOTE: The National Baseball Congress and its now well-established World Series were the brainchild of Wichita sporting goods salesman Hap Dumont in the midst of the Depression. Thousands of young prospects and ex-major leaguers have since played in the tournament, which has continued to be played at the stadium Hap built. In the first few decades, most of the teams were either barnstorming semi-pro clubs or town teams sponsored by local factories. The typical star was an ex-professional, and quite a few of the players had played major league ball. The NBC continues today, comprised entirely of amateur athletes
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