Front row: (left to right): Howard Nelson-American Legion district chair, John Cildner, Randy Adams, Danny Felt, Mike Clary
Middle row: Mike McFee, Wayne Schmitz, Bill Rittenbery, George Skaff, Merv Rettenmund, Mike Beito
Back row: Ralph Sullivan-coach, Don Trevarrow, Bill Anderson, Bobby Reed, Carl Cmejrek, John Biedenbach, Rick Shupe.
Missing: Herb Kateman
They were called the Colts, a fitting nickname for a baseball team that grew into thoroughbreds.
The Buick Colts of 1961 were just a collection of mostly Southwestern High kids playing in the Boys Baseball program and the American Legion circuit.
But in the years to follow they sent three pitchers and three sluggers into the professional ranks, saw their catcher play on two World Series teams and graduated several other players into college ball.
Together for that summer of ’61, they galloped to Legion championships at the city, zone and state levels and reached the semifinals of a four state regional before being corralled.
Their 17-3 record reflected Legion play only, but the Colts played many more games in the burgeoning Boys program and won the Class C (18and-under) and Class A (unlimited age) titles amid a competitive field of some 5,000 kids.
“It was an era of really good baseball players around Genesee County,” said outfielder Mike Beito.
The Colts had some of the best, led by Merv Rettenmund, a hard hitting catcher who later played outfield for the Baltimore Orioles and Cincinnati Reds and appeared in World Series with both.
Bobby Reed, a pitcher with a curve ball that dropped “12-to-6,” played for the Detroit Tigers, and fellow hurlers Wayne Schmitz (Braves) and lefty Mike McFee played in minor league systems.
Infielder Carl Cmejrek won a Big Ten batting title with Michigan State and signed with the Orioles. John Biedenbach set batting records at MSU and was drafted by the San Francisco Giants.
“Almost everybody else went on and played in college,” said right fielder Danny Felt.
Third baseman George Skaff batted cleanup, Randy Adams played second base and Mike Clary was in the outfield. Other players included Dick Shupe, Don Trevarrow, John Gildner, Bill Anderson, Ron Oskey, Marv Rettenmund and Herb Kateman.
They were coached by Ralph “Frenchy” Sullivan and assistant Dick Leach, a former Tiger farmhand who also coached Southwestern.
The Colts went 8-0 in local Legion play – no small feat – to qualify for the zone tournament in Southfield.
“When you look back, you realize Flint was a very competitive place, but you didn’t know it when you were a 16- or 17-year-old kid,” said Felt. “Getting out of Flint wasn’t easy.”
At Southfield they out slugged East Detroit 11-10, blanked Owosso 6-0 on a two-hitter by McFee and buried East Detroit again with a six-run seventh inning for a 10-4 victory.
By this point, McFee had established himself as a strikeout pitcher with a flair for wildness. He fanned 17 against Owosso but also walked five and hit five with pitches. In a later game he struck out 10, walked 10 and hit four.
“He kept them loose, let’s put it that way,” said Cmejrek.
For the next trip to Big Rapids, Buick donated four cars, and the Colts brought back Flint’s first Legion state title since 1952.
They bombed Detroit Edison 18-5, then beat defending champ Bay City 6-5 in the bottom of the 12th on Shupe’s line single through the box. Schmitz threw a three-hitter in a 4-1 win over Escanaba, but then nine errors led to an 8-4 loss to Detroit.
In a third game with Detroit, Biedenbach blasted two home runs and Skaff a two-run shot in an 8-7 title-winning victory.
Skaff was errorless in 19 chances at third, but Rettenmund took the Ki Ki Cuyler Award as tournament MVP with a 10-for-17 assault (.588), including two homers, a double, a triple and nine walks.
“That’s the summer Merv really developed,” said Schmitz. “Scouts wanted to sign him right then.”
In a sweltering regional at Princeton, Ind., Flint lost the opener 9-8 to Cincinnati, rallying for six runs in the eighth to take an 8-7 lead, then giving up two Cincy runs in the ninth.
The Colts bounced back to beat Kentucky 7-5 with two runs in the ninth, then nipped Rockport, Ind., 4-3 on Biedenbach”s inside-the-park homer to the 470-foot mark in center.
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