BILLINGS — Tucked away in his garage for approximately 40 years, Bill Jones kept his treasured “baseball players” for safe keeping.
The approximately 5-foot tall “baseball players” are actually wooden cutouts resembling the Billings American Legion baseball Scarlets and Royals. A quarter-inch in thickness, the “baseball players” as Jones calls them, are of players — one in red stripes resembling the Scarlets, and the other in blue stripes resembling the Royals.
Bill Jones shows the Billings Scarlets and Billings Royals American Legion baseball figures his son Ryan used to practice pitching in in the 1980s. Ryan played for the Royals 1992 State AA championship team.
Just this past week, though, Jones was inspired to bring the players out of the dark garage and into the bright sunlight of his backyard in midtown Billings. Now the left-handed hitting Billings Scarlet player and right-handed hitting Billings Royal, both in a crouched batter’s stance, stand out in Bill and his wife Diane’s backyard. The players are immediately noticed when entering the yard and are placed in a little garden along with some corn, string bean and cucumber plants.
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The reason for the “baseball players” being displayed? Bill, a former Billings American Legion Baseball board member, was pretty proud of the Scarlets playing in the American Legion Baseball Northwest Region 7 Tournament.
And now that the Scarlets won the regional and are advancing to the World Series beginning Thursday in Shelby, North Carolina, the “baseball players” will have their days in the sun extended.
“The Scarlets got in the World Series and they play their first game tomorrow,” explained Bill, 82. “So, I thought, ‘Well, heck I think we ought to put them out.’”
“I’d walk in the garage, and it would be kind of dark and I’d see these figures over there,” said Diane. “It would scare me, because I thought somebody was in there.”
The nostalgic figures were created because back in 1984, Bill and his son — then 10-year-old Ryan — would practice baseball in the backyard. Ryan, a Little Leaguer at the time, was an aspiring pitcher.
Sometimes other kids from the neighborhood would join in, but other times there was nobody around. Knowing that it would help to have “batters” for Ryan to pitch to as Bill served as the catcher, Bill had an idea.
“The problem with the pitcher that he wanted to be, we didn’t always have a live batter,” Bill said. “So, I called the Billings Central art department and they said, ‘We’ll come up with a couple figures, one Scarlet and one Royal, and then you can put that up there.’”
“One was a right-handed batter, the other is a left-handed batter, so he pitched to both figures because he could face left- and right-handed hitters.”
At the time, Ryan had ambitions to eventually play for the Royals and he eventually did as a center fielder and relief pitcher. Ryan was a member of the 1992 Class AA state champion Billings Royals, who were coached by the legendary Ed Bayne. So Bill requested the Central art department make the players resemble Royals and Scarlets players.
“I said, ‘Just make them any way you want them. The height doesn’t make any difference,’” Bill recalled of his conversation with Central officials. “And I didn’t have any idea on the size, but they came up with this.”
“And Billings Central said they typified the friendly competition between the Royals and Scarlets in Billings. So that is kind of why when I look at them, I think of the friendly competition. And even today, they are fierce competitors — rivals — but they’ve always been very friendly to each other.”
The wooden figures were used for several years, but eventually as Ryan grew older they were put into storage.
“He was only 10 years old, that’s when he first started wanting to pitch more. Without batters, he couldn’t tell if he was throwing strikes or not,” explained Bill. “So, that’s the reason that these were built, so they could stand up there and he could gauge where he was going to pitch.
“He used those probably for four years. And then as he got older, you know he would have friends that would come over and have batting practice, but he threw a lot of pitches and would hit them sometimes (laughs).”
As the “baseball players” are a treasured family item for Bill and Ryan, Diane suggested coating the figures with a protectant before displaying them in the yard. After all, through moving and such, Bill has kept the “baseball players” — “I wouldn’t get rid of them” — and said Ryan will one day have them.
So, a family treasure that brings back so many good memories for Bill was again brought to life by the Scarlets run to the World Series. Even though Ryan played for the Royals, Bill said both will be rooting for the Scarlets — Ryan is from Missoula, where he currently lives and has coached Little League — to do well in North Carolina. Bill is especially tickled with the Scarlets’ success.
“They are an excellent team, excellent coach,” said Bill of the Scarlets.
And maybe the “baseball players” will find a new home this week as the Scarlets play in Shelby.
“I was telling Diane this morning we ought to put them out front, because a lot of people drive by and now that the Scarlets are in the World Series, it’s even more recognizable,” said Bill. “So, I think we will put them out front for a while.”
Email Gazette Sports Editor John Letasky at john.letasky@406mtsports.com or follow him on X/Twitter at @GazSportsJohnL
