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By Terry Mosher
Editor, Sports Paper
Part II
In 1972, Terry Welling’s Gene Lobe slowpitch softball team lost its first game at state after he got thrown out on a controversial play that helped their opponent rally back to win. But you could never count out a team Welling was on.
“We won all the rest of our games on Saturday and won all seven on Sunday to win the state,” says Welling. “It was a huge tournament – 32 or 64 teams – and we came back to win it. It was really cool.”
That same year the team was playing in a tournament in the Tri-Cities in eastern Washington and they were treated like they were the home team.
“Fans ere 10-12 deep all around the field watching,” Welling said. “It was an atmosphere like it use to be at Roosevelt Field when the stands were just packed. We were playing the Playboy Tavern, their home team, in a night game and you would have thought the home team was us. It was hilarious
“There was always good teams out there that thought they could give us a run for the money and beat us. And they would beat us once in a while. But for the most part, we got to them.”
While Welling was playing for the Suquamish Merchants around 1980, they won state again, 10-running every team they played. They then went to Butte, Montana for the regional tournament, taking third place. In that tournament, the Merchants averaged 25 to 30 runs a game.
“It was a great trip,” Welling said of going to Butte. “We had an RV. I think we rented it somewhere and there were bodies everywhere. Everybody was in the RV. But we made it.”
Some didn’t make it. A team called Tacoma Slowpitch flew in four guys on a small plane and they crashed outside of Butte, killing all four.
“Another team out of Tacoma – The Haven ‑ was also a powerhouse,” Welling said. “We had to play them and we were down by 12 runs and came back to beat them. Both teams probably scored in the 30s.
“We then went on to play a local team. We were in the losers bracket coming back. The winner would go on to the finals. We had this team by 2-3 runs with two out in the bottom of the sixth. With two guys on, this guy hits one to me in left field. I went over to the fence, which was sitting about 300 feet out. I went into foul territory by about six to eight feet, leaped up to catch the ball, but it was just out of my reach, and it went over the fence.
“Much to our amazement, and to the couple hundred of fans watching the game, this umpire called it a home run, tying the game. It was not like it was a hooking ball over the fence. The umpire just missed the call!
“And, yes, there was an argument, but we lost that one.
“We came to bat in the top of the seventh and failed to score. They came to bat in the bottom of the seventh and some little guy sent one over the fence and we lose.
“What was so bad is I am at the fence, clearly in foul territory, and this umpire calls it foul.”
In total, teams Welling played on won 10 state championships, finished second three times, and were in the top five the other times in the 20-plus years he played.
Welling was selected for five all-tournament teams, was named the MVP of several other non-state tournaments, and was named to numerous all-star teams for countless other tournaments.
One night while playing a Bremerton City League game at Lions Field, Welling blasted four home runs.
“Everybody was afraid of us,” Welling said. “There were so many times teams would find out they were playing us and they would go to bed early to get a good night’s rest to be ready for us. It didn’t happen with us. We would have a good time and show up for the game and beat them.
“One time in Longview, which had a great team there, we had just come off a great tournament in Seattle that we won. We were undefeated for a long while and we got to play that team in their tournament in Longview. We beat them like 25-2 in five innings, or something like that. They came back through the loser’s bracket and we just trounced them again with a big score.
“They came to Bremerton (for the Bremerton Invitational Tournament) and we did it to them again. We would have 10-run them – 20-run them – but it was the championship game at Roosevelt Field and we had to go the full seven innings and we beat them like 42-3.
“They were good, but we just had their number throughout the year.”
During his slowpitch years, he also played for the Bremerton Police, Vancouver Police and Bellevue Police, winning numerous tournaments, including the West Coast tournament three times, usually in Las Vegas.
“We had tremendous win-lost records,” says Welling of the teams he played on.” We probably won 50-plus tournaments over the years, including the state tournament numerous times. We knew how to win, and went into each game knowing we were going to win. We had a tremendous amount of hitting talent, whether it be via the long ball or just the base hit.”
As good as the hitting was, the teams Welling played on were also known for their good defense. He had a great arm, as did Lonnie Hamre (Welling believes he had the best arm in the state), and so did Mike Kendall, Gordy Peterson, Dave Benedict and Ed McDonald.
“Of course we all could make the throw to home plate if needed,” he said.
The infield was just as solid, maybe even more so.
“In the infield our defense was spectacular,” Welling says. “With guys like Steve Anderson, Butch Miller playing shortstop and second base; we had one of the best double-play combinations during those times. Others like Mike Kluver, Darryl Stuart, (Bill) Willie Landram, Tim Sund and Steve Ude were solid infielders.
“Our solid hitting came from most of our lineup. But leading in average, usually every year, were guys like Landram, Cliff Johnson, Steve Ude, Hamre and myself. The home run hitters usually came from Kendall, in the early years. We could not keep up with him. But that was his job to hit home runs. The rest of us like Peterson, Hamre, McDonald, Stuart and myself could also produce the long ball.
“But we all played to our strengths. If we needed a hit, or even a hit to right field behind the runner, we would do it. And, also, if we did have a couple runners in scoring position and needed a home run, we could handle that, too. But the long ball was not our first concern. We just usually out hit our opponents, and threw in a few home runs to keep the defense back. And we usually took the extra base when we could.
“But it was our defense that also shined. If, and when, we got beat it usually was not the fault of our defense.”
The funny thing is that the teams Welling played for did not have the advantage of technology that has produced bats that act like rocket boosters. They produced incredible hitting teams with, at times, just a single black wooden bat.
“As years went by, metal bats came onto the scene,” said Welling, adding that almost everybody on his early teams used the same black wooden bat. “Bomb-bats and a few other brands came into being. And, yes, the ball came off the bat quicker, and was hit farther.
“But then the state decided to use restrictive balls. It was like hitting a 300-foot blast that hit a wall and came straight down at 280 feet. So once again home runs were cut down.
“When we went to Butte, Montana (for regionals) and scored all those runs, I am not sure what type of ball was being used, but we still did not have the availability of the new constructed “double-wall” bats that are present today. They alone make the ball jump off the bat, and make a .300 average hitter into a .500 average hitter, just because the ball comes off the bat like it is spring-loaded. It is getting dangerous to play the infield, and especially to pitch. Those guys need masks and cups to stay alive trying to field the ball.”
Welling switched gears in 1990 by deciding to give fastpitch softball a try. He had been recruited out of high school by John Peterson to play fastpitch. But the sport didn’t appeal to him then. He thought it was all pitching and defense with little hitting, and he wanted to hit the ball.
So when he had the chance late in his playing days to pay fastpitch, he took it. The team he joined – Pop’s Inn – won the Bremerton City League in 1990 despite having few experienced fastpitch players or pitchers, which is always the key in fastpitch. Mark Bergsma pitched that year.
”In 1991 we added a real (fastpitch) pitcher in Mike Mollison, backed by experienced players in Chuck Stark, Casey Butler, Pat Westhoff, Jim Spencer and Greg Larson,” Welling said. “We entered the Tacoma-Olympia League and won it. We won, I believe, one tournament that year and went to state and placed sixth. We decided to go to regionals in Oregon, and won that tournament. So on we go to Las Cruces, New Mexico for the “B” Nationals.
“We had a chance to pick up two players, but did not, and went on to place third in the nation. That qualified us for “A Nationals in Sacramento in 1991. We placed, I believe, tied for ninth in that tournament.
“I certainly was not a super star in fastpitch,” Welling says, ‘but I had a few good moments. I could still play defense with the best of them. I wish I would have played fastpitch five years earlier so I could have really learned the game.”
All during this time, Welling was busy on the other side from that as a player. He officiated high school football for 31 years and 10 years as a basketball referee. He was selected to do the state high school football finals four times, once with his father, Bob Welling at Renton, two times at the Kingdome and once at the Tacoma Dome. He also did numerous other football playoff games.
“To just be able to ref a final game in the state tournament with my dad, it was cool,” says Welling. “We had refereed together in league games over the years, but both of us being in the championship game together was a special thing.
“It was probably in 1995 he was chosen to do the state football finals, but he had a mild heart attack about three weeks prior. So he finally gave up refereeing football with 31 years under his belt.
“But he continued to play golf 2-3 times a week when he could. He would play with his old softball buddies at Gold Mountain. He usually walked the course, and on May 19, 1997 he was on hole number 12 on the Cascade Course, walked up “Cardiac Hill”, was putting for a birdie, and collapsed.
“So he went out doing what he loved, playing golf with his buddies.”
The memory of Welling and his dad together on a big stage will always be with him. As will the great slowpitch teams he played on.
“I don’t think you will find teams like that around for a while,” Welling says. “I don’t think you will have that again.”