Baumgartner, Paul

 

Paul Baumgartner – (1995)

 

Since being named sports editor of the Lorain High School student newspaper, “Hi Standard,” in 1952, Paul “Bummy” Baumgartner has been chronicling athletic achievements in public prints almost four decades. After two years at the scholastic helm, three years at Kent State University and six months on active duty in the U.S. Army (plus 5 1/2 years in the Army Reserves), Paul was hired as a sports reporter by The Lorain Journal in 1959.

It wasn’t very long, however, before The Cleveland Plain Dealer recruited Baumgartner to man the sports desk at its Lorain County Bureau. This year the likeable German-Irishman is completing his 35th year in the sports department of Ohio’s largest newspaper.

Baumgartner’s first 20 years at the PD were spent working from several regional bureaus, covering virtually every sports event. In 1979 he was promoted to general assignment sportswriter at the newspaper’s downtown location, and from 1982-87 Paul handled the PD’s bowling news.

In his first eight years on the “downtown beat,” Baumgartner displayed his unique versatility with bylines on stories about horse racing, radio-TV sports, softball, golf, boxing and the full gamut of area scholastic sports.

Baumgartner’s four decades of sports reporting has not gone unnoticed. Covering Amateur Softball Association world and regional tournaments, he has been recognized with three first place national writing awards and was among the first area writers to acknowledge the popularity of slowpitch softball in PD feature sports stories as early as the 1960’s.

“When writing, I try to make a vivid description and lasting impression in a few words,” says Paul. “I really have a terse, simple style, never using words I wouldn’t use in everyday conversation.”

One of Paul’s best received stories, which the Associated Press picked up and distributed nationally, was about a dog trained to spot and retrieve lost golf balls in the woods and ponds surrounding Echo Valley Golf Course in Wellington. “This dog could actually smell golf balls and would dive under water to get them,” laughed Baumgartner.

Bummy was elected to the Ohio Amateur Softball Association Hall of Fame for meritorious service in 1985. That same year, he garnered several Ohio prep writers awards and served as president for the Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association. He was an original member of the Coca Cola Golden Helmet Committee (1965-84) and served with The Associated Press district selection committee.

A strong supporter of recognition for local athletes, Paul worked on the original committee that founded The Lorain Sports Hall of Fame in 1970, serving in tandem with the late Ed Cinninger, former Lorain High coach and athletic director. As the Hall’s first president, Baumgartner assumed the president’s gavel again in 1971 and has just completed his third term as president in 1994.

As it turned out, 1994 was a banner year for Paul. He was also inducted into the Lorain County Football Coaches Hall of Fame. Ten years earlier, “Bummy” had been selected to the Lorain County Boys Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame, the first non-coach so honored.

Since February 1988, Baumgartner’s PD beat has been harness horse racing with Northfield Park serving as primary beneficiary of his outstanding daily coverage. During that period, Paul has missed very few of more than 1,500 racing cards, several of which included covering Grand Circuit harness races. His diligence and understanding of the sport show not only in his daily stories and weekly notes columns, but also in his handicapping.

In his top racing card performance, Paul published ten winning selections, to which he mused, “Ten was nice, but eleven on one night isn’t out of the question. One of these hot summer nights, when the horses run truest to form, I feel an 11-bagger coming on.”

Some day soon, Paul might reach this lofty goal as “Paul’s Picks” lead all six track monitored newspaper, tip sheet and program selection services with a 33 1/3 percent average, or four winners every racing card.

One feature story Bummy did not feel especially privileged to write for the PD occurred in Lorain. After covering an overtime championship basketball game, he found himself locked inside the Admiral King High School administrative office where he had no choice but to write the story and file it late into the night. After giving up on the school janitor hearing his yells, Paul called an old friend who just happened to be the caretaker at George Daniel Field.

“There’s no way out,” he bellowed to his friend who promptly went to the school, found the janitor and was able to free Baumgartner from his unexpected prison.

A sportswriter from Paul’s first employer, The Lorain Journal, got wind of his predicament and two days later ran a story. All Paul can do is smile and say, “I still haven’t heard the end of it yet!”