Player authors book on '93 St. Francis title year

Paul Babcock didn’t have any plans of ever writing a book.

But after the World Series Championship run by the University of St. Francis baseball team in 1993, assistant coach Tony Delgado continually made a statement that Babcock never was able to quite get out of his head.

“Coach Delgado had always said if he were to write a book about the cast of characters about the season we had that nobody would believe it,” Babcock said.

But the unlikely story of a baseball team that started its epic season with a less than spectacular 3-13-2 record on its spring trip and ended with an epic winning streak and a national championship for legendary head coach Gordie Gillespie was indeed true, and Babcock decided to tell the tale from his perspective in “The Game.”

“He had said that so many times that it had kind of planted a seed,” Babcock admitted.

The story explores his early upbringing in the small town of Poplar Grove, near the Wisconsin border, as Babcock learned the value of hard work from his parents, Richard and Lorraine, on a family farm along with his nine siblings.

Along the way, he met people who were instrumental in his journey, such his youth baseball coach, John Maitland, and athletic director and basketball coach Tom Shields, who having been in Poplar Grove for only a year, vouched for Babcock to Gillespie, who made a scholarship offer to Babcock, sight unseen, only on Shields recommendation.

Babcock arrived at St. Francis intending to concentrate on both football and baseball, but quickly realized he wasn’t cut out for collegiate football and concentrated exclusively on baseball.

Even with that renewed focus, Babcock had a very difficult time breaking through to earn playing time with St. Francis. In fact, Babcock was told during his junior season by Delgado that he wasn’t going to be in line for playing time at the school and if he elected to stay with the team he’d only be used in courtesy/pinch running situations.

Instead of giving up after that analysis, Babcock continued to work hard and prepare for a role that may never come with the Saints.

“I’m an ordinary person with a lot of determination,” Babcock said. “And I think there are a ton of people out there that are like me that root for ordinary people to accomplish things. It’s not to say that what we did was extraordinary, but I think its a great story. I think it is something that hits home with people, there are a lot of core values in there. There are important things in there that I think we need to get back to a little bit more of.”

The coaching staff was good to its word for Babcock’s junior season as he played extremely sparingly. And while Babcock did earn a limited role in his senior season, an injury sidelined him for a large chunk of the season.

But he returned just in time to carve out a role for himself in the postseason and managed a three-hit game against Point Loma Nazarene in the opening round of the NAIA World Series. He also contributed to each of St. Francis’ victories along the way to the title.

And while the trip down memory lane certainly was an added bonus to the book-writing experience, it wasn’t the reason he undertook the exercise.

“I didn’t do it to relive it,” Babcock said. “I did it more to honor Gordie, honor my dad and honor Coach Maitland. I think when you have special people in your life, that’s the way that you honor them in remember them. That’s their legacy. I always say that Coach Gillespie is never going to die, because we are going to carry along his ways, there are so many people that have played for him, there’s tons of guys who try to coach like Gordie. There are guys that have played for me that have gone on to coach and that legacy continues.”

After he spent a year working as a graduate assistant at St. Francis, Babcock was the head coach for Lincoln-Way East for 15 seasons, winning 282 games and seven regional titles. He is now an assistant at Andrew, under former St. Francis teammate Dave DeHaan.

“The Team” is available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and the University of St. Francis bookstore. The book is also available digitally from Google Play.