This Viking-loaded baseball team included a number of current classmates and classmates who have passed awy, including Jim Prib, Hank Zalokar, and Dennis Susnik.  Frank Sodnicar, a team member, sent us the following terrific story about some of these wonderful men:

'The team was pretty loaded with guys like Hank Zalokar, Bob Ross, Al Kozar, Jim Prib, and maybe even myself.  Dennis Susnik was a pitcher who could go two innings but no more because he had a big slow curve ball that just messed up both left- and right-handed hitters.  However, after two innings the outfield needed to be ready to run, because the opposition generally figured out Dennis’s curve, and then they would kill it.  Hank Zalokar was a horse, and when he connected, look out! We had some other good hitters on both sides of the plate.  Hank had drilled a long one, and the next two batters (I think myself and Bob Ross) got decked.  I’m not sure if the pitcher was throwing at us on purpose or not, but Bob and I survived to get on base with walks.  Next up was Jim Prib. The first pitch came in, and somehow the bat sailed over the pitcher’s head.  The umpire called for the bat.  It turned out that Jim had some how gotten a Little League bat and let it fly towards the pitcher on that first offering.  Jim was ejected, but there were no more brushback pitches that day, or whenever we played other teams.  It seemed that the word got around not to mess with us.
Posted By: Administrator - 07-11-2011
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