On Friday, sad news reached us from the United States, as legendary pitcher and coach Carl Angelo, who participated in Haarlem Baseball Week nine times as a player with the famous Grand Rapids Sullivans team, passed away on Wednesday (July 1) at the age of 88. Following the coronavirus pandemic, a large memorial service will be held in memory.
Carl Kris Angelo was born on April 25, 1932, in Battle Creek, Michigan. There he lived all his life and became involved with one of the most successful baseball teams in the country.
Carl Angelo, who looked somewhat like legend Babe Ruth outwardly, was active in baseball for seven decades, either as a player or as a coach. He started playing baseball sometime in the 1940s and quit in 2002. In the 1960s and 1970s, Carl Angelo became an overknown name in the Netherlands through his participation in the international Haarlem Baseball Week.
In 1961, the Dutch Baseball Team made a trip to Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, Michigan. There, the Orange played several games against the Sullivans. That team had been set up in 1953 by Bob Sullivan, who was then in his early twenties and had started his company Sullivan’s Carpet & Furniture in Grand Rapids a few years earlier. Sullivan became an icon in both business and baseball in Grand Rapids. Sullivan also sponsored American football and basketball, was involved in boxing and started Little League Baseball in Grand Rapids. Bob Sullivan also spent 36 years as a scout for Detroit Tigers. Over the years, many players from the Sullivans entered professional baseball and more than fifty of them reached Major League. Sullivans won many regional and national titles, including the National Baseball Congress championship four times (1960, 1970, 1983, 1984). In all those years, Bob Sullivan himself was the Manager of the team.
Carl Angelo played baseball for more than 50 years and became a legend himself. He later continued to play recreational baseball into old age.
For many years Angelo owned a restaurant in Battle Creek and he became Sullivan’s right-hand man on the baseball team. Angelo’s Restaurant, which he managed through 2001, was located across from Bailey Park, the stadium where the Sullivans’ baseball team played its home games. Initially one of the team’s pitchers, Angelo later became an Assistant Coach.
In his long baseball career, Carl Angelo won 353 games, lost only 69 and threw 13 No-Hitters. He is widely regarded as the pitcher with the most wins in the history of amateur baseball. Carl Angelo has been inducted into ten Halls of Fame.
In 1963, the Sullivans’ team participated for the first time in the Haarlem Baseball Week, the second edition of the international event that had first been held in Haarlem two years earlier. Carl Angelo was one of the pitchers. It was the first of seven tournaments he participated in, most recently in 1976. However, sixteen years later, in 1992, Angelo returned to the mound in Haarlem. Then, in 1996, he pitched another 1/3 inning at age 64, becoming the oldest player ever to participate in the Haarlem Baseball Week. And so he participated in nine Baseball Weeks as a player. In addition, he was part of the Sullivans during four more “Weeks” only as coach, so he participated in 13 tournaments in total. Angelo missed one of the fourteen trips the Sullivans made to Holland.
Carl Angelo was very popular with the audience, but that was not initially the case during his first performance in 1963. In his first game as a pitcher, he threw the ball high over the press stand out of the stadium. He promptly received a warning from the referee and the crowd booed him. Later in the tournament, Angelo pulled more pranks and pranks on the field and began to become more popular with the fans.
While participating in the 1960s, Carl Angelo did all sorts of crazy things. For example, he once ran backwards across the bases after hitting a home run or came to the mound on a bicycle when he was supposed to pitch. Or he climbed the hill wearing a Scottish kilt. Also once came to the mound dressed as a firefighter or stepped into the batting cage wearing shorts. As a coach, he once walked toward first base in clogs.
It earned him the nickname “Carl the Clown. At first Angelo was a little surprised by this, but later he accepted the nickname.
During his initial antics, several spectators thought he was making fun of the sport and thus not taking Dutch fans seriously. Henk Knol, who wrote about baseball in the Haarlems Dagblad at the time, asked Angelo about the reason behind the jokes he made.
Angelo replied that it was a character created by him especially for the tournament. He did it precisely to entertain the audience, because he felt that the spectators should have fun and be entertained. When it was clear that Carl Angelo was not pulling the wool over the audience’s eyes, the audience applauded him and then wondered what antics he would perform next.
After that, Carl Angelo quickly became one of the most popular people in the history of the tournament.
Carl Angelo, on the contrary, was very serious about playing and coaching baseball and wanted the best for his team. He was a talented player in High School and in College. In 1954, he briefly played professionally in the Chicago White Sox organization in the Minor League in what was then the so-called D-level.
In 1982, Carl Angelo provided one of the most memorable moments in the history of Haarlem Baseball Week. During the Opening Ceremony, he played the national anthems of the three participating countries, USA, Japan and the Netherlands. The night before, he was very nervous, but when representatives of the organization approved his versions of the anthems, Angelo decided to play them. After his impressive performance, Angelo received a standing ovation for minutes.
Earlier, in 1968, Angelo had also played his trumpet, but then he just played some tunes for the audience.
In 1992, the Most Popular Player award was named for Carl Angelo. When informed of this, he was very emotional.
Since that year, the Carl Angelo Trophy has been awarded to the Most Popular Player of the tournament.
The Sullivans’ team participated in the Haarlem Baseball Week fourteen times (1963, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1982, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998). Twelve of them as Sullivans, twice as Little Caesar’s (in 1992, 1994), when this pizza chain was the team’s main sponsor. The team won the Haarlem Baseball Week six times (1963, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1988, 1990).
In 2002, Carl Angelo returned to the Netherlands one more time. This time to vacation there. During the 21st edition of that year’s Haarlem Baseball Week, Angelo and the Sullivans were honored. At the Dutch Baseball and Softball Museum, the part of it dedicated to the Sullivans for their role in the history of the Haarlem Baseball Week was opened. Angelo donated the trumpet he had used for the national anthems in 1982.
Carl Angelo will certainly be missed by his many fans and friends in the Netherlands. He will never be forgotten and forever associated with the rich history of Haarlem Baseball Week.
The organizing committee of Baseball Week Haarlem, the staff and the many fans of the tournament wish Carl Angelo’s family lots of strength.
We will miss Carl, but he will be in our memories forever!
Carl always will be part of the Haarlem Baseball Week!
(text: Marco Stoovelaar)