BELLEFONTE — It’s hard to imagine, or remember, 1950s America and not think of baseball.
Future greats Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were making their start in the outfield and on baseball cards across the country. And just years before, in 1947, Jackie Robinson led the integration movement that was beginning to pick up speed, with more and more teams adding black players. Like it had been for decades, baseball was American culture.
With young Americans looking up to these giants, the 1958 Bellefonte Little League All Stars captured that inspiration and went the distance. Now, some even younger Centre County athletes with roots to the past are filling their shoes.
Led by manager Harold “Pickle” Rossman and assistant manager Russell “Bud” Haupt, the 1958 11- and 12-year-old All Stars won the District 10 and Section 2 championships. Once at the state tournament, they routed Mill-Creek Seneca in a 5-2, seven-inning game.
Onto the finals, Bellefonte squared off against the Carbino Club from Jessup. After a perfect game into the sixth inning from Carbino pitcher Hank Zeino, Bellefonte rallied by getting on base and Rod Mitchell hit a sacrifice fly to bring in the winning run. Bellefonte won 2-1 for the state title — Centre County’s first.
A few generations later, manager Bud Haupt has a few descendants still on the diamond. His grandson, Greg Nau, coaches the Nittany Valley League Softball All Stars. Before his coaching days, he and his 1981 Bellefonte team won the District 5 championship — 23 years after his grandfather’s team had won.
It doesn’t stop with him, though. An even newer family member is carrying on the love for the sport. Haupt’s great-granddaughter, Josselyn Nau, is the pitcher for the 2017 Nittany Valley Little League Softball All Stars. Not surprisingly, her team is the newest District 5 champions and the latest championship team in her family’s long history.
Fifty-nine years after her great-grandfather helped the Bellefonte All Stars bring home Centre County’s first state trophy, Josselyn Nau is on the mound helping her own team try to do the same thing.
Baseball and softball have changed dramatically over the past half-century, and most likely will change just as much over the next one. One constant in the sport, however, is its ability to connect coaches, players and fans to the past. Whether players imagine Mickey Mantle or Mike Trout, Ted Williams or their own fathers and great-grandfathers, baseball will always be a bridge between generations.
