Knapp hopes to improve on 3rd-place finish at Indy
[Here’s an all-time great pull-out quote:
“I was flying upside down and backwards at 185 miles per hour, 15 feet off the ground. I was in the air so long that I had a lot of time to think: I realized the car was going to land upside down, so I moved my hands down to hang on to the bottom of the steering wheel; then I pulled my feet in, and prayed a lot as I waited for the impact.” ]
Steve Knapp is ready for this weekend’s qualifying for his second Indianapolis 500, but despite a number of incredible experiences, his biggest challenge is just to return to the high standards he set as a rookie last May.
“I think it’s going to take an average speed of 218 to make the field this year,” said Knapp. “But I think after we get everything figured out we’ll have a car that’s at least as good as last year.”
Knapp has no illusions of trying for the pole position as fastest qualifier in Saturday’s opening time trials, but, with typical pragmatism, he is only concerned with getting into the 33-car field for the May 30 race. Then he can focus on trying to match the remarkable third-place finish of a year ago that made Knapp an Up North motorsports hero.
A native of Cokato, Minn., Knapp, 34, lives in Salem, Wis., with his wife, Bobbi, and son Logan, 8. He moved there to start Elite Engines, when trying to finance his own racing proved futile and led to building race motors for other drivers. His business required him to abandon his own race-driving for several years, until he ran a test in 1995 that so impressed client John Miller of Minneapolis that he helped Knapp return to competitive driving in 1996.
Knapp’s skill, showing equal parts courage, finesse and poise, earned an opportunity to drive in last year’s Indy 500 as Jeff Ward’s teammate on the ISM race team. The team restricted Knapp’s car, compromising top speed for the control of more downforce. Nevertheless, he won rookie of the year honors when he finished third behind Eddie Cheever and Buddy Lazier.
While maneuvering through various crashes and problems in the Indy Racing League’s crown jewel event, Knapp showed remarkable poise. The head broke off a fastening screw on a pit stop, and the front cowling of his car’s bodywork started fluttering up from the wind pressure, so he came right back to the pits so the crew could secure the body panel with duct-tape.
Five laps later, as the car hurtled down the straights at 220 miles per hour, the tape started peeling up. Knapp knew the importance of making it to the next fuel stop, so he decided to hold the panel in place by hand.
“The first time I reached out, the force of the airflow snapped my arm back so hard that my right hand hit my helmet,” Knapp said. “It hit so hard that my hand went numb. I thought I broke my hand.”
When he got some feeling back in his hand, he reached out, low and snake-like, sliding his hand along the bodywork until he reached the taped-down body panel. He drove 15 laps that way, one hand on the wheel and holding the car together — literally — with the other hand. Not bad for a rookie, whose cool under pressure was pivotal in his ultimate third-place finish.
He had less luck, but more indelibly frightening experiences, on the rest of last year’s IRL circuit.
At Dover, a strut on his rear stabilizer wing apparently broke, throwing his car out of control in a turn. “I spun so hard that I blacked out, because it was ‘way more load than I’ve ever experienced,” said Knapp. “It was like I woke up in a dream with tire smoke coming off the front end. Suddenly I realized, ‘Oh-oh, this is Dover, and I’m going to hit the wall.’ ”
He suffered a concussion in that incident, which knocked him out of the next race. But that was nothing compared to Atlanta, where Billy Boat and Marco Greco collided, and Knapp saw it all and started to slow down. Unaware of what was happening ahead, Robby Unser sped past Knapp on the outside, then saw the crash ahead and slammed on his brakes, swerving down to the left — right into Knapp’s path.
“My right front tire hit his left front, and I flipped,” Knapp said, recalling the whole incident in chilling detail. “I was flying upside down and backwards at 185 miles per hour, 15 feet off the ground. I was in the air so long that I had a lot of time to think: I realized the car was going to land upside down, so I moved my hands down to hang on to the bottom of the steering wheel; then I pulled my feet in, and prayed a lot as I waited for the impact.”
The car hit upside down and flipped four times, hitting the wall on the first flip with such force that the rollbar punctured the body of his car. But again, his ability to think clearly in times of incredible stress allowed Knapp to escape uninjured, except for a couple of bruises on the top of his feet.
His skill on the track and his patience off it has paid off with a better situation with ISM. “I had two offers to drive for other teams after the Speedway last year,” Knapp said. “But ISM advised me to turn them down and said they’d try to get me a second car. It didn’t work out, though.”
This year, however, ISM and Ward went separate ways, and ISM came immediately to Knapp and made him the team’s only driver. He has spent some serious testing time for Indy, and got up over the 220 mark on Wednesday. The ISM team now has some new motors and completed a second car. Knapp will drive to set-up both of them, then take his pick for qualifying. The team may put Marco Greco into the second car.
“The hard lesson I’ve learned this year,” said Knapp, “is you’ve got to be good, but you’ve also got to be ready when the opportunity comes along.”
Hockey world mourns death of Don Clark
An array of hard-core amateur hockey notables made their way to the tiny town of Cumberland, Wis., last Saturday for the sad and reluctant task of bidding farewell to one of the most beloved hockey personalities in Upper Midwest history.
Don Clark, a tireless promoter for the sport and its leading historian, died a week ago Monday at his home in Cumberland at the age of 83.
Outside St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Cumberland, official Bob O’Connor, a leading hockey clinic instructor for USA Hockey, paused and looked at the bright sunshine and blue sky.
“It’s been a week of constant rain, and now look at this,” said O’Connor. “It’s a perfect day, and it’s just like God made this day, just for Don.”
Inside the church, Robert Fleming and Roger Godin gave eulogies for Clark’s long and wide-ranging lifetime in hockey. Fleming, a longtime official in both state and national amateur hockey operations, told of driving northward from his home in Rochester and stopping in Cumberland to pick up Clark and drive to countless hockey games in Northern Minnesota. He said he finally bought a cabin in Cumberland.
Godin, who operated the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame during its first decade of operation, recalled how Clark had helped found the hall and provided numerous fact and artifacts to the hall, even though he kept countless other bits of historicaly hockey memorabilia at his humble home in Cumberland.
Cal Marvin, from Warroad, and Buck Riley, from International Falls, made the six-hour trip to Cumberland, and numerous other veteran hockey types were present. Mostly, though, they were the type of hockey people who worked behind the scenes, more than prominent big shots in the game, and maybe that was appropriate, because that was Clark’s legacy. He always tried to get things done for the sport, but he worked just as hard to avoid credit for his accomplishments.
Clark, whose intense interest in hockey covers more than 50 years, founded the Minnesota Amateur Hockey Association in 1947 with Riley and Robert Ridder. Clark later managed various amateur and U.S. National teams, and became an official in the Amateur Hockey Association of the U.S. (later USA Hockey).
Ever-humble, Clark was best known as a historian — virtually a walking encyclopedia who could relay countless elements tracing the development of hockey in Minnesota and the country. He was such a devoted and influential part of the sport that he was inducted to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in Eveleth in 1978.
Clark’s health had been faltering since he suffered a heart attack last Nov. 1, and he was treated for congestive heart failure during the winter, which confined him to his home in Cumberland.
“But he got out of bed to attend the opening ceremonies of a new arena that was built in Siren (Wis.) about six weeks ago,” said John Clark, one of his three sons. “He was on oxygen, but nothing stopped him. He was hoping to go out in a little while for another new arena in the Baldwin area.”
Clark is survived by his wife, Harriet, and sons Mark of Cumberland, Tom of St. Paul, and John of Inver Grove Heights.
His wife and sons were with him through his final days. “He knew he was dying, but he still had a lot of curiosity, and we had some touching conversations with him last Sunday,” said John Clark. “He was so weak the last few weeks that you could hardly hear his voice, but he was still able to comfort my mother.”
Clark was born May 25, 1915, in Kensal, N.D., and grew up in Faribault, Minn., where he played amateur baseball and hockey. He was a good enough baseball player to be named to a Southern Minny League all-star team that played against the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, when Ted Williams was on the Millers team.
He was in the Civilian Conservation Corps before graduating in dairy science from the University of Minnesota. He worked for 20 years as a chemist for the Twin Cities Milk Producer’s Association, and was one of the founders of the Minnesota Dairy Technology Society. He held various administrative officers in MAHA from that date until 1988, during which time the number of registered hockey teams grew from 45 to nearly 4,000, and the number of indoor ice facilities grew from 13 to more than 220.
In 1952, Clark organized the first statewide tournament for Bantam hockey teams — the first state tournament of its kind in the U.S. He was the manager of the 1958 U.S. National hockey team, which was the first U.S. sports team to ever compete in the Soviet Union, and in 1959-60, Clark was manager of the Green Bay Bobcats, which won the U.S. Hockey League championship.
In 1961, he was hired as lab supervisor at the Stella Cheese company in Cumberland, and from there he continued to stay deeply involved in hockey well beyond his retirement in 1980. He served in administrative positions and as a director of organizations such as AHAUS and MAHA, and his interest in hockey history and collecting of memorabilia made it logical to help organize the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
Along with his induction to the Hall, Clark was presented with the National Hockey League’s Lester Patrick Award, the Hall of Fame’s Heritage Award, the Minnesota North Stars “Maroosh” Award, and the annual award for dedicated service presented by the Minnesota high school coaches association.
As a historian, Clark was constantly consulted by authors and writers and provided endless supplies of information. He was responsible for compiling the AHAUS and Olympic hockey guide books from the 1950s until the 1980s.
Memorials may be sent to Regional Hospice of Ashland, Wis., or to the Donald M. Clark Hockey Scholarship Award at the University of Minnesota.
Indy 500 seeks to regain past glory
For the fourth year in a row, the Indianapolis 500 will be conducted only by drivers and teams from the Indy Racing League, and the bigger names with their more-exotic race cars will be off racing somewhere else.
You can take sides as you choose, but you have to agree with one distinct fact: The Indianapolis 500 used to be THE race in the world, where the best drivers from all over the world came to compete in the world’s largest single sports event, and now it’s something less than that.
The split came when Indianapolis Motor Speedway boss, Tony George, decided to regain control of the kind of racing that would run at Indy by outlawing the extremely expensive cars from the Championship Auto Racing Teams.
It has been a rocky rivalry, and both sides have lost a lot.
In its first year without CART, the bigger names at CART ran a 500-mile race in direct conflict with Indy at Michigan International Speedway. The CART superstars were understandably a bit haughty in their superiority — right up until they had a massive crash at the start of their race, the kind of crash they assumed the novice-filled racers at Indy might suffer.
Buddy Lazier won that Indy 500. There was no question the CART cars were faster, because that first Indy-without-CART-stars required all entries to use year-old or older race cars, in order to curtail costs.
However, the Indy folks overlooked the fact that the main reason for the outrageous expense of CART cars was because of constantly escalating safety alterations. That was proven tragically when Indy pole-sitter Scott Brayton was killed in a pre-race crash when his head whiplashed to the side and he broke his neck. Experts agreed that had he been in a CART car with its new-that-year body cowling around the back and sides of the driver’s helmet, Brayton undoubtedly would have escaped uninjured.
Jimmy Vasser won the CART series, and Alex Zanardi, his Target-Ganassi teammate, had a sensational rookie season. Fans who went to Indy never saw them.
The next year, CART decided to abandon its head-on competition and inaugurated the Motorola 300 at Madison, Ill., which is in suburban St. Louis. The IRL went to its own specific race cars, with body designs by Dallara or G-Force, and non-turbocharged stockblock engines produced by only Oldsmobile(Aurora) or Nissan. The cars proved tail-heavy and had a dangerous tendency to swap ends and smack walls rear-first, and the new engine formula was met with a whole bunch of blown engines. Arie Luyendyk won that Indy 500, while, over in CART, Zanardi won the season points title and teammate Vasser was runner-up, but Indy fans still hadn’t ever seen them.
Last year, that format continued, and the gap between the two seemed to widen. Zanardi dominated CART’s season, while a dazzling array of new young stars, including Greg Moore, Dario Franchitti, Gil deFerran, Bryan Herta, Helio Castro-Neves, Patrick Carpentier, Tony Kanaan and more seriously invaded the stronghold of veterans such as Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr., Paul Tracy, Christian Fittipaldi, and Vasser.
Eddie Cheever won an exciting Indy 500, but the race had changed a lot. It was better, by far, in 1998 than it had been in 1997 or 1996, but it still wasn’t the ultimate race for the best drivers. Tony Stewart, the IRL’s top developed driver, left the IRL for NASCAR after last season, although he is coming back to race at the Indy 500, then dashing off to a private jet to race in the World 600 NASCAR event the same day, Sunday.
There are other impressive young drivers in IRL racing. Greg Ray, Kenny Brack, Billy Boat, plus former CART chargers Cheever, Roberto Guerrero, Raul Boesel and Luyendyk will lead the way at Indy.
Both the IRL and CART are consumed with safety nowadays. Last year, three CART fans were killed when a wheel popped off the crashing car of Adrian Fernandez at Michigan International Speedway and flew over the guardrail and into the stands. So CART raised the guardrail along the stands from 15 feet to 17 feet, curving out over the track as well to better contain such debris.
Track officials at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte looked over Michigan’s situation and checked its own fence, which is 15 feet high. Tragically, when Stan Wattles and John Paul Jr. crashed in Turn 4 in the IRL race on May 1, the tire and suspension flew off Wattles’ car, and witnesses said it glanced off the top of the guardrail and then into the stands, killing three fans and injuring eight more. Sad that Charlotte didn’t raise its fence from 15 to 17 feet because that might have been enough to catch the broken parts, but we’ll never know.
The result is that cars at the Indy 500 will have their wheels attached to the race cars by tethers, just like Formula 1 cars are, to prevent such flyaway parts.
It’s ironic that Tony George stated his reasons for splitting off into the IRL as desiring to put the Indy 500 back within reach of middle-American oval-track sprint-car types, keeping costs down, and trying to eliminate the domination by the exotic and costly cars and foreign road-racers. Yet, last year’s series champ was Kenny Brack, a road-racer from Sweden. And Tony George’s next move is renovating the Speedway to also include a road course, so Indy will be host to a U.S. Grand Prix Formula 1 race next year — the most expensive and exotic cars, ALL driven by foreign drivers.
But that’s in the future. This weekend, the two factions will go at it again. CART will run at Madison on Saturday, with Zanardi gone to Formula 1, and in his place a Colombian rookie named Juan Montoya, who has won three straight CART races in Chip Ganassi’s car that Zanardi would have been driving.
And the IRL will have a go at the Indy 500 again, with the promise of a faster, more competitive race than ever. Luyendyk, in his final race, is on the pole, with Greg Ray in John Menard’s team car in the middle and Billy Boat, A.J. Foyt’s driver, on the outside of the front row. Brack, Goodyear, Steve Knapp, Cheever, Lazier, Stewart and the rest are scattered throughout the rest of the 33-car field.
Maybe CART and the IRL will eventually get back together. Maybe not. For now, CART still has the better names and the swifter, more advanced race cars. But the IRL is improving, both in the level of driving and in equipment. Maybe there’s room for both.
DOUBLEHEADER SET
FOR PROCTOR RACES
All Proctor Speedway needs is a break from the weatherman, and the schedule for Memorial Day weekend should do the rest. Along with the usual Sunday night races, Proctor will run a special Monday night program as well, with a $24,000 expanded purse for the two dates.
On Sunday, starting at 6 p.m., Proctor will run Late Models, Super Stocks and Pure Stocks, and on Monday, also at 6 p.m., those same three classes will be augmented by Modified and Street Stocks in a race that will also be the first in a five-race joint venture with Superior Speedway.
That Monday race is the first of the Amsoil $11,000 series for all Wissota licensed Late Models, which will pay $5,000 to the winner of the five-race series. Other designated races in the series are Tuesday, June 15 at Superior; Wednesday, July 7 at Proctor; Thursday, Sept. 2 at Proctor; and Saturday, Sept. 11 at Superior.
Kallio comeback key to UMD softball success
One of the astounding things about girls or women’s fast-pitch softball is that those windmilling pitchers seem to be able to pitch all day, all through doubleheaders, and then come back and do it again the next day, with no appreciable harm to their arms.
Kari Kallio, UMD’s senior star pitcher, used to be evidence that the above theory was true. Then, a year ago, she became evidence that it isn’t true.
Thankfully, Kallio is supplying her own happy ending. More accurately, the senior from Menomenie, Wis., is hoping to put a happy ending on her college career and UMD’s season with a busy final week.
The Bulldogs faced a key Northern Sun conference doubleheader at Moorhead State Friday, then is scheduled to face North Central Conference powers Nebraska-Omaha, North Dakota State and North Dakota, all on Saturday in Fargo, at the North Dakota State Invitational tournament. On Sunday, UMD faces Minnesota State-Mankato and Moorhead State again. On the way home, UMD plays at Minnesota-Crookston on Monday, then returns home for a season-ending doubleheader against Minnesota-Morris at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
The Northern Sun conference tournament is next weekend at Aberdeen, and with success at Moorhead Friday and against Morris, the Bulldogs could go to the conference tournament as regular-season champion.
Kallio prepared for the final week by being named Northern Sun pitcher of the week, while teammate Jill Trachsel was named player of the week for getting 14 hits and batting .415 last week. Kallio was 6-0 with one save in seven games last week, striking out 24 hitters while yielding 1.3 runs per game. She has won eight straight games for a 14-4 season mark, with 83 strikeouts in 107 innings and a 1.96 earned-run average.
She did not pitch on Wednesday, when the Bulldogs suffered 6-1 and 5-0 losses to St. Cloud State on the UMD campus. Kallio watched the games, which was difficult. “It was actually boring for me to watch, because we didn’t score enough to win,” she said.
In her heart, Kallio would like to pitch ’em all. But in her head, she knows that’s not a good idea.
“From the time I was in sixth grade, I pretty much pitched all the time,” said Kallio. “In high school, we were pretty good at Menomenie. We had a senior pitcher when I was a freshman, so I only pitched part of the season and played shortstop or second base the other games. I pitched every game as a sophomore, junior and senior, and we won the conference every year. In high school, I had a fastball and a good rise.
“At UMD, I’ve worked with assistant coach Don Olson, who is from Superior and is a pitcher himself. I’ve learned to throw a curve and a drop and a changeup while I’ve been here.”
Not that she struggled to pitch as soon as she showed up on the campus atop the hill. As a freshman, she had a 13-4 record and broke the school strikeout record with 107, making first team all-region while leading the Bulldogs to a regional tournament berth.
The Bulldogs repeated as conference champs in her sophomore year, and she continued as the team’s dominant pitcher last year, although her record slipped to 12-9 with some nonconference struggles against North Central Conference powers.
But then it happened. Her arm started to give out.
“I suppose it was from overuse because I had pitched so much for 10 straight years,” Kallio said. “I had to have rotator-cuff surgery. As much as I have pitched over the years, I guess it was torn and frayed and causing an impingment.”
Surgeons arthroscopically cut out the frayed tendons and cartilage, and shaved some of the one away where the shoulder bone meets the humerus bone of the upper arm, allowing the two bones to slide again. That surgery was done at the start of June last summer, and Kallio was unable to use her right arm until September. When she could, she threw gently overhand and only tossed underhand. She admits that her own apprehension was her biggest obstacle to returning.
“I didn’t actually throw again until November, and then only after I got over the fear,” she said. “When I threw hard, I was surprised at how effortless it felt.”
In January, Kallio began pitching in the gym during UMD’s usual 2 1/2 month indoor training. Coach Bill Haller was reluctant to expect too much from Kallio or the team, but when he took the team to Florida March 20-27, they went 6-4 and Kallio was 5-1. Freshmen Korrin Ketchum and Jen Reinitz have shared the pitching duties, and gained valuable experience, but there is no question that Kallio is the ace of the staff, and she was relieved when her return went so smoothly in Florida.
“Everything was back in place,” she said. Everything except her all-out speed. But that’s made her a better pitcher. “I throw a rise, drop, curve and changeup now, and I’ve totally learned them since I’ve been here. In high school, I threw mostly just fastballs, but in college you NEVER throw just a straight fastball. The hitters are too good.”
As a senior majoring in physical education with a minor in coaching, Kallio would like to stay in Duluth, she said, and teach, preferably at the elementary level.
“I’m not much interested in going on to play more,” she said, noting that the opportunities for women’s fast-pitch players are scarce. “I’m figuring I’m pretty much done after this season. I’ve got one more year of college to go to complete my degree, and I love the Duluth area. I’d like to stay here and teach and coach. I’d even like to coach a 12-and-under team this summer, if it works out.”
UMD’s Swiatkewicz makes pitch for off-campus housing
It’s popular for college students to choose off-campus housing these days, but Chris Swiatkewicz takes the concept to extremes. Never mind Chester Bowl, the East Hillside, or even Woodland or Lakeside. While finishing up his accounting degree as a senior, Swiatkewicz is living in Spring Lake Park.
His 2 1/2-hour trips Up North from the Twin Cities suburb usually are twice a week, whenever UMD has a baseball game that he’s scheduled to pitch. If it seems like special treatment, Swiatkewicz — pronounced “Swan-ka-vitch” phonetically, and “Swanny” to his teammates — he IS something special.
Swiatkewicz will stride out to the mound at UMD’s baseball field on Saturday to take on Southwest State in the Bulldogs doubleheader at high noon, and he will be trying to clinch the Northern Sun championship for the Bulldogs, as well as pushing the school’s career strikeout record to more secure status.
Going into the weekend, UMD stands 14-4 atop the Northern Sun, and Southwest State is 13-5 in second place. Wayne State, already finished, is 15-7, and Winona State 11-6.
“It’s down to us and Southwest,” Swiatkevicz said. “Our team really hits the ball well, and I’m figuring if we can win one of the first two this weekend, it’ll be really fun to pitch Saturday with the title on the line. Then we can go to the conference tournament next week, and hopefully win there and get a berth in the NCAA regional.”
The UMD career strikeout record was broken by Swiatkewicz two weeks ago, when he reached 194. Last week, he drove to Duluth to strike out 11 against Bemidji State, went to Aberdeen to fan nine against Northern State over the weekend, and struck out eight more in five brief innings of a 12-2 victory at Bemidji on Tuesday. That raised his record career total to 222, even though, remarkably, he never was a starting pitcher for the Bulldogs until last season.
He won 11 games a year ago to break UMD’s school record. This year, with UMD standing 21-9 overall and 12-4 in the Northern Sun, he is 7-0, with a 6-0 record in conference games. Overall, he has a 1.32 earned-run average and has walked only 16 while striking out 76 in 55 innings.
Swiatkewicz came to UMD from Fridley High School but it was for the school, not for baseball. “I wasn’t all that concerned about playing baseball in college,” said Swiatkewicz. “Baseball was definitely secondary. I was something like 6-3 with a 1.1 earned-run average my senior year in high school, but I hit .485, so I walked on as an outfielder.”
Coach Scott Hanna recognized his walk-on’s hard-throwing capability and dispatched him to the bullpen for relief pitching duty as a closer. It didn’t really work out, and he insists he was ineffective.
“I always liked to start, and I wasn’t doing too good as a closer, so I talked it over with the coach,” Swiatkewicz said.
Hanna let him try it, in a nonconference early-season game last year at the Metrodome. Swiatkewicz doesn’t even remember the opponent — “Some team from Iowa,” he said. But he remembers the game well.
“The first hitter got a single on a turf hop, where he hit the ball down and it bounced so high that by the time it came down he was already on first,” Swiatkewicz said. “The next guy got on on an error. Then I got 21 straight outs. I struck out 16 — 12 in a row at one point, and walked none.”
Hanna, in his 21 years of coaching, didn’t need any more convincing that he had found a new regular for his starting rotation, and the Bulldogs went on to finish second by one game in the Northern Sun.
“We’ve had some good pitchers over the years, but I’d have to say Swanny is probably the best I’ve ever had,” said Hanna. “He’s 18-1 over the last two years, and I’m sure he’ll get a pro tryout. Some major league teams have scouted him, and I’ve heard the Dukes are interested in him.”
That would be just fine with Swiatkewicz. “My job is just what I want to do right now, but I’ve always thought about getting the chance to play pro ball, and I’d love to give it a try,” he said.
He has a good, live fastball, which has been clocked at 91 miles per hour. He also has a fast slider, which he throws at 79 or 80 mph. He can throw a curveball at varying speeds, and could use it as a changeup, but he said he rarely throws curves, because the fastball-slider combination works so well.
When he was a kid, growing up in Fridley, he played youth baseball for Dave Keding, who selected him for a 13-year-old team. “He was tiny,” said Keding, “and he would shy away from the ball a little in the infield, so I put him in the outfield. He’d get a great jump on any ball hit out there, and he could throw rockets. He could throw hard, but he wasn’t very accurate, so he never was our best pitcher. I used him in relief when he was 14, but he didn’t become a pitcher until he grew a lot as a junior and senior in high school.”
Keding said he heard the story about a kid who stood on the 50-yard line and threw a football through the goalposts, which would mean at least a 75-yard pass. He knew, right away, who it had to be. And he never missed a high school game to watch him pitch. This week, he drove to Bemidji to watch Swiatkewicz pitch.
“I played basketball and football as well as baseball in high school,” Swiatkewicz said. “When I was a junior, I grew eight inches. I never worked out, but I always had a good arm, so I just tried to throw the ball by people. I never had a pitching coach, because UMD just added one this year, and I haven’t been able to be at practice.
“I’m taking a 3-credit course in advanced income tax accounting to finish my accounting degree, and I got a really good computer job to work as a webmaster for American Express in the Twin Cities. So I’ve worked it out to live in Spring Lake Park and get the day off whenever I have to pitch. Then I also go up on the weekend to pitch.”
With UMD’s heavy schedule of games — 10 this week, eight last week with doubleheaders on four consecutive days — Swiatkewicz admits he might have gotten a little arm-weary after pitching three straight times on only two days rest. He noticed it up in Bemidji, where he went only five innings, but he got the benefit of a fast start by his teammates. After rallying from a 10-8 deficit for a 13-10 victory in the first game of the Tuesday doubleheader, UMD blasted off for seven runs in the top of the first in the second game, and Swiatkewicz took the mound with a smile on his face
because he knew he could just throw moderate speed.
He drove directly from Spring Lake Park to Bemidji for that doubleheader, then drove back home by midnight, and was at work at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday morning. That means after watching Friday’s doubleheader against Southwest State, he should be rested and ready for Saturday’s league-ending second doubleheader.
With the excitement of the final weekend showdown, Swiatkewicz still has one regret. “I haven’t even gotten to bat yet,” he said. “I’ve only talked the coach into letting me bat five times. I’ve got two hits, so I’m hitting .400. I love to hit.”
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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