MAJOR MEMORIES, Part 3: for Russ 'The Bus' McGinnis, dreams are stubborn things

(Note: This is the final installment of a three-part feature on former MLB player Russ McGinnis who graduated from Bartlesville Sooner High School.)

Years before Jerome Bettis of the Pittsburg Steelers carried the nickname of “The Bus”, Bartlesville boasted its own form of major two-wheeled human conveyance in sports competition.

His name was Russ “The Bus” McGinnis.

“He was a big old boy,” said Stan Walton, one of the assistants on Bartlesville’s American Legion majors baseball team in the early 1980s. “He could put the fear in opposing pitchers. … He was one of the best players on the field every night we went out. … His teammates referred to him as Russ ‘The Bus.’”

By definition, dreams do not work in reverse. They are an aim, a goal, an objective, a hope rooted in the heart.

Their real magic in dreams is in the journey toward their fulfillment.

Bartlesville Sooner High 1981 graduate McGinnis completed that adventure, from the starting point as one of millions of boys that dreamed one day of playing Major League Baseball to being a catcher for Nolan Ryan.

He credits the roulette wheel of chance in providing him the high school and American Legion coaches he mentored for as a key impetus.

“(Legion coach Carl Brooks) was very strict with fundamentals, I really enjoyed that part of it,” McGinnis said. “I think every single one of the coaches I had were somewhat more fundamental.”

He singled Sooner High baseball coach Gary Vaught as another singular influence.

He recalled that after basketball games, Vaught would hit ground balls to him on the gym floor “so I could field balls as well,” during baseball season.

“He (Vaught) was always a big proponent to pushing me to where I was the best I could be,” McGinnis recalled.

In fact, McGinnis chose to start his college baseball career at Connors State, where Vaught had taken a job during McGinnis’ junior year.

McGinnis also pointed to lessons he learned from Sooner football coach Coy Stewart and his wrestling coaches for helping prepare him to give him his best shot.

When it came to his best friend growing up, McGinnis singled out Sam Stoia — and Stoia’s family.

Part 1:Bartlesville-area product Russ McGinnis did it right in pro baseball career

“We attended high school, middle school and elementary school together,” McGinnis said. “We played side-by-side on the football field. He and his family were amazing to me. They were great in giving me confidence. … I would say Sam was very instrumental. He and I were going to play college sports.”

Stoia went to the University of Oklahoma to play football, while McGinnis ended up on the Sooner baseball team his junior and senior years.

As McGinnis looks back closer at his coming-of-age in Bartlesville, he’s grateful he had to battle to earn his stripes.

“Every single team I played on (from youth sports to the pros) nobody said, ‘Hey, this position is yours. Hey, you’re going to have to earn it,’ McGinnis said. “I tried to work harder than everybody out there. I had talent, but I wasn’t blessed with a lot of speed. I was a blue collar guy that had to work hard to be where I was and that’s something to be very, very proud of.”

Parenthetically, he said he believes today’s better athletes feel entitled to start without having to earn it, which is one reason for the crowded transfer portal.

One local observer that knew McGinnis was an extraordinary package of talent and desire was Walton.

“As a hitter, Rusty was tenacious,” Walton said. “We had such a good lineup offensively (1980), but on any other team he would have been on Rusty would have been the offensive star. … He was an intense competitor.”

McGinnis played on a Legion team on which nearly every player competed in college — including Barnsdall’s Brad Bell, who played in a College World Series with Oklahoma State — Walton noted.

“Russ was fun to coach because he was intense,” Walton added.

Bartlesville College High skipper Jerome Gibson — who had to play against Sooner — remembers McGinnis as “probably the best hitter we ever faced. He was awesome.”

Major Memories, Part 2: Sooner grad Rusty McGinnis traveled path least followed

After going unselected in the baseball draft out of high school, McGinnis spent four years honing his skills at Connors State and Oklahoma.

In 1985, the Milwaukee Brewers picked him on the 14th round in the draft.

That started an asymmetrical odyssey through the minors, which saw him play in four different organizations in six years before he got to the ‘bigs.’

Meanwhile, he recorded 24 doubles, 16 homers, 59 RBIs in 1986 at Beloit (Wis.), in Class A ball.

But, despite his prodigious production, McGinnis couldn’t seem to get much upward traction.

When the Brewers reassigned to Beloit, rather than promote him to the next level, to start the 1987 season, he requested a trade. In late June 1987, the Oakland A’s obtained him in a player swap.

McGinnis said he learned later the reason the Brewers had kept him in Beloit to open the 1987 season was because they wantedbest prospects close geographically to Milwaukee.

It was one of a handful of tough choices by McGinnis, who says now he wishes he had had an advisor during his career.

He continued to flourish in the minors and played both AAA and AA ball in 1988. In 1989, the A’s brought him to spring training, but an injury resulted in a trip back to the minors.In 1990, he led a AAA club in Tacoma, Wash., with 77 RBIs.

The Chicago Cubs obtained McGinnis’ rights in 1990. He played one season for the Iowa Cubs (AAA) in 1991, belting 18 doubles, 15 homers and driving in 70 runs.

By 1992, he was part of the Texas Rangers’ organization.

“When I got signed by Texas. … Texas hadn’t had a catcher they were enthralled with,” McGinnis said. “That had tried to trade for me for two years. Once I became a free agent, I was I was going to sign up with Texas.”

But, also in camp was a 19-year-old catcher prospect named Ivan Rodriquez — who would wear the nickname ‘Pudge’ and would become a Hall-of-Famer.

McGinnis split his time in 1992 between the Oklahoma City 89ers (AAA) and with the Texas Rangers, his first promotion to the majors. He would appeared in 14 games for Texas, batting .242 (8-for-33), with four doubles and four RBIs; he hit 18 homers and drove in 51 RBIs for the 89ers.

The next couple of years he labored back in the minors — not because he lacked MLB tools but, ironically, because he did.

“Your number two catcher is really playing every day in Triple-A,” McGinnis said, explaining that if something happens to the starter on the big team, the coach wants to bring in a catcher who has competing every day in AAA rather then go to a lesser-used backup.

“I was usually the last guy sent out of spring training, always the 26th guy on a 25-man roster.”

McGinnis made his final appearance in the majors in 1995 with the Kansas City Royals. He played in three games.

AS he looks back, McGinnis considers two options that might have boosted his career.

One of them was to have focused on playing in the National League, because of the double switch.

“I could have moved anywhere on the field and come in and catch at anytime,” he said.

The other was turning down a n opportunity to play for the Montreal Expos.

“A lot of guys I played with went there and flourished,” he said. “A lot of time, you have these young minds that don’t understand what’s available. I thought at the time, ‘I don’t want to go to Montreal.’”

But, regardless of the consequence of choices or unfortunate timing over which he had no control, two shining virtues for McGinnis define his career — he kept scrapping ahead despite the adversity and his willpower, hard work and determination earned him a ticket to the Big Dance.

Following his playing days, he went to work in hotel business management, worked for multiple companies, and eventually stayed home to raise his daughters.

The dream is complete. The memories live on.

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Sooner High grad found a way to conquer every barrier