Father-Son Advocate Wins His Ring

by Justin Karp

Above: Chuck Saathoff Receiving Championship Trophy from MSBL's Steve Rosenburg.
Photo by Denevi & Jones Photography

October 2005, Mesa, Arizona - Chuck Saathoff stood on the pitchers mound clutching a gold trophy to his chest, smiling with pride while looking at his newly crowned championship baseball team.

This wasn’t your normal, run-of-the-mill team, however. His World Trans Angels, an amateur team based in Escondido, California, was made up of fathers and their sons. “It’s that bond between a father and his son that makes everything more important than winning,” Saathoff said. “To finally have everything fall into place and win here is something to be cherished.”

On that sunny Sunday afternoon at Fitch Park in Mesa, Saathoff and his son Ryan posed for pictures after winning the national championship in the AA Father/Son American Division, one of the several titles played for annually in Arizona at the Men’s Senior Baseball League World Series. However, the ability for Chuck to play alongside his son for a national title would not have been possible without his idealism.

“It’s a whole different atmosphere than in other regular age-group divisions,” Saathoff said. “Everybody is competitive, but it develops an amazing bond between fathers and sons.”

Saathoff was a man ahead of his time in 1989, when he created the Christian Fellowship League in 1989. His idea at the time was to give fathers and sons a way to play baseball together.  He did not require teams to have rosters with only father/son combinations, but he encouraged fathers and sons to play together, just as he and his son were. He even had rules limiting pitchers to four innings per (seven-inning) game. It was not uncommon for a team to use a father for part of the game, and a son for the other part.

Above: Ryan and Chuck Saathoff (far right) pose with their wives after championship victory.
Photo by Jackie Piro.

Dan Piro was one of the players is Chuck's league. Dan, now publisher of HardBall, was the president of the MSBL of Southern California. "I played in Chuck's league because the format was fun, and most of the games were on weekday evenings or on Saturdays.  I played in my own MSBL league on Sundays," he explained. A few years later, Chuck merged his league with the new North County San Diego MSBL. "Chuck is a wonderful guy, and so is Ryan. I enjoyed seeing them play together. I also knew that he had established in his league an attitude and an approach that we valued in the MSBL. When I approached him about joining the leagues, he volunteered to be one of the commissioners," Piro added.

Saathoff made sure MSBL was welcomed to use the field with lights in Escondido. When the North County MSBL joined with his league, it had seven 30+ teams. Saathoff brought all six of his teams into the new MABL division. A few years later, the league grew to 35 teams and has been at that level ever since.

Above: The World Trans Angels of Escondido, California, Father-Son American AA Division Champs for 2005. Photo by Denevi & Jones Photography.

Val Lewis of the Sacramento MSBL didn't know Saathoff, but, with Steve Sigler's strong support, he was the driving force behind Father/Son baseball at the World Series. When Saathoff learned of the new division, he became its biggest advocate in North County San Diego. He first played with other teams, and eventually organized his own teams to enter into Father/Son competition at the MSBL World Series. In recent years, while he and Ryan were playing together on their team in the North County MSBL, they were also organizing their Father/Son team to play in October in Arizona.

One of the issues that the elder Saathoff noted is that it is difficult for fathers to continue to play with their sons as they age. Chuck did so for many years, but as he entered his late 50's, he realized that he couldn't keep pace with the faster, younger guys who were his son's age.  “We were always on the same team regardless of whether or not there was a division for it,” Saathoff said. “However, as fathers got older, they just couldn’t compete, so that’s where the idea came from.”

Saathoff is passionate about the idea that the bonds forged between fathers, sons and even grandsons on teams in this division are more important than the baseball itself. He said that there are only so many things that fathers and sons can do together and he didn’t want to let any opportunities pass, especially because he never got to play with his dad when he was younger.

“My dad didn’t even like sports until I started playing,” Saathoff said.” He coached me and a lot of other kids on teams that I played on, but he was never in shape to play. By playing alongside my son, it moves the relationship up to another level. I do it because I never got to play with my dad, and for me it’s something to accomplish a goal that I was not able to do.”

Ken Vanderpoel was an umpire in the MSBL when the Father/Son division of the MSBL was created and thinks it was one of the most important things to happen to the World Series.

“I believe that the Father/Son division was one of the best innovations through the course of adult baseball,” Vanderpoel said. “I’ve participated in it with my boys. The people who I’ve played with and I have umpired say it’s the best thing they’ve ever done in baseball. It’s the chance to play alongside your own kids. It’s something that people had never dreamed of doing.”

Saathoff believes the future is bright for Father/Son baseball, not only in the World Series but throughout amateur baseball as well. “The whole idea is to get the fathers and sons together and just play,” Saathoff said. “Winning is great, but playing is the great fun of it.” He added that he would like to see teams be permitted to play at least one more game during their time in the MSBL World Series. Teams in the Father/Son Division currently play four games in a round-robin format.

“Within a team atmosphere, the fathers tend to be a bit more in control of themselves,” Saathoff said. “This rubs off on their sons; the sons in most cases have a more professional attitude and it creates a group dynamic that is hard to duplicate.”

Respond to this article

Post comments about this article