PORT ANGELES — Art Girt sipped his sparkling cider to keep from choking up.
His former coaching partner, Denver Gouge, as well as fellow longtime North Olympic Baseball and Softball volunteers Don Schlemmer and Wendy McBride, had just been recognized at the dedication of the Lincoln Park Monument on Saturday afternoon.
Their names were the first etched into a stone tablet that now rests behind the outfield fence of Field No. 1 at the NOBAS complex.
But with Gouge and McBride deceased, and Schlemmer rehabilitating from an illness miles away in Ballard, none of them was among the large crowd there to witness it.
Thus, Girt was left to only speculate how his friend might have handled the outpouring of appreciation.
“He wouldn’t let you know how much [it meant]. He’d go away and probably have a tear,” said Girt, fighting back a few tears of his own.
“He probably wouldn’t have [attended], but he would have come later whenever everyone was gone.
“He was there for the kids.”
There have been many such people throughout the years for Port Angeles Little League and NOBAS.
So as another baseball and softball season began under gray skies Saturday at Lincoln Park, officials unveiled the memorial recognizing those dedicated volunteers who have allowed the league to thrive for 50-plus years.
First on the list were Gouge, Schlemmer and McBride.
After more than three decades of service from each, the recognition was a long time coming, Girt said.
“People don’t realize what gets done here with the volunteers,” Girt said.
“People show up at the ball park, and it looks real nice and everything is painted and fixed, but it doesn’t just happen. Guys like Denver, Don Schlemmer and Wendy McBride, they’ve done it for over 30 years.”
NOBAS President Jim Lunt said the idea for the monument has been years in the making.
The concept was first approved by the league board in 2004 but wasn’t completed until last fall.
With board member Warren Stevens and Tom Rankin, owner of ONA Landscaping, spearheading the effort, it was constructed in three weeks time.
Donations of labor and materials were made by Angeles Concrete, Tom Wood Concrete, Peninsula Nurseries, ONA Landscaping, the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe and Port Angeles Parks and Recreation Division.
“My dad would be honored because of it,” said Ron Schlemmer, whose father, Don, is considered by some to be the father of Little League in Port Angeles.
“He kept going a long time after I had been out of the program [in the 1970s].
“He spent a lot of years out here. He’d still like to be out here.”
Don helped jump-start the effort that eventually affiliated Port Angeles youth baseball with Little League Inc. in 1973.
Umpire, too
Nicknamed “The Bear,” he went on to umpire games for 50-plus years while carrying the unofficial title as commissioner.
The Bear served as the umpire-in-chief for decades while also managing the Port Angeles entry into a highly competitive Victoria men’s fastpitch softball league across the water.
He umpired games as late as 2005, but recently had both of his legs amputated in his fight against diabetes.
“They’ve got him up walking now,” Ron said. “He was hoping he could get here.
“I’ll call him [Saturday night]. I’ll call him and tell him how it all went. He’ll be happy.”
McBride was known as “the Hamburger Lady” to many of the children who came through the Lincoln Park diamonds.
First working out of a tiny trailer in 1972, McBride volunteered as the lead concessions stand operator for 32 years before succumbing to a brain tumor in 2004.
She committed 30 hours a week to running the operation from April through June each year.
Her only compensation: The gas money it took to drive to and from her Sequim home each day.
Even after her youngest son left the program in 1978, she continued her role at the concession stand while also working as a nursing aide.
“The park out there was her life,” McBride’s brother, Robin Messersmith, said.
“She dedicated everything she had to that. That was her important thing in life.
“The kids that used to be in that program [as players], now they are part of the program [as coaches and volunteers]. They all grew up at that park with the Hamburger Lady.
“They all remember her just as well as their own grandma. That’s the way they felt about her.”
Gouge was the leader of the Lions for 30 years, from 1978 to 2008.
With Girt by his side many of those years, Gouge eventually became the league’s all-time winningest coach with 253 victories.
Of course, given the shear length of his service, he was also its leader in losses with 265.
During that time, he also served as the league’s cashier and led work parties that helped turn Lincoln Park into a youth baseball and softball mecca.
“After the season was over and they would have a big party, he would be gone,” said Denver’s wife, Jen Gouge.
“His party was with the kids. He was a real kid lover, and everything was for the kids. It sounds like a trite thing to say, but really that’s the way he was.
“So he would be really flattered [by Saturday’s honor], but never show it.”
There are plans in the works to add more volunteer names to the monument in the years to come.
Lunt said he has a list 992 long of those who have worked tirelessly for the league.
“The first three names were obvious to everyone,” Lunt said. “The next ones people will have to think about I suppose.”
Added Girt, “It’s a good organization, and everything is volunteer.
“We got kids coming back now . . . coaches that were kids. Now they are coaching their kids and grand kids.
“It’s a good place to spend your time.”
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Sportswriter Matt Schubert can be reached at 360-417-3526 or at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.