A Weiss decision

After 30 years as a baseball player and 628 hits in the Tri-County League, Dale Weiss is retiring to watch his sons play.


By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call

 

Dale Weiss would never win a popularity contest in the Tri-County Baseball League.

"I've made some enemies along the way," he admitted. "Off the field, I'm an easy guy to get along with. On the field, I played to win."

That burning desire to be successful drove Weiss to become one of the best hitters in local amateur baseball history.

He recently ended his 19-year career as the Tri-Co's all-time hits leader, collecting 628.

His career totals in at-bats (1767) and doubles (127) are also league bests, and he ranks in the Top 20 of virtually every major Tri-Co offensive category.

The Dieruff High School and Muhlenberg College graduate is a definite Tri-County Hall of Famer who made his mark as a ferocious hitter, and an even more intense competitor.

"Even some guys on my teams over the years didn't understand how much I wanted to win," Weiss said. "They would say `Who cares? It's only a game.' Well, hey, if it's only a game to you, then I don't want you on my team.

"When I bust my rear to play as hard as I can, I want to win. I want you to go all-out, too. I had an attitude that I wanted to win from the first game I played until the very last game."

Fittingly, Weiss' career ended July 16 when he clubbed two home runs in a win over Jordan Creek.

Even though two weeks remained in the regular season, it was Weiss' final game because he was going on a two-week family vacation to Disney World.

Three sons -- 15-year-old Brandon, 7-year-old Cody and 5-year-old Travis -- have pushed baseball down the ladder of importance for Weiss.

"I gave 30 years of my life to baseball, including 13 years of coaching. Now I want to give it to the boys and my wife, Michele," Weiss said.

"Of course, the kids will keep me close to the game. Brandon plays junior legion ball, Cody plays grasshopper and Travis plays T-ball. Now, it's time for me to sit back, relax, and watch them play."

But it won't be easy for him to sit calmly in his lawn chair. Baseball and complete calm never have co-existed in Weiss' career.

Weiss' burning desire to win led him into heated confrontations with umpires and opponents alike during his career, which began in 1980, a year after he graduated from high school.

"Hopefully, the people I've argued with didn't take it personally," Weiss said. "You yell and scream during a game because you want to win.

"Some people say I'm always bitter. When we had a long losing streak earlier this season, I didn't feel like hanging around after games. I hated losing. I went home a little mad and depressed. I wasn't in a good mood. That's the way I am."

But the good nights far outweighed the bad for Weiss.

He never hit less than .277 in a season and batted below .300 only three times in his career. His peak years were 1984-88, when he hit over .400 three times in the five-year span.

In 1988, he was virtually impossible to get out. He batted .432, hit a career-best nine home runs, had 10 doubles and drove in a career-high 36 runs.

He broke into the Tri-County League with several of his East Side Legion buddies at Mountainville and won a league crown in 1981.

He spent four years in south Allentown before taking his talent over the South 4th Street hill to Limeport, where he had four more very successful years.

The past 11 seasons have been spent with one organization, even though the team name has changed from the Allentown Angels to Stahley's to Woody's and back to Stahley's again.

No matter what the team has been called, the one constant was Weiss playing shortstop and batting third in the order.

In 1991, Weiss and Stahley's won both the Tri-Co season and playoff crowns.

While Stahley's has won a championship trophy in the last seven seasons, Weiss was a big reason the team was always competitive.

Even in 1997, at the age of 36, he batted .419 with 14 extra-base hits.

"I know there are better players in the league now," he said. "Ten years ago, I might have argued the point. I've lost a step and some arm strength. But I'm a smarter player now than I was 10 years ago.

"It's like people say all the time, `If only I knew then what I know now.' Back then I got by on raw ability. These last few years, I've tried to make up for what I've lost physically by just being a little smarter and knowing what's going on in certain situations."

Matt Hlay, Stahley's player-manager, wishes Weiss would come back in 1999 for a 20th season. Hlay still thinks he's one of the league's top players.

So far, Weiss won't budge.

"I've seen some guys hang around way too long and embarrass themselves. I don't want that to happen to me," he said. "I wanted to go out still playing at a competitive level. I could probably play four or five more years at a decent level, but I just can't give the game as much of my time as I have in the past.'

Weiss, who became a head coach himself at Dieruff, has played for a lot of different managers, beginning with Arnie Plessl and the successful East Side Rams' legion teams in the late '70s.

He learned a lot from many of the skippers and even had his disagreements with a few.

Considerable discord with local baseball legend Ishky Fatzinger led him and two other players to leave Limeport in 1987, but he says now that he has no hard feelings toward Fatzinger.

"I admire Ishky; I really do," he said. "He brought me to Limeport and took me under his wing. I learned a lot from him. He was a terrific athlete and player in his own right. He played into his 50s. How many people can say that? He loved the game and was dedicated to it."

And Weiss leaves the game with far more friends than when he entered it playing at East Side Memorial Little League in the late '60s.

"That's what I'll miss the most ... the camaraderie with the guys after the games," he said. "You play hard, you say a lot of things on the field. But when it's over, you have a couple of beers in the parking lot and talk about all kinds of stuff ... everything but baseball.

"Even some guys I used to hate from other teams turned out to be good friends. That's what this game does. In the end, it brings you together."

And it keeps you in close contact with family, too.

Weiss' parents, Fred and Jan, missed only a few of their son's games over the last 30 years. His sister, Barb, attended dozens of his games as well, especially since her husband, Jeff Snyder, is Dale's teammate and played alongside him at third base.

As a social studies teacher at Dieruff, Weiss sees dozens of kids enter his classroom who don't have a complete set of parents taking care of them. So, he knows he was lucky to have supportive parents at home and in the stands.

"My parents were always my biggest fans," Weiss said. "Having them at the games always meant a lot to me. I wanted to make them proud."

Mission accomplished.

"Dale sure has given us a lot of thrills," Fred Weiss said.

"His baseball became a huge part of our lives," Jan Weiss said. "We've followed him through Little League, Dieruff, Muhlenberg, legion and then the Tri-County League. We've gone all over to see him play. We would get his baseball schedule and then plan our summer around it."

What are they going to do now?

"I guess we'll go watch the grandchildren play," Jan Weiss said.



keith.groller@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- July 31, 1998

Copyright © 1998, The Morning Call