Where have you gone, Billy Dick?

On a whim the other day, I asked Google to find pro baseball players from my hometown, Cleveland Heights, Ohio. I grew up knowing that Steve Stone went to Brush High School in neighboring South Euclid, and that Mike Hegan and Gary Roggenburk attended my high school, St. Ignatius in Cleveland.

As with many of today’s sports fans, I’m well aware that Jason and Travis Kelce grew up in Cleveland Heights and went to Heights High before becoming NFL and media stars (not to mention Travis marrying Taylor Swift). But I had no idea if anybody from the Heights made it to the big leagues of baseball.

I can’t remember the exact prompt I put into Google, but two names came up: Moe Savransky, who pitched for Cincinnati in 1954, and William “Bill” Dick.

My head snapped back. I knew Bill Dick as Billy, the hard-throwing lefty I faced when we both played in the Tris Speaker Baseball League in the early 1970s. I went by Danny in those days, and in memory I went 2-for-6 against him in two games.

Billy was a dominant pitcher among us 12- and 13-year-olds. We were on opposite teams, and I can remember standing in against him. He was tall and lanky at 6’3″, and his pitches zoomed in to the plate with a lot of movement. His parents were at the games, cheering him on.

I always figured that if anybody from the neighborhood my age was going to make it to the majors, it was Billy.

For 50 years, I’ve wondered where he ended up but until this week had never tried to find him on line.

Dick didn’t make it to the majors, but he was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers and played in the minors from 1975 through 1978. Further searching on Google found a few of his baseball cards but I can’t find anything else about him, on Facebook or anywhere else on the web.

I’m glad Billy had a good run in the minors, rising to AAA. It’s a shame he never got to Milwaukee.

Coincidentally, I did. In Fall 1978, I started graduate school in journalism at Marquette University, about the time when Billy threw his last pitch for the Burlington Bees in the Midwest League.

If you’re out there, Billy, I’d love to connect. 🧢