WEIMAR VETERANS PARK - STRICKLAND FIELD

WEIMAR’S PASTTIME

ROOT FOR THE HOME TEAM

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

AN INTERVIEW IWTH TOM STRICKLAND AND LARRRY “BEAR” KANA

BY MICHELLE BASNE STOKES PHOTOS BY LORI OLIVAREZ-LIGUES

Tom Strickland and Larry “Bear” Kana converged in my office to talk about their favorite subject – baseball. I watched in amazement as they transformed before my eyes into grinning little boys – excited to talk about their favorite pastime with passion. Weimar Veterans Memorial Park – Strickland Field and the Weimar Vets baseball team that calls the historic ballpark home, are close to their hearts for all the right reasons – small town pride, homeruns, foul balls, cold beer, peanuts, and a cheering crowd rooting for their home team.

“Our field has a lot of history,” said Tom. “It was the first lighted field between Houston and San Antonio, built in 1948. I’ve been involved since 1976. I’m obsessed with the field and baseball. Always have been.

“When I came in ’76, I was a baseball coach and after eight years of doing that, it was hard to just pull the roots out. The very first fall when I was ushered down to the baseball field with the high school, former players asked me to do my best with it. I said that I would spend whatever I made back on the field. That’s when I came up with ways to make money and the rest is kind of history.”

With a strong connection to veterans stemming from being a child of a military family, Tom and his wife maintained several close friendships with veterans over the years. Being a part of a baseball field honoring veterans was an easy choice for him.

“And they kind of put the ball and chain around my neck when they put my name on it in 2001,” shared Tom with a grin. “It’s usually when you’re dead and gone when they do something like that, but I guess they did it, obviously, to honor me. In the long run, it’s like I can’t go away and let it all fall into pieces as long as I’m capable of doing it, so I kind of have a goal of at least 50 years. I’ve got another five maybe if I make it! “In all honesty, it repays me much more than anything else. The last ten years or so I’ve kind of called it my fountain of youth. Every time somebody from out of town comes in, they say, ‘We weren’t expecting this in this little bitty town!’ Kids walk around in amazement and coaches go around with their phones when they first get there and take pictures. One time I overheard a young man on a phone call with his father, ‘Dad, Dad! You have to come to the game today. You have to come see this field! Hurry!’”

Lots of baseball players from Weimar have gone on to play in the Big Leagues; too many to mention in this short article. The field’s ten minutes of fame came in 2010 when the movie Everybody Wants Some filmed several scenes at Strickland Field.

“It was wonderful,” shared Tom. “They came for a whole week and did all the prep work. They put new billboards over the existing ones on the bleachers and renamed it Southwest Texas College. And then, the next week, they were all gone,

Above, Tom Strickland and Larry ‘Bear” Kana share a smile while reminiscing over basball, their favorite pasttime.

Dad, Dad! You have to come to “ the game today. You have to come see this field! Hurry!

and a new crew came back in and cleaned it all up, putting everything back to normal. Well, almost.”

Bear, as the locals know him, has been coaching the Weimar Vets baseball team since 2018, when they won the Community League Championship.

“I’m like Tom I grew up with baseball,” said Bear. “I started putting a team back together with me as the coach. I talked to the guys over a beer, and I said, ‘Fellas, y’all want to play with Weimar Vets again?’ because they were all playing in different community leagues. I told them, ‘Well, I’ll manage if y’all want to play’ so we got a bunch of kids together and got in the league.”

Filled with determination and his love of baseball, Bear plans to continue managing his team, right at home in Weimar.

“As long as I’m around, we’re going to play baseball on Strickland Field,” added Bear. “As long as there’s young men willing to play, I can do it. Weimar Vets have been around since the 60s. What else is there to do on Saturday and Sunday? I do it because I love the game. My first baseball field was a sand pasture in Holman, Texas. Me and my brother played against each other. When we were in Little League, almost every day we were at Shaver Field, unless we had a game. Then we were at someone’s house trading baseball cards and rode our bikes to the swimming pool. It was all flashbacks for me when I saw The Sandlot.”

I was curious, so I asked Bear if he still collected baseball cards today.

“We only collected baseball cards because we were looking for the gum,” he said with a laugh. “Our best baseball card collections, probably thousands of dollars, went into our bicycle spokes. You remember that? You put them on with a clothespin. No telling how many Willie Mays, Mickey Mantles, Nolan Ryan and all that went into the spokes.”

Weimar Veterans Memorial Park – Strickland Field and the Weimar Vets baseball team can be found at the intersection of North College and West Huvar Street in Weimar. Admission to the Weimar Vets games are free, but purchases of beer, snacks and snow cones from the concession stand is highly encouraged. Say “hi” to Tom and Bear while you’re there and, if you’re lucky, you can talk the team into signing a baseball for you like the one that sits in my office.

WEIMAR’S PASTTIME

Top, The Weimar Vets baseball team honors former player Pete Stavinoha with family members throwing out the first pitch; middle, the mural outside of the field honors area veterans; bottom, local veterans, along with Kana, pose next to the monument on the field recognizing all men and women of the Weimar VFW Post #5875 and the Weimar American Legion Post #0259.