Filmmaker, Former Baseball Scout Talks About Sport in Detroit, Around the World

Plymouth, MI — Filmmaker and former baseball scout Raymond Rolak will talk about the changing landscape in baseball and softball in a Friends of the Plymouth District Library program, “The National Pastime at Home and Abroad.”

Guests are encouraged to wear their favorite baseball jerseys to the talk, which will be held 7 p.m. Thursday, July 14, at the Plymouth District Library, 223 S. Main St. In conjunction, Goodrich Canton-7 Theaters, located on Ford Road at Morton Taylor, is showing the classic coming of age film, “The Sandlot,” at 10 a.m. July 25-29, for only $1.

Rolak is expected to give a colorful speech that showcases the history of baseball peppered with unique and often amusing experiences he had while teaching baseball in Poland.

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“Poland is a wonderful destination and the value is great but they are having too much success. Krakow and Warsaw are now crowded in the summer,” he said in a news release. “Remember they are attracting tourists from the global stage not just America and Canada. They now play baseball/softball at 36 locations in Poland.”

Rolak is also likely to touch on experiences at the recent 2016 College Baseball Museum & Hall of Fame induction in Lubbock, TX, to support the induction of Tom Paciorek. Paciorek, a native Detroiter, was the first University of Houston player to be named all-America in 1967 and 1968. He led Houston to the championship game of the 1967 College World Series.

Paciorek had a 16-year Major League career and a successful second calling doing commentating on the television broadcasts of Chicago White Sox. Also in attendance were former Los Angeles Dodgers, Rick Monday, Bobby Valentine and his brother Bobby Paciorek.

Rolakis also expected to offer a look at rich history of Detroit baseball in a discussion that will include the recent addition of Plymouth resident Dick Runchey to the board of directors of the College Baseball Foundation, which operates the College Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame in Lubbock.

Runchey was an amateur umpire for many years and had an interesting career anecdote. When the Major League Baseball umpires went on strike in October 1984, Runchey got a chance to work on the big league stage, along with other local and collegiate level umpires.

Runchey called the foul line of Game 3 of the 1984 American League playoff series between Detroit and Kansas City. Former American League umpire and league supervisor Bill Deegan worked home plate for all three games.

The episode was bittersweet, as Runchey was branded a “scab.”

“A footnote to that game was that the 1-0 win pitched by Milt Wilcox was in front of 52,168 at Tiger Stadium,” Rolak said. "A standing room only stage for the rookie umpire was quite intimidating.”

Runchey rose to the occasion and made no mistakes, then went on to long career as an NCAA umpire and as an instructor for international tournaments.The Tigers went on to victory in the 1984 World Series over the San Diego Padres.

Also, expect him to Runchey on Slavic countries of Belorussia, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Poland are fast tracking programs for the the return of baseball and softball to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, as well as a history of the world tour that A.G. Spalding sponsored in the 1890s to spread the popularity and education of baseball on a global scale.