Albert Grindle
The Gazette
Jim Walter donned his Buckeye uniform for the final time 39 years and two days ago. The 5-foot-9, 175-pound bona fide star pitched three shutout innings of relief and drove in every run in a 3-0 win over archrival Highland that clinched a share of the Inland Conference championship.
Ask him today about his exploits and he’ll almost certainly give a short answer.
The 1976 Buckeye graduate, LitchfieldTownship native and winningest pitcher in MedinaCounty history has never been one for words. The 57-year-old still loves baseball, but decided back then he didn’t want to play for ValdostaState in Georgia. That was too far from home and, to be blunt, he was mentally finished with school anyway.
He looks back not in regret but instead grateful for what he has: A wife (Debbie), two children (Amanda, 28, and Justin, 21) and a successful career in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning industry. The latter was introduced to him by Jim Tighe, whom the Buckeye baseball field is named after, in the summer of 1975.
Expect a short speech when Walter is inducted into the Medina County Sports Hall of Fame during ceremonies Thursday at The Galaxy Restaurant in Wadsworth. That’s how he’s wired.
“He was a very quiet guy,” said Bob Kramer, Bucks coach from 1967-81. “In fact, I was thinking about this, and if he’s got to make a speech, he did not like speaking. He was really shy and he was quiet. Emotions were inside, and he let his play do his talking for him.”
Statistics still tell Walter’s story. The right-hander with a tailing low-90s fastball and unnaturally strong leg drive won seven tournament games as Buckeye reached the 1975 state semifinals, where it lost to Bryan and future Major League Baseball hurler Steve Fireovid. Walter also is the only player in county history to win more than 30 games — a precise total may never be confirmed — and strike out 400 in a career.
A prodigious left-handed power hitter, too, Walter owned the area home run record (15) for 24 years, and his 91 RBIs stood for 20. Those numbers, mind you, were with wooden bats and predominately against non-conference schedules featuring Class AAA schools such as Wadsworth, Brunswick, Lorain and Admiral King — as well as small-school power Northwestern — because the Bucks only played 10 IC games per season.
The resume is impossible to ignore.
“What pushed me was I hated to lose,” Walter said. “I wasn’t the greatest athlete in the world, but I did whatever I had to to try and win.”
Love of the game
Born Sept. 26, 1957 as one of Joe and Lucille Walter’s six boys, childhood was what Walter made of it.
His father was a carpenter, his mother a housewife. Money was a luxury the family didn’t have in its blue-collar home on the corner of state Route 83 and Crow Road, one mile north of Litchfield.
Baseball meant everything to Jim and brother Joe Jr., who was one year younger. The day involved playing wherever they could around the neighborhood. The night involved finding whatever game they could on television or radio. Jim grew up without a favorite player mainly because he loved all of the Cincinnati Reds as they developed into “The Big Red Machine.”
The brothers signed up for hot stove in approximately 1967 and played for longtime Litchfield coach Pete Miller, who Kramer credited as the true driving force behind the scrappy, fundamentally sound Buckeye High teams of the 1970s. Litchfield upset powerhouse Alliance on its way to a state championship game in 1970, but lost partly because Walter couldn’t pitch after throwing nine innings the day before.
Litchfield regrouped in the summer of 1975 and won the Class E (ages 15-17) crown behind Walter and Wellington ace Kirk Gott. Litchfield scored six unanswered runs, including three in its final at-bat, in an 8-7 victory over Sebring, as Joe Walter belted the tying home run and Jim Walter launched the 365-foot game-winner while also getting the decision in relief.
The ironic part was Walter, who also struck out 29 in an extra-inning hot stove game in 1972, began his organized career as a catcher.
That experiment didn’t last long, and not for the reason many assume.
“I threw two guys out in a row at second base,” Walter said. “The next thing I know, I was a pitcher. I remember we lost almost every game my first year. I started pitching the next year, and we only lost one game. I think we went 18-1.
“I liked it, just being out there and making the difference in the game.”
Kramer heard “that there was this kid from Litchfield that threw the ball hard, hit the ball hard, ran fast and did it all” as early as 1968, but the even-keeled varsity coach, who still has a knack for telling a story when his slow, down-home voice is warmed up, was hard to impress. You see, Kramer’s best friend while helping nearby Northwestern win the 1959 Class A state championship was Dean Chance, who went 52-1 and tossed 17 no-hitters in high school and later won the 1964 Cy Young Award with the California Angels.
But preseason workouts in the high school gymnasium opened Kramer and assistant coach Ermando Simmons’ eyes. This 15-year-old was “throwin’ smoke” with a mean sweeping curveball/slider combination and, most importantly, throwing strikes.
Kramer was careful not to upset the chemistry of a talented team that went on to win the IC title, so Walter was the closer behind All-Gazette ace Jim Garvin (7-1) and Doug Miller (4-5) until finally making his first career against Black River in the Medina County Tournament late in the year.
Walter’s line on that rainy Saturday afternoon in Medina: Six innings, four hits and 14 strikeouts as the Bucks won 7-2.
“That was kind of interesting because when you get in there, you take some other kid’s place that thought he was going to be playing, which wasn’t too good,” Walter said about his freshman season. “I don’t think (I was intimidated). I was pretty used to playing in tournament games and stuff. I don’t remember anybody being upset.”
Kramer unleashed Walter in 1974. Walter went 9-3 with a 0.73 ERA, 0.86 WHIP and 107 strikeouts in 96 innings, tossed a no-hitter with 16 strikeouts against Black River in the Medina County Tournament, three-hit then-undefeated Elyria West and also hit .329 with 19 RBIs while starting at shortstop when he didn’t pitch.
Walter got stronger as the year went on, allowing two earned runs and striking out 70 over his final 11 appearances (58 innings).
“A lot of times it was fastball, fastball, curveball, strike three,” Kramer said matter-of-factly.
Next up was the magical season of 1975.
Walter, as expected, was the standout of an inexperienced but determined group that also featured first-team All-Gazette pick Bill Peters (1B), second-team choices Paul Schumaker (C) and Scott Yuhas (OF), plus Scott Miller (SS/2B/P) and Larry Brubaker (OF), who both hit north of .450 in the tournament.
Walter doesn’t remember much before regionals, as he got sectional wins over Gott-led Wellington (7 innings, 1 run, 4 hits, 7 strikeouts), Firelands (4, 0, 1, 3) and Brooklyn (7, 1, 5, 8) and district triumphs over Holy Name (7, 1, 2, 5) and defending regional qualifier Benedictine (7, 1, 3, 9). Walter also doesn’t remember the day after Benedictine, when he was 3-for-4 with a home run and five RBIs against Black River.
Instead he recalled a 3-2 regional semifinal triumph over defending state runner-up Triway.
Walter was cruising and allowed only one hit — a bunt single by Wayne County legend Keith Snoddy — over the final 5⅓ innings, but an infield error began the seventh and Walter followed by throwing a come-backer over the head of first baseman Peters that made the score 3-2.
Undeterred, Walter got a strikeout and pop-up to end the game.
“I thought, ‘I could blow this right here,”’ Walter said with a chuckle. “I settled down, I guess, and the next guy popped up on the infield and I got myself out of trouble.
“We played those guys all the time in hot stove, too, and those guys beat me 1-0 in hot stove. They had a heckuva team.”
In what is now taboo because state rules only permit a pitcher to throw 10 innings over 72 hours, the long-haired Walter took the mound the next day in the regional championship against Jefferson Area.
Kramer and Walter both downplayed pitching on back-to-back days. Elite players back then naturally could pull it off, and Walter always believed he was better on short rest because his rubber arm and strong legs already were loose. All that was needed was an Icy Hot massage the night before.
True to his belief, Walter was electric, tossing a three-hitter with seven strikeouts and scoring two runs as Buckeye won 4-0.
“They fed off each other, and they fed off Jim Walter,” Kramer said. “Losing never entered his mind because when he went out to pitch, he knew he was going to win. He didn’t always, but he did most of the time. The other kids, they picked up on that.
“It’s the old confidence factor. If you think you can, you can. If you’re not sure, you don’t. He was, ‘You can.’”
The season ended against Fireovid and Bryan in Columbus. The semifinal was rained out twice, forcing Buckeye to drive home and then back to Columbus each time. Walter then sat through another rain delay and struggled with a higher mound, but still allowed only one earned run on six hits. The problem was Fireovid countered with a 74-pitch three-hitter and Bryan won 4-0.
Bryan went on to win the championship, but Walter still believes his team did all it could.
“I don’t know how we’d ever score off (Fireovid), even if I would have pitched good,” he said.” It was pretty tough to beat him. What’d we have, (three) hits? He was pretty tough. I really feel like, ‘What could we have done?’ It would have had to been a 1-0 game somehow.”
In the 1975 tournament, Walter was 7-1 with a 0.52 ERA, 0.77 WHIP and 48 strikeouts in 53 innings. For the season, he was 12-1 with a 0.40 ERA, 0.79 WHIP and 101 strikeouts in 87 innings. The ERA, which was revised after a careful review of Kramer’s scorebook, was the county season record until last spring, while the win total remains shared with Highland’s Mike Houska (1978).
Walter also batted .464 (39-for-84) with four doubles, two triples, four home runs, 28 RBIs, 28 runs and only five strikeouts in 99 plate appearances, cementing his place as an elite player.
“When he started the game, we expected to win,” Kramer said. “You expected him to do it, and he expected to do it. He relished the kids relying on him. Some kids don’t like that pressure, but that was when he played his best.”
The pressure increased in Walter’s senior season. The Bucks were talented, with many key players from the 1977 state semifinal team in the lineup, but the schedule was loaded and talented rival Highland, which went a school-record 24-4, was set to challenge for IC supremacy before it left for the Suburban League that fall.
Walter was again dominant, going 9-4 with a 1.40 ERA and a county-record 147 strikeouts in 99 innings. His most notable start was May 12 at South Amherst, when he plunked the first batter but was perfect the rest of the way for his second career no-hitter.
Walter also had a three-inning, 10-strikeout save against Norwayne and allowed three hits in a 2-1 win over Wadsworth, which featured future MLB player Scott Fletcher (2-for-3), fellow Medina County Sports Hall of Famers Bill Goddard (0-for-3) and Andy Graham (0-for-2) and big-time hitter Ron Benek (1-for-3). That Grizzlies team held the area record for wins (26) until this spring.
Hitting was where Walter really made his mark, though, as he had a .522 batting average, .578 on-base percentage, .967 slugging percentage and then-county marks for home runs (9) and RBIs (38). He also scored 30 runs, stroked 11 doubles, swiped 22 bags and struck out four times in 104 plate appearances.
While leading the Bucks to an 18-10 record, Walter, whose short, line-drive swing complemented his clean, quick pitching mechanics, had a 14-game hitting streak, 16 multi-hit games, three four-hit games, seven games with three or more RBIs and hit a home run five times in a seven-game stretch from April 30 to May 13.
“I liked hitting probably just as much,” he said.
The only negative Walter recalled was losing for the third time that season to Independence, 5-3, in Buckeye’s first tournament game. Wadsworth got its revenge in the county tournament, and Walter also was knocked around against Highland on May 26, putting the Bucks in a desperate situation in the IC race.
Like he always did, Walter bounced back. He only pitched one inning — and struck out the side, no less — but went 4-for-5 with two RBIs and three runs as Buckeye defeated Avon (5-2) and South Amherst (11-4) to set up a June 4 date in Hinckley Township against Highland.
Joe Walter and Jerry Young pitched the first four innings because Kramer wanted to set up his fireballer by throwing “junk”. Highland countered with ace Bob Jones, who won 20 career games, but Jim Walter’s two-run triple in the third and home run in the sixth gave the Bucks all the runs they needed.
Walter took care of the rest, allowing three hits, walking none and striking out four over the final three innings. He finished his career by inducing a double-play ball with the tying run on deck.
Buckeye secured a share of the IC championship.
“He had really good control, and it’s one of those things,” Kramer said. “A lot of kids in high school threw as hard as he did, but didn’t have good control because they were trying to throw it too hard. He naturally had a really good arm and he threw strikes.”
Life after baseball
Walter’s all-around skill set caught the eye of local professional scouts, who told Kramer that Walter had potential but added they didn’t like his 5-9 height. Walter remembers talking to the San Francisco Giants, but not any college programs because school didn’t interest him anymore.
Kramer tried anyway, and through a connection from Vic Feist, the ace of Buckeye’s 1971 regional runner-up team, got Walter a workout with ValdostaState. The university agreed to fly Walter in for a tryout over Easter break.
Breaking the news didn’t go as Kramer planned.
“I was all excited for Jim and I was going to tell him the next day at school,” Kramer recalled. “He was in study hall, and I went out, got him in the hallway and said, ‘Guess what? I think we can get you a scholarship to play baseball,’ He was excited until I told him ValdostaState in Georgia, and he kind of got this funny look on his face. I asked, ‘What’s the problem?’ and he replied, ‘I don’t know if I want to go to school down there.”’
Walter rarely second-guesses that decision, even today. He already was working for Tighe, and the growing HVAC industry appealed to him because it was clean work, unlike construction, and paid well.
So Walter worked for Tighe for the next six or seven years while also playing for the Medina Merchants of the Greater Akron AA Amateur League, which featured dozens of local college players and a handful of future minor-leaguers. He led a team that also featured Al Kiene (Buckeye), Bob Alspach (Medina), Ted Given (Wadsworth), Mark Andos (Buckeye) and player-coach Mike McMullen (Medina) in wins multiple times and was named to the league’s all-star team alongside Kiene in 1978.
Walter moved on to Sisler Heating and Cooling and worked there for 15 years. He then started his own business, Walter Heating and Cooling, in 1998 and now has five employees.
Word-of-mouth recommendations are all Walter relies on — most of the work is new construction — and he is in the process of moving out of Medina County for the first time in his life, though Sullivan Township in Ashland County is not far away from Spencer Township.
Despite hanging up his cleats long ago, Buckeye baseball still has a cherished place in Walter’s heart. He has a box full of newspaper articles and momentos saved by his mother — highlighted by his warm-up jacket, ball cap and 1975 regional tournament game balls — and still follows county baseball from afar. He took a particular interest in Wadsworth’s undefeated regular season this spring.
The Grizzlies’ success brought back memories of his own. They reminded him not of how great he was, but how much fun he had.
“Making the state in high school was the best out of everything, especially with a lot of guys I had played with since 8, 9, 10 years old,” he said. “It definitely is something I’ve never forgotten about.”
Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com.
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