If you were an opposing pitcher, it wasn’t exactly a welcome sight whenever Kyle Rapinchuk stepped in the batter’s box. He was a pure hitter at Branson High School and later carried on his talents to the College of the Ozarks. Now the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame will soon recognize Rapinchuk with a Diamond… Read more »
For former Carl Junction High School and University of Central Missouri baseball standout Danny Powers, there are a handful of reasons why he found so much success, especially in NCAA Division II, where he was a multiple Pitcher of the Year, College World Series champion and authored a no-hitter. Among the biggest influences were his… Read more »
The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is all set for a big baseball celebration Thursday featuring the unveiling of a larger-than-life bronze statue of former Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Bill Virdon as well as the Baseball Luncheon presented by the Ozarks Coca-Cola/Dr Pepper Bottling Company, where six will be honored – including five new inductees.… Read more »
Mark Speight grew up in Branson when it was, as he put it, “a little country town,” where if a family owned a TV, it got only two channels. So, yes, he spent most of his days out of the house, playing sports. Even better, the lessons he learned from sports endured. “No question,” Speight… Read more »
For 1980 Hollister High School graduate Michael Vincent, what a run it’s been in baseball. He can say he won a Double-A league championships with future Hall of Famer Barry Larkin and future big-leaguers Rob Dibble and Chris Sabo, plus won an American Legion triple crown here in the Ozarks and played for two elite… Read more »
None other than future Baltimore Orioles skipper Earl Weaver was his manager in two of his first three seasons, and the experience set him for a memorable career that reached Triple-A. But, for longtime Bolivar resident Dan Bishop, he would never have gotten there without mentors and teammates here in the Ozarks. “Ed Brammer, my… Read more »
One of Springfield’s top pitchers in the late 1980s, a guy who pitched in the College World Series and for Team USA, Doug Bennett counts three tremendous influences in his baseball career: the late Dick Birmingham, Dave Davis and Norm DeBriyn. In order, Birmingham (MSHOF 2002) was Hillcrest High School’s much-respected baseball coach for 25… Read more »
He climbed out of the quaint, central Missouri River town of Glasgow and chased his baseball dreams – and perhaps would have become a household name across America had he come of age in a different era. And yet John Donaldson soldiered on. Despite Major League Baseball refusing to employ black ballplayers. Despite the little… Read more »
Long before Chelsea King Goodin became a standout for the Stafford High School softball team, she was going toe-to-toe with her younger brother on the sandlot – and taking mental notes during his games. “My interest in sports as I was growing up first began when my younger brother started getting involved,” Goodin said. “From… Read more »
In baseball, everybody’s got a story – some better than others. And, for Mark Bailey, his is the stuff that Little Leaguers dream of. Sure, he was often one or two years younger than most of his classmates while playing on ball fields and public parks in Springfield during the 1970s. In fact, he was… Read more »
Little Leaguers who collected baseball cards in the early 1960s might have traded for this one: It’s of West Plains’ own Bill Virdon, then the Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder, robbing New York Yankees great Yogi Berra of an extra-base hit deep in cavernous Forbes Field. Atop the card, it reads “1960 World Series,” while the… Read more »
He spent his youth in the 1960s here in the Ozarks, listening to the St. Louis Cardinals through the static of a transistor radio and, figuring his baseball talent wouldn’t take him far, he thought of another way of reaching the big leagues. For Rob Rains, if you couldn’t play for them, why not write… Read more »
[For details, check out our flier] In the summers of his youth, a broken axe handle served as his makeshift baseball bat, while his family’s front yard in Monett was a daily sandlot. And, even if his youth team wasn’t scheduled to play, he’d throw on his wool uniform and bike to the city field,… Read more »
SUNRISE BEACH – DT Engineering and Advertising Plus took top honors in their respective rounds – and Jim Brandenburgh sank a hole-in-one – in the Lake of the Ozarks Celebrity Golf Classic presented by Missouri Eagle, held Monday at the Club at Porto Cima. DT Engineering, paired with former St. Louis Cardinals infielder Tom Lawless,… Read more »
He grew up on the family farm in north central Missouri, learning the value of hard work, and it was the kind of work that Kelly Odneal could have done. That is, if he hadn’t loved sports so much – or, as a teen, fell under the guidance of the man who became his mentor,… Read more »
The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is proud to announce that admission on Sunday, Mother’s Day, will be free to all mothers, grandmothers and aunts bringing children to the museum. Open from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, the Hall of Fame is located at 3861 E. Stan Musial Dr. in southeast Springfield, or about a… Read more »
