Moeller's 1st-ever state championship 50 years ago almost didn't happen

The road to Moeller High School's first state championship in baseball 50 years ago was not an easy one. Then again, a broken-down bus is a difficult curve for any ball team.

Driven by future Moeller football coach Ted Bacigalupo, Moeller's yellow cheese wagon came to a halt somewhere on Interstate 71 near Wilmington after the Crusaders had passed the new amusement park, Kings Island, that had opened in late April.

Had Moeller head coach Mike Cameron had some form of GPS, he would have known his boys were about 65 miles away from Ohio State's Trautman Field. But, in 1972 GPS was better known as a road map and there were no cellphones attached to coaches or players that could send out a chain text.

So, the man who would later coach Hall of Famers Barry Larkin and Ken Griffey Jr. plus several big leaguers hiked to a nearby filling station. He was 26 years old with fresh legs and a team about to be tardy.

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Payphones hadn't yet reached 25 cents per call, but Cameron needed change like a teenager in an arcade at the time. While dropping coins frantically he inquired about the station's U-Haul trucks, but they were already rented.

Though it might not fly in today's times, Cameron's backup plan to get rings on the fingers of his players was to use their thumbs. Knowing there would be some parents and fans traveling up, he sent captains Len Matuszek and Pat McLaughlin ahead and devised a strategy to get his starters to the game first.

"We lined them up according to the batting order," Cameron said. "Could you imagine now if some coach now put 20-some players on I-71 to hitchhike to Columbus? There were a couple of carloads where I put in kids and didn't know who they were. I just said, 'Can you get them to Ohio State?' "

Returning to the payphone, he called an OHSAA administrator to negotiate some extra time. Cameron was promptly told, "Game time is 4 o'clock. If you're not there, you forfeit."

Thankfully, Cameron made it north and his last group of players arrived in what he recalls as a psychedelic, Volkswagen microbus, another sign of the early '70s. With loud music blaring, the last of the Crusaders unloaded as the national anthem was being played.

"I was a bundle of nerves," Cameron recalled. "The players thought it was just the funniest thing, the whole atmosphere. I think in the long run it relaxed them."

Cameron's Crusaders weren't expected to be there.

His 1971 team won 24 games. The '72 team finished the regular season 18-6 but outside of Matuszek and pitcher Andy Lauderback, there wasn't a lot of varsity experience to begin the season. In the preseason poll, they were voted fifth out of a six-team league. Afterward many of the players taped the No. 5 on their uniforms and gear as motivation.

Arriving for his state semifinal start in the bed of a pickup truck, freshman Bob Bresnan took the bump against Toledo St. Francis. Back then, it was highly unusual for a freshman to be on varsity. The youngster went 5 ⅓ innings striking out six, but was relieved by senior Lauderback after Matuszek, then a shortstop, had a throwing error giving St. Francis a 5-4 lead in the sixth.

"I just airmailed a throw to first base," Matuszek said.

The future major leaguer for the Phillies, Blue Jays and Dodgers made up for his mistake in the next at-bat, eventually giving Moeller the 6-5 win in a game they nearly missed.

"Cameron told us Johnny Theis was going to get on, Mark Hoffman's going to bunt him over and Lenny's going to knock him in," Matuszek said. "Only I didn't drive him in with a single, I hit a home run. I needed those words and his demeanor at that point because I was really down on myself."

Moeller followed by jumping on Findlay the next day for three runs in the first inning. Junior Theis was 4-for-4, giving him a state finals stat line of 6-for-6. Matuszek was 2-for-5 driving in three runs and left fielder Tom Bockhold was 2-for-3 driving in a pair. Junior Bob Gerhardstein went 5 ⅔ innings with six strikeouts for the win with Lauderback coming to finish the final as he did in the semi.

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Moeller won 10-5 against the defending champs who came into Columbus with nice uniforms and equipment but lost to a band of hitchhikers.

"They had team jackets, bat bags and that kind of thing," Cameron said. "We come in and we've got helmets put together with tape. They were kind of laughing at us."

Recalled Matuszek, "We kind of looked like a rag-tag bunch. It's not like today. We got this vibe that they were smirking at us. We jumped on them!"

Catching the Crusader arms that weekend was Pat McLaughlin, father of the current La Salle football coach who won a Division II state football championship with the Lancers. McLaughlin was 1-for-3 and also drove in two runs.

"He threw it right where I swung," McLaughlin joked.

McLaughlin also recalled Findlay chuckling at them in the title game because the Moeller uniforms were torn and sewn together. He has a picture in his basement with his helmet being held together by batting tape.

"We didn't care. That's what we had," McLaughlin said. "After (winning) we came home in cars. I don't know how they got the bus home. I was 17 years old. I didn't care about the bus."

It was the first state title of any kind for Moeller. Cameron would go on again to win in 1989, 1993 and 2004. His successor, Tim Held, also has four titles (2009, 2012, 2013, 2015).

The Moeller 1972 starting lineup (in order) consisted of Theis at second base, Hoffman at first, Matuszek at short, Denny Gramann in center field, Ken Cavelier at third, McLaughlin catching, Jerry Wimmers in right field, Bockhold in left field, and the tournament pitchers were Bresnan, Gerhardstein and Lauderback.

Lauderback finished 8-1 in 1972 after going 7-1 in '71. Matuszek would take over first base in Philadelphia when Pete Rose was dealt away to the Expos before the Hit King returned to Cincinnati. Matuszek later returned to Cincinnati and for a while, was a sportscaster at WLWT. Gramann went on to play football for Bear Bryant's Alabama Crimson Tide before returning to baseball with Matuszek at Toledo.

McLaughlin's sons Pat (football) and Matt (volleyball) both coach at La Salle and the son of Jerry Wimmers, Alex, made it to the majors in 2016 and 2017 with the Minnesota Twins.

Moeller will honor the 1972 state champions as well as their 2012 state baseball champions at noon Saturday, May 14, before their final regular-season game with Vandalia Butler at Kremchek Field at the Moeller Athletic Complex in Miamiville.

It's a far cry from the All Saints skin infield backstop adjacent to Moeller where the first champions had no fences nor dugouts.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Moeller baseball hitchhiked way to state title 50 years ago