Members of the Huenke and Guese family Saturday. help unveil the new sign to honor these two hometown legends from New Bremen.
Jose Nogueras | The Lima News
NEW BREMEN — Pride and inspiration.
Those two things were the main driving force in the newest sign outside New Bremen honoring two hometown legends, Theodore “Whitey” Guese and Albert “Mac” Huenke that was unveiled at the outskirts of the village Saturday.
Family and friends came out for the ceremony.
The two honored might have only spent a cup or more like a sip of coffee in the major leagues but the sign is there to exemplify the spirit and the perseverance of these two individuals and the organizers of the sign and members of the family hope it will serve as a motivator for other young athletes.
Mike Guese, who traveled from Denver, is a great-great grand nephew of Whitey Guese and said he is the one name bearing heirs. Whitey Guese had a daughter who passed away. Whitey’s father, who is Mike’s great-great grandfather was from Germany and he fought with the army of Ohio in the Civil War. Whitey is buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave in Wapakoneta. He died penniless.
“Whitey Guese has been part of the family lore for generations for his baseball prowess,” Mike Guese said. “He played for the Reds, but he also played for the Cleveland Indians and the Detroit Tigers before they were in the American League and he played most of his career in the south. “He played against the likes of Honus Wagner, Shoeless Joe Jackson and Ty Cobb.
“It is a nice event and it resurrects the soul of a long, forgotten individual and this underscores the specialness of every life lived. It reinvigorates the soul and it is part of Ohio. It is kind of cool, especially in the case of Whitey, where he is obscured and unknown and is being honored.”
Both players had their best years playing in the minor leagues but eventually both got a shot in the big show. Guese, in his only year with the Cincinnati Reds in 1901, went 1-4 with a 6.09 earned run average. He started five games. Guese kicked around in the minors for a lot of years before dying in Wapakoneta.
Huenke saw even less time that Guese in the majors as he pitched two innings and had one at-bat for the 1914 New York Giants.
Robert Huenke from Elida said he is related Al Huenke but admitted his side of the family did not know much about Al Huenke’s exploits or background until about 20 years ago. Robert Huenke added that his brother saw a blurb about Al in Cooperstown and soon the the family began to find out about their Major League relative as well as learning about the other side of the family.
“He was quite a guy, I guess one word is that he could throw a baseball so hard it would break a slat in a barn and this was back in 1910,” Richard Huenke said. “Some how the major leagues saw him and invited him into their camps. He played for the Giants and several minor league teams. He played a lot of semi-pro ball.
Robert Huenke added that an additional bonus was getting to learn about relatives he did not know.
“It will give the kids here in New Bremen something to aspire to,” Robert Huenke said. “It will give them a goal in life if they play sports.”
Jack Dicke, who was Al Huenke’s was grand child, said his grandfather made a name for himself with his fastball and went on to play for the Dallas Giants in 1913 and his one chance of playing in the MLB was in the final game of the 1914 season where he pitched two innings and gave up a run and got an at-bat.
“I have memories of him and I used to play pitch and catch with him with his old glove that he used in the major leagues and international league,” Dicke said. “He took me to my first major league baseball game and that was in Cincinnati at Crosley Field.
“I think that this sign is long overdue for these two people,” Dicke said.
It was the brainchild of Jay McCollum that spearheaded the effort to have the sign erected and with the help of Ryan Ryan Tinnerman, who designed the sign, got the project completed through private donations.
McCollum, a huge Reds fan, is best known for collecting Wally Post memorabilia but he has also dabbled in custom made bobbleheads of Reds players and one he did of Whitey Guese and this sparked the idea for the sign. One of those bobbleheads was in the New Bremen display case and soon students were inquiring about him.
“I had a couple of students come up to me at school where I work and ask me if we were going to put up a sign up in town and I said that’s more of a village question but that is not a bad idea,” McCollum said. “I thought about it a little while and I called someone on council and that got things going.”
McCollum then contacted Tinneman, a diehard baseball fan and graphic designer and soon the project began to come to fruition.
“I knew Ryan knew more about Mac Huenke more than I did and he is a designer so I figured if anyone is going to do it and make it look nice he was going to do it,” McCollum said. “He did a bang up job and I think he knocked it out of the park.
“What this is going to do is going to cause a lot of Google searches,” McCollum said. “They have done something we all wish we could have done and that is step on a major league mound in a game and throw a pitch. Even if your arm fell off you were there and you did it.
