Smyrna's Jacobs voted into Delaware Baseball HOF
By Andy Walter
Delaware State News
Dave Jacobs never played baseball for the money.
He would have been crazy to.
“I was telling somebody the other day, I made $150 a month,” recalled the 77-year-old Smyrna man. “And, when you were on the road, they’d pay you meal money. I got a dollar and a quarter a day.
“A dollar and a quarter a day,” Jacobs repeated as he let out a hearty laugh.
No, Jacobs played the game because he loved it. And that love lasted well after his playing days were through.
For his accomplishments both as a player and then as a Little League volunteer, Jacobs was recently voted into the Delaware Baseball Hall of Fame. He and four other men will be inducted into the Hall at a ceremony at Wilmington’s Frawley Stadium next month.
A standout player at Smyrna High in the early 1950s, Jacobs spent six seasons in the minor leagues between 1953-61, mostly in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ farm system.
Playing on teams in the South, Jacobs said people usually noticed his accent right away. But the utility infielder said it was never a big deal being a kid from a small town in a small state trying to make it in the pros.
“I never really thought much about it,” he said. “My theory was, you played the best you could and do things right. It was baseball.”
A 1952 Smyrna High grad, Jacobs started the next school year at Washington College before signing with the Pirates in the spring. That first season, with Bristol of the Appalachian League, was his best.
Jacobs hit .282 with 35 extra-base hits in 123 games. He finished with a .273 average for his career.
A 6-foot-2, 180-pounder, Jacobs got as far as Class AA, playing for New Orleans in 1956. The second baseman on that squad was future Baltimore Orioles’ manager Earl Weaver.
“He was a real pepper pot, he really was,” Jacobs said about the future Hall of Famer.
Jacobs never reached the majors like his older cousin, the late Forrest ‘Spook’ Jacobs of Milford. He finished his pro career with Class A Jacksonville in ‘61.
Returning to Smyrna, Jacobs did his share of coaching and umpiring in Smyrna-Clayton Little League. He worked for the Delaware State Police for 20 years.
When it was all said and done, Jacobs’ fond memories of baseball far outweigh his regrets.
“I’m sorry I didn’t do more,” he said. “(But) I don’t live in the past.
“It was quite an honor,” Jacobs said about making the Delaware Baseball Hall of Fame. “I was very well pleased.”
The other inductees into the Delaware Baseball Hall of Fame this year are Wilmington’s Jim Johnson and Tom Bedows, New Castle’s Pat Ramone and Newark’s Vic Maggoli.
Toast of the town
It was a pretty memorable week for the University of Delaware women’s basketball team.
First, the Blue Hens were guests of Vice President Joe Biden in Washington, D.C. The players and staff toured the White House before having a poolside dinner at the vice president’s Naval Observatory residence.
Then, on Thursday, the Hens were in Dover being honored by the Delaware General Assembly for their record-breaking season.
“It was just a wonderful week for our young ladies and coaching staff,” said coach Tina Martin. “To tour the White House, have dinner poolside with Vice President Joe Biden, and two days later come to the state capital and be recognized by the Senate, House of Representatives, and the Governor is something we could only dream of.
“This week has been truly amazing and a humbling experience. We are truly thankful, grateful, and appreciative of the all the attention we’ve received and these ladies will remember it always.”
On the road again
Wesley College may only be a small NCAA Division III school in Dover.
But the Wolverines’ football team is going to play a schedule in the fall that would rival any major college program in terms of travel.
Wesley’s nine-game slate for 2012, which coach Mike Drass finalized this week, has the Wolverines travelling to five different states: Texas (East Texas Baptist), Maryland (Salisbury), Louisiana (Louisiana College), California (Menlo College) and Alabama (Huntington).
At home, Wesley will host Texas’ Mary Hardin-Baylor, Birmingham Southern, Lynchburg and Apprentice.
The Salisbury game will be on Sept. 8, in the second game of the season, rather than its traditional spot later in the fall.
Odds & ends
•Caesar Rodney High tennis standout Jared Morris is going to continue his playing career at East Carolina next year. The defending state champion, Morris owns a record of 63-5 — all at first singles — after overcoming a back injury early in his high school career.
“Jared’s got the capability to play Division I tennis on any team,” said Riders coach Jim Harvey. “He’s just a really high-caliber player. I think he’s looking forward to playing some college ball.”
•CR and Cape Henlopen will hold their annual showdown to decide the Henlopen Conference title in boys’ lacrosse on Tuesday in Camden at 7 p.m. (The game was switched from Wednesday because of a scheduling conflict.) Cape hasn’t lost a conference game since falling to the Riders six years ago.
•The Polytech softball team is an impressive 15-0 but has to play the Henlopen Conference’s next two best teams this week. The Panthers travel to Delmar on Tuesday before hosting Sussex Central on Thursday.
•A pair of former Henlopen Conference athletes were named team MVPs in their sports at Washington College this weeke. CR grad Kevin Papen was named the Shoremen’s top player in men’s tennis while Sussex Central grad Kristin Cooper was the MVP in softball.
Papen, a senior, was an All-Centennial Conference second-team selection this year at both singles and doubles.
•Cape Henlopen High’s Jackie Coveleski was the only in-state player among the class of 11 recruits that University of Delaware field hockey coach Rolf Van de Kerkhof recently announced. Coveleski was a two-time first-team All-Stater.
“I am excited to welcome one of the best — if not the best — graduating seniors in the state of Delaware to the Blue Hen field hockey program,” Van de Kerkhof said in a press release. “Jackie has the skills, understanding and mentality to score and assist. I believe she can become a great Blue Hen representing her home state and state university.”
Sports editor Andy Walter can
be reached at 741-8227 or
walter@newszap.com.
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