—When it comes to baseball, Howell High School has a legacy that’s second to none.
Through the decades, the Highlanders have produced All-Staters, future college stars, a first-round Major League Baseball draft pick and more.
This Saturday, a lot of those players will be returning to their alma mater to take the diamond once again for the semi-annual Howell Highlanders Alumni Baseball Game. Player introductions start at 12:15 p.m. with the first pitch set for 12:30. Tickets are $5, available at the gate, and all proceeds to the Howell baseball program.
The game was broadcast on The Livingston Post. Click here for the link!
“We started this in 2007,” said game organizer Rich Robinson, a 1979 Howell grad who played one season of baseball for the Highlanders in 1978. “It was a response to my admiration for the old Howell-Fowlerville alumni football games. I had gone to the Detroit Tigers Fantasy Camp in 2005 after not playing baseball for 20 years and that’s what gave me the idea.
“I was talking with Jim Murray, who was coaching Howell at the time, around 2005 or 2006,” Robinson said. “He invited me to practice, to come pitch batting practice and take a few cuts and stuff like that. Then I asked him what he thought of an alumni game for Howell Baseball, and he just thought that was a great idea.”
Thus was borne what has become one of the highlights of the year for everyone who plays in the game. It started as an annual affair, and starting in 2013, it became an every-other-year deal.
Robinson picks the rosters randomly after everybody signs up. Each team has 14 or 15 players and he makes sure that each team has a good mix of older guys and younger guys. This year’s game will feature players who graduated in the early 1970s to the early 2020s.
“This year, Mike Keck is our most senior player. He graduated in 1972,” Robinson said. “He played third base for the Highlander team that won the co-championship in ‘72. And then we’ve got other guys this year that have graduated as recently as I think 2020. The oldest person to play in one of the first games was Bruce Campbell, who played second base for Howell in 1950 and ‘51.”
The game’s MVP wins the coveted Bert Tooley Trophy, named for the only Howell player ever to play in the Major Leagues. The legendary Bert Tooley played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1911 and 1912.
As for the games, Robinson said they’re always highly competitive and highly fun.
“These games are really fun for a couple of reasons,” Robinson said. “First of all, if you if you’ve been around baseball players, you know how much they like to bust each other’s chops and, you know, make jokes at everybody’s expense. And that goes on a lot. There’s mild insults that are thrown across the field and you know, somebody takes a while to run down to first base, you know, ‘take the piano off your back, ‘that kind of stuff.”
“And then secondly, it’s old guy baseball, so it’s like, you know, things happen out in the field. Fly balls are lost in the sun, that sort of thing.”
Keith Nelson, a 1980 Howell grad, will be returning to town for the game. He can’t wait.
“The Howell alumni baseball game has been a special event for so many years,” he said. “Not only is it an opportunity to support our current Howell athletics, it’s also a time to catch up with old friends, hearing about their lives and families. Obviously, we all look and move a little differently than days past causing much laughter to be had.”
Nelson said the game is also “a chance to reflect on those Highlanders who are no longer with us.”
They follow the rules of Fantasy Camp, which means that all 14 or 15 players are in the batting order and then they take turns playing the nine positions in the field. There’s also no stealing bases and only one base allowed on a passed ball.
“Everybody wants to win, especially if the game is tight, but it’s not about winning,” Robinson said. “It’s about having fun.”
