(Three Oaks, MI) - Vickers Theatre in Three Oaks was packed Tuesday night for a presentation by one of only 13 people to ever play in the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball.
Ron Reed, who grew up in LaPorte, is also one of only five pitchers in major league history to record at least 100 wins, 100 saves and 50 complete games in their careers.
In addition, he was the starting and winning pitcher for the Atlanta Braves in the game his teammate, Hank Aaron, eclipsed Babe Ruth’s career home run mark in 1974.
“I’ve been living off that glory for a long time,” said Reed, whose response drew laughter and applause from the audience of more than 100 people.
Reed, 83, said he never played varsity sports until he was a junior at La Porte High School where he starred in baseball, basketball and football. That was the year when Ken Schreiber was hired as head coach of the varsity baseball team. Schreiber went on to win seven state high school baseball titles and more than 1,000 games until retiring in 1998.
Reed said his father taught him how to pitch but he learned about the fundamentals of the game and conditioning from Schreiber, a disciplinarian he compared to his father.
“They acted the same. They talked the same. They were both tough guys but they both required respect,” he said.
As a senior, Reed accepted a scholarship offer to play basketball at the University of Notre Dame where he also played baseball for one season. Reed, who averaged close to 19 points and 14 rebounds per game in his three seasons for the Irish, was chosen in the third round of the NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons.
He averaged about eight points and four rebounds a game as a power forward for two seasons before deciding to give baseball his full attention. He quickly moved up the ranks in the minor leagues and was on a major league mound for the first time several months later with the Braves.
Reed made the National League All-Star team in 1968 and remained with the Braves until traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1975.
He gave up just four home runs in 175 innings for the Cardinals but was traded the next season to the Philadelphia Phillies, who won the World Series in 1980 with Reed as one of the leading pitchers coming out of the bullpen.
He retired in 1984 after one season with the Chicago White Sox at the age of 41.
Reed said the first batter he ever faced in the major was the great San Francisco Giant, Willie Mays, who grounded out. The next hitter, slugger Willie McCovey, hit a home run way over the center field fence.
He said McCovey and George Foster of the Cincinnati Reds were the among the most challenging batters for him to get out during his 19-year major league career.
Reed, perhaps, had the most difficult time with Al Oliver, an All-Star player with the Pittsburgh Pirates and later, the Texas Rangers and Montreal Expos.
“I could have rolled it up there and he would have hit it,” he said.
Reed, who has lived in Georgia for about the past 60-years, said he comes to La Porte for one week every year to visit family, friends and attend a Notre Dame home football game. He credited the university for opening the door to his baseball career by contacting a major league team with room on one of their minor league rosters during a summer between NBA seasons.
“I’m one of the luckiest people on the planet to say I got to baseball because of Notre Dame. I love that school,” he said.
