Hats off to Art Gillis

[fastball]

ART GILLIS - - A LIFE COMMITTED TO FASTBALL

“If I had any brains, I’d probably have been a good pitcher”

That was a summary judgment , or a self-portrait, shared by ART
GILLIS when we chatted in the stands during the 2005 International
Softball Congress World Tournament at Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Had any brains, eh?  Well, the 81-year-old Gillis can look back
at his playing career with that sort of candor.  But a closer
look at his overall career in the sport of fastball surely shows
no absence of grey matter.  As a team organizer, manager, sponsor
and as a constant student, analyst, and oh-so-accurate critic
of the game, the brainpower of the personable Art Gillis stands
out vividly.  His commitment to the sport and his achievements
in the sport have few peers.

Gillis, one of the true sages of the sport, will be inducted
into the I.S.C. Hall of Fame in August,  2006, in Kitchener.
 And if his acceptance remarks head into the realm of the philosophy
and the psychology of the sport, get ready to listen to the genuine
article for Mr. Gillis has seen it all.  He can speak from the
heart (as well as the brain) as one who has experienced the highest
of thrills and also the depths of disappointment from his broad
experience and from his many years with the game.

It was probably natural that Art Gillis would have the sport
of fastball running through his veins.  It wasn’t an accident
that he was grew up next to a ball park in his native Plymouth,
Michigan (near Ann Arbor) where by his own admission he “watched
games every day”.

And then there were the summers spent with his Grandma in Saginaw
where he was close enough to walk to the ball park.  And the
sport was in its heyday in Saginaw in those years with what Art
recalls as “60 teams playing in leagues plus as many as 80 CYO
teams playing the sport.”  The young Gillis was a regular at
Saginaw’s Hoyt Park with its eight diamonds and its parking lots
lined with cars every night.  (Ah, the good old days!).  He recalls
being part of huge crowds watching such attractions as the Joe
Louis Brown Bombers and seeing such stars as pitcher Charley
Justice in action.

Gillis played football and basketball while in high school. 
And then came the years of World War II.

Gillis had turned to fastball and was developing as a pitcher.
 By 1942 he was playing in Air Force competition; hurling in
such places as Ft. Wayne and Madison. It was at Ft. Wayne that
he met the legendary Diz Kirkendall. It was also from that era
of his career that the “If I had any brains, I’d probably have
been a good pitcher” comment originated.  And there have to be
some great stories behind that line!

Following the war, he returned to Michigan, playing in his native
Plymouth, and then in Saginaw.  Finding himself a part of a team
with no sponsor, Art dug into his own assets to provide uniforms
for his team.  He also shelled out a huge payment of $10 each
for motel expenses of his players for a tournament his team,
the “Bolters” were to play.  Gillis jokes that the vote was just
nine to eight to name the team after the bolts and not the nuts.
 The name was an adaptation of Gillis’ business activities the
installation of lockers for Republic Steel - - including a job
they did in Florida as they installed 5,000 employee lockers
at Epcot Center.

As Gillis’ team prospered and emerged as a world-class powerhouse,
he discovered the International Softball Congress and the worlds
that it permitted him to conquer.  In his own words, “I found
out about the ISC 29 years ago.  If I’d found out sooner, I’d
have been broke sooner.”

As his team had strengthened, he had turned to the talent rich
nation of New Zealand for pitching help.  He pioneered the importation
of the Kiwi hurlers by American teams as he recruited Owen (“The
Fog”) Walford who pitched for two seasons for Gillis’ Michigan
powerhouse.  (A bit later a Gillis team also was to feature an
18-year-old phenom named Michael White during the 1980 season.)


Walford led his team into the ISC World Tournament where he was
an “All-World” pitching selection in 1978.

When Walford headed to Midland following that season, the cupboard
at Saginaw appeared bare.  That all changed with a late night
phone call from New Zealand.  A young Kevin Herlihy was on the
line.  “I understand that you treat chaps right well who play
for your team”, was Herlihy’s opening line in that conversation
- - - and the rest, as they say, was history.  The partnership
forged with Art Gillis as the sponsor and Kevin Herlihy as ace
hurler went on to produce an International Softball Congress
World Champion in 1979.  That August Gillis’ Bolters defeated
the Long Beach Nitehawks in Bakersfield, California, to claim
the world title and establish Saginaw - - and its committed,
aggressive, (and yes  - BRAINY) sponsor- - at the pinnacle of
the fastball world!  Art Gillis had the ultimate team trophy,
and Kevin Herlihy was selected as the “Outstanding Pitcher” of
that 1979 tournament.

By that time Gillis had set his sights on yet another goal -
- - a goal he was to achieve that same week - - - hosting the
greatest spectacle in the world of fastball - - the ISC World
Tourney!

He had bid to host the tourney earlier (in a 1978 venture) when,
by his own admission, “I was not well prepared”.  He had shocked
the ISC chiefs that year with his offer that, “If you want to
come to Saginaw, I’ll give you $45,000”  Gillis assumed that
the ISC wasn’t used to such a big dollar offer, and so the ’80
world tournament bid went to Tempe, Arizona.

Gillis wasn’t discouraged and in 1979 he was better prepared
(and of course was destined to capture the world title during
that same week)  This time his offer was accepted as he offered
75% of the gate - - against a guarantee of that same $45K he
had offered the previous year.  Gillis believes that he was largely
responsible for the ISC changing to fixed dollar bids rather
that bids of a percentage of the gate.

And what a tournament Gillis was to host in 1981.  Although his
Bolters could not win a second world title in their home town,
that tournament is regarded by many ISC regulars as one of the
greatest in its storied run - - a tourney which saw Mark Smith
and the Camarillo California Kings prevail and the all-time legend
of a tourney game, the 34-inning masterpiece dual between Peter
Finn and Pete Meredith recorded for posterity.

The Gillis-Herlihy partnership was to continue through 1982 making
its share of ISC history.

But the story of Art Gillis wouldn’t be complete without the
saga of how Art’s “little boy” absorbed all of the fastball adventures
wrought by his talented Dad; absorbed all of the summers of having
a parade of Kiwi hurlers living in his home as surrogate big
brothers; absorbing all of the lessons (deliberate and casually
picked up) from those amazing athletes - - and how Doug Gillis
went on to become first one of the finest pitchers in the U.S.
and later to become an entrepreneur of fastball schooling for
athletes around the country.  This author had the privilege of
sitting in the stands in Allentown, Pa., with a proud, but very
nervous, father Art Gillis as he watched son Doug take the mound
as a 19 year old hurler facing the Decatur ADM team, the most-powerful
team of that time.

So “Hats Off” to Art Gillis!!  His dedication and commitment
to the game is unmatched.  Younger fans, unfortunately, may not
always recognize the tall, thin gentleman with the crooked smile
and the ready story to tell of some of the real “greats” of the
game - - - and that title “great” is oh so appropriately applied
to that legendary gentleman himself - - -Mr. ART GILLIS.

By:  Gordon Wise - - - ISC Information Officer
June 30, 2006



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