Hometown Boy Makes Good

Ken Beardslee spent 25 years in the services of the New York Yankees and the Pittsburgh Pirates. As a pitcher in the Yankee farm system he won a total of 64 games while losing but 24. When he was injured he left his playing career behind to concentrate on major league scouting.

For more than 20 years he scouted and signed talent for the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League.

In high school Ken set seven national high school pitching records. He holds the country's best strike out average for a complete season (striking out 18 of every 21 batters faced) and the best season average (19 of 21). He holds the nine and the ten inning strike out record (26) and threw eight no-hitters while winning 24 of 25 games at Vermontville. All of Ken's national high school pitching records may be found in the National High School Sports Record Book, published by the National Federation of State High School Associations in Kansas City, Missouri.

Besides his writing and other duties in baseball, Ken operated the Ken Beardslee Youth Baseball Camp at Manchester College in North Manchester, Indiana. Youngsters aged 9 through 18 from all over the Midwest attend the camp each summer.

He started playing as a small boy with other Vermontville boys. The high school in the 1940s did not have a baseball team, only basketball. But the Merchants in the village sponsored a team called the Merchants, which played other traveling teams from Lansing, Battle Creek and Grand Rapids. Ken loved watching those games with the excitement of winning and the sorrow of defeat. Watching those games made Ken yearn to be on an official ball club team, in June of 1946 at the age of sixteen he got his chance and he joined the Merchants, Ken Ward manager. The rest is history.

Ken passed away on March 5, 2007 in Milford, Indiana.  His autobiography is available from – Ken/Mari Baseball Publications, Box 68, RR#1, Milford IN 46542