Meet the 1st three members of Somerset County Baseball Old-Timers' 2022 Hall of Fame class
Editor's note: This is the first of three parts highlighting the members of the 2022 Somerset County Baseball Old-Timers Hall of Fame class.
The Somerset County Baseball Old-Timers will host the 25th annual Hall of Fame induction picnic and ceremony from noon to 5 p.m. Aug. 13, at the Stoystown American Legion Post 257. The induction ceremony will begin at 2 p.m.
Last year's classFamily, friends, baseball lovers celebrate Somerset County Oldtimers Hall of Fame Class
Steve 'Babe' Kutsmeda
Steve “Babe” Kutsmeda (Stephen John Kutsmeda) was born and raised in Somerset County until he graduated from Shade Township High School in 1952. He was an all-sports athlete, excelling in football and baseball. Despite his success as an athlete, very few people knew him as Steve. Instead, everyone around town referred to him as “Babe.”
In one famous incident, when Kutsmeda was on third base as a runner, the batter hit an infield fly, and after it was caught, he decided to tag up and run home. The ball made it to the catcher long before he reached the plate, but as a stand-out football player he decided to lower his shoulder and run through the catcher. The catcher went flying, the ball popped free, and Kutsmeda scored, only moments before both benches cleared. There was a lot of pushing and shoving, nothing much came of it, and the game played on with Central City squeezing out a victory.
Headed to South BendSomerset grad, former VCU skipper Stiffler named head coach at Notre Dame
Later that year, coach Mike Kasnick suggested Kutsmeda, Joe, and another player attend minor league tryouts for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Joe’s father, John Krivack, who is an owner of a local barbershop, had a car so he drove them all to the tryouts, but only Kutsmeda was called back. The next morning it was raining cats and dogs, and without a ride to the second day of try-outs, Kutsmeda rolled up his glove in his uniform and headed for the bus stop. The bus never showed that morning, and since there was only one bus a day from Central City to Johnstown, Kutsmeda was unable to make his second tryout. Without a number to call and no other way out of town, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play in the big league ended at that rainy bus stop.
Shortly after, Kutsmeda moved to East Pennsylvania to take up work with USX Steel Company. He was eventually drafted and spent a few years in the U.S. Army as a tank operator before returning to work at USX.
Kutsmeda is the father of four boys, Stephen Jr., Michael, Brian and Jonathan. This year, he celebrated 58 years of marriage to his lovely wife Patricia LaPalombara-Kutsmeda. Together they reside in warm, sunny Florida, where just this past March he reached the grand age of 90.
"Babe" still speaks fondly of his baseball days in Somerset County and cherishes the honor of being inducted into the Somerset County Baseball Old-Timers Hall of Fame.
Dustin 'Dusty' Davis
Dustin “Dusty” Davis, Ph.D. from Rockwood is honored, and truly humbled to be inducted into the Somerset County Baseball Old-Timers Hall of Fame.
Davis began his love of baseball at a very young age, starting to play the game with his father, Wayne Davis. Wayne Davis was his first coach and continued to coach and guide Dusty from his early days through all of the organized levels from Little League through college baseball. Dusty’s favorite things when he was young were baseball and Penn State.
Travel ball hampering American Legion Travel ball hampering American Legion baseball as postseason opens
Davis started playing organized baseball in Rockwood Little League, coached by his father, Clair Lewis and Ken Reckner over his tenure. During his time in Little League, he developed a love for catching and his ability to lead the team.
He played Junior Legion for Rockwood, where as a 15-year-old, he was named Somerset County Junior Legion MVP by the Somerset County Old-timers Baseball Association and was presented the trophy by then President, Jack Harding. Davis was coached by Murph Kerrigan, LeRoy Newell, Doug Benford and his father. Davis also played on the Southern Senior Legion team as a 15- and 16-year-old. The Southern team folded the following year and Dusty went on to play for John Deaner on the Stoystown Senior Legion team.
Davis was a four-year starter and letterman for Rockwood High School where he was named to the all county baseball team for three years. At Rockwood, Davis was coached by Greg King, who was also his math and computer science teacher at Rockwood. King helped influence his future career direction to become an engineer. With the help of another Rockwood math teacher and baseball umpire, Ross Shinew, he was connected to Hilltop Baseball of the AAABA League in Johnstown. He played three years in the AAABA League for Hilltop and Ladbrokes.
After graduating from Rockwood, Davis attended Penn State University where he went on to earn a bachelor's of science in chemical engineering, a master's of science in mechanical engineering, and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. Playing college baseball, Davis received Academic All-American honors twice.
Davis was able to coach his sons in T-ball and Little League in Southern California, and Cal Ripken League and Babe Ruth League baseball in Connecticut.
Dr. Davis is currently the Technical Fellow for Combustion Systems at Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford, Connecticut. Pratt & Whitney designs and manufactures jet engines that Power Freedom on military fighter jets such as the F22 and F35 and Connect People and Grow Economies with commercial airliners such as the A320 NEO. He currently lives in Connecticut with his wife Holly, and has two sons, Drew and Parker.
Davis attributes much of his professional success to the lessons and skills that were taught to him growing up in Somerset County and the opportunity of playing baseball. It made him who he is. Without all of his teammates, all the people who coached him throughout the years, none of it would be possible.
All of the teachers, coaches and umpires have a tremendous impact on the lives of their students and players, and he thanks them for their investment in him and others. His message to all of the individuals involved with team sports from the players, to the coaches, to the teachers, to the parents who support their children at young ages, and those behind the scenes out there, "You do make a difference in the world, and you are teaching valuable life-long skills."
Jason E. Stanton
Mr. Jason E. Stanton is humbled and honored to be inducted into the Somerset County Old-Timers Baseball Hall of Fame, proud to call Meyersdale home and remains a Red Raider, bleeding red and black. Stanton with his beloved wife Jorjean and two beautiful, talented, and loving daughters, Jenna, 12, and Jayden, 8, currently reside in Raccoon Township, Beaver County in the Hopewell School District within the Aliquippa regional area.
Growing up in the 1980’s and 1990’s in Meyersdale, Stanton was blessed and is very grateful to have had the opportunity to compete in baseball, football, wrestling and basketball, learning irreplaceable life lessons not found in a book, newspaper, magazine or read from a screen. Many people, including coaches, parents, umpires, referees, fans, patrons, concession stand workers as well as several within the Old-Timers Association contributed their time, talents, and often personal finances to gift these invaluable lessons to Stanton and scores of other young people in Somerset County. They should be recognized for their efforts giving others the opportunity to get to play ball.
Representing the Red Raiders, Stanton had the privilege to evolve as a pitcher and catcher from Ed Danel and Mr. Ron Kaufman from 1988 to 1990. Stanton’s senior year in 1990, the Red Raiders finished 18-3, winning the Somerset County League title, Appalachian Conference Championship and advancing to the District 5 Class 2A championship game suffering an extra-inning, heartbreaking, one-run, walk-off loss to conclude the season.
The 1990 season was magical from the perspective that every player, including freshmen who showed up for the first practice ended the season on the roster as a valuable part of the team. The senior leaders of that group established the groundwork for the hustling, teamwork driven, high energy style of play that led the Red Raiders to compete and win future district championships and contend for state titles. In 1990, Stanton finished with a .425 batting average, finished second in Somerset County in RBIs, completing an 8-0 campaign on the mound and receiving runner-up honors as county MVP.
Stanton also had the opportunity to play in the American Legion baseball programs initially playing Meyersdale Junior Legion baseball for American Legion Post 112 in Meyersdale and Senior Legion baseball for the Rockwood American Legion Post 279. Summer recreation baseball continued in the early 1990’s in the Johnstown AAABA League, catching for the Bergman Toyota franchise, making the league playoffs in both 1991 and 1992.
Stanton was recruited to play baseball at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Ken Keiper. At the time, the UPJ club was a NCAA Division II independent school in the North-Atlantic Region that had fallen on challenging times following very successful conference affiliated campaigns in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
The 1991-1993 seasons were difficult from a competitive perspective as well as a weather perspective, limiting the Mountain Cats to abbreviated schedules. However, momentum in terms of recruiting was building as Stanton would often attend local and regional high school games with Coach Keiper, talking to potential recruits into improving the UPJ program. Lacking an on-campus field that was lost to housing expansion in 1978, Stanton was fortunate to take part in the culmination of a 15-year campaign by hitting the first home run at Pitt-Johnstown’s first game at the George R. Walter Field on Oct. 3, 1993.
The 1994 spring campaign, Stanton’s senior year, complete with a field to call home, the UPJ program, still a non-conference affiliated Division II school, started building credibility. With the 1992, 1993, 1994 recruiting campaigns starting to bear fruit, the Mountain Cats were able to muster a 15-15 record again with a weather-abbreviated schedule, paving the way for UPJ to later join the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and eventually the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference.
Stanton, being the only senior on the team, led the team with 42 RBIs in 30 games, a then single-season record for RBIs in a season. Stanton also set a then UPJ record with 14 consecutive hits in back-to-back weekend doubleheaders, including six consecutive doubles. At the Longwood University, Farmville Virginia Power Ade Tournament, Stanton was awarded designated hitter First-Team honors with eight RBIs in four games. Concluding Stanton’s senior year, he earned First-team North-Atlantic Region, designated hitter honors as well as honorable mention All-American status.
Coincidental with Eric Dinyar being drafted by the Detroit Tigers, Stanton received a call from Coach Keiper to pack his bags as the plane tickets to Cologne Germany were at the gate. The Cologne Dodgers, sponsored by Afri-Cola, from the Deutsch (German) Bundesliga, networked with Coach Keiper during the 1994 spring trip in Ocala, Florida, and had one international roster spot to add to their club roster.
Stanton spent the summer of 1994 with the Dodgers returning to UPJ to finish his degree work. Stanton was featured in an article in Der Speiler Magazine. In February 1995, Stanton was offered an invitation to the Atlanta Braves West Palm Beach spring training facility as MLB teams began populating replacement player rosters. Given that in less than 8 weeks till graduating with a civil engineering technology degree, Stanton declined the Braves offer, graduating in early May 1995, and heading back to Cologne for another summer in Europe, prior to returning to the states looking for employment.
In August of 1995, Stanton was hired by Lennon, Smith Souleret Engineering, Inc. (LSSE) as a rod man on a survey crew. The firm took a shot on a kid from Meyersdale adding him to the payroll during a time when entry level engineering and surveying positions were barely existent and even more difficult to find. A first-class, client satisfaction oriented civil engineering and surveying company, LSSE provided an opportunity for professional and personal growth, culminating with Stanton becoming a principal and shareholder in the firm in 2007.
Stanton, along with current managing principals Ned Mitrovich and Kevin Brett, form a unique, brotherhood-like bond providing necessary leadership for a growing, dynamic, hard-working firm that supports the livelihoods of 120 employees in five regional offices such that they can pay it forward giving others an opportunity to “get to” as many others have provided Stanton.
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This article originally appeared on The Daily American: 9 members set to join Somerset County Baseball Old-Timers Hall of Fame
