sports
He Turns
On Power
And Is
Shocked
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40
April 12 • 2018
jn
J
ordan Anstandig has played a
informed him that Alma was looking
lot of baseball in his young life.
for a player like him.
He now has a grand total of two
After some emails with Alma coach
home runs.
Jake Sabol and a visit, Anstandig
Yes, two.
made the move.
The first came when he was ABOVE: Alma
In addition to getting the
College junior
12 or 13, he recalls, playing
playing time he wanted,
summer ball in a Detroit-area Jordan Anstandig Anstandig is happy about his
is ready for the progress academically.
tournament for the West
next pitch.
Oakland Warriors.
He’s in Alma’s Integrative
He had to wait nearly a
Physiology and Health Science
decade for his second HR. It
Department as he pursues a
happened March 30.
career as a strength and conditioning
The 21-year-old Alma College
coach.
junior blasted a shot over the tall
wooden wall in rightfield at Klenk
HAZEL PARK MEMORIES
Park, Alma’s home field, to tie a game
Gordon Waterstone hasn’t worked at
against Albion 1-1 in the first inning.
Hazel Park Raceway since 1996. But
Alma went on to win 5-2.
the track’s abrupt closing April 5 still
“It was a 2-0 count and the pitch
hit him hard.
was a fastball, a little up,” Anstandig
He remembers going there to
said. “I started sprinting when I hit
watch races with his father before he
the ball because I thought I might be
was a teenager, and later with Oak
legging out a triple. When I saw the
Park High School friends before he
first-base umpire put his arms
became the track’s assistant
up and give the home run sign,
public relations director in
I went into shock.”
1979.
Anstandig regained his com-
After two years in that
posure by the time he got to
role, Waterstone served as
home plate — somewhat.
public relations director
“I was so excited,” he said. “I
until 1996. Besides being
screamed at our dugout, ‘Let’s
the track’s publicist, he also
go!’”
was in charge of marketing
Anstandig doesn’t hit home Waterstone
and simulcasting.
runs by design. The 5-foot-7,
Some of his co-workers
160-pound left-handed batter
at Hazel Park were still
is a contact hitter who puts the ball
employed there when they got the
in play.
word of the struggling track’s closure
“I swung a little harder than usual
and plans to sell the property even
on the home run because it was a 2-0
though opening day for the racing
pitch and the pitcher had to throw a
season was supposed to be May 4.
strike, but it was my usual swing,” he
Now living in Lexington, Ky., and
said.
working as the associate editor of
Anstandig has taken over the start- a Lexington-based harness racing
ing leftfield spot for the Scots (13-9)
industry magazine, Waterstone made
in his first season there. He was bat-
it a point many times to drop by
ting .258 with 15 runs scored, 10 RBIs
Hazel Park when he was in town visit-
and three stolen bases as of Sunday.
ing family and friends.
He went to Saginaw Valley State
“The last time I visited Hazel Park
University for two years after an out-
was in January,” he said. “I was in
standing athletic career at Walled
town (the last weekend in March). I
Lake Northern High School, where he didn’t go there. I wish I did.”
earned nine letters in baseball, foot-
With the closing of Hazel Park,
ball and snowboarding.
which opened in 1949 at the south-
Frustrated because of a lack of play- west corner of 10 Mile and Dequindre,
ing time on the Saginaw Valley base-
Michigan now has only one horse rac-
ball team, he was looking to transfer
ing venue, Northville Downs. •
when a coach on his Michigan
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Area Braves summer baseball team