Pastime plays big role in heritage

Baseball is one of Buckley's biggest traditions.

"Back as long as anyone can remember, there has been baseball in Buckley," said Carol Krumwiede, who with her husband, Louie, wrote the sports chapter in "Celebrating 150 Years – Buckley Illinois: 1856-2006."

Krumwiede doesn't know when the first team was organized, or why the sport caught on so emphatically. But she knows residents have loved it since they started playing in the 1880s.

"There were not a lot of other things to do except work on farms," Krum-wiede said. "Baseball was always kind of an easy game to play."

In its earliest days, the team was just called Buckley Baseball.

In 1928, a few men named the team the Dutch Masters after the cigars, and the name stuck. The company never supplied equipment or uniforms but did send a box of cigars every year.

Arlie Seymour, a local restaurateur, became manager in 1933, and to increase attendance at games, he scheduled other events, too – horse races, fireworks, sheep dog herding, airplane rides, parachuting and such.

Seymour helped the team join the Champaign County League in 1935 to secure more competition. That year, the team leased a new baseball field on the northeast side of Buckley. Seymour coordinated the purchase of stadium lights from the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair and added night games to the schedule.

The Champaign County League became the Eastern Illinois League in 1936, and the Dutch Masters have been members ever since.

In the late 1940s, the team built another field. The park cost $15,000 and included 100,000 watts of lights. The project was sponsored by community members and individuals, with the Buckley Legion mortgaging its building to donate $6,000.

The first game played on the field was Aug. 4, 1949, and in 1999, the team celebrated the 50th anniversary; the diamond was renamed Scheiwe Field in honor of Virgil Scheiwe, a longtime player. Scheiwe's son, Mark, who had a long career with the Dutch Masters, said the team defines Buckley.

"I don't know what Buckley would do without it," he said. "That's what people live for, and it's what Buckley's known for: summer baseball."

The Krumwiedes have nothing but fond memories about the Dutch Masters. Louie played while he and Carol were dating and after they got married. Eventually, Carol took their children to the games.

"Our kids grew up there," Carol said, referring to Scheiwe Field. "It's a way of life for us."

After Louie retired, he became the president of the E.I. League, and he still holds the position.

Thanks in part to the Dutch Masters, two Buckley residents went on to play professionally: Mark Scheiwe and Scott Garrelts.

Garrelts was born in 1962, attended St. John's Lutheran School, started playing baseball in Little League and eventually became a Dutch Master. He never pitched for the team but was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 1979 as a pitcher at age 17 out of Buckley-Loda High.

He made his first major league start for the Giants in 1983 and contributed when the Giants won the National League pennant in 1989. Now of Shreveport, La., he will return to Buckley for the sesquicentennial celebration.

"I'm just excited about seeing everybody I haven't seen. There are going to be a ton of people there," he said.

Scheiwe caught the eye of major league scouts while they were watching Garrelts. The Chicago Cubs drafted him as a pitcher, and he spent two seasons in the minor leagues before experiencing shoulder soreness.

He was released in July 1981. Now living in Loda, Scheiwe works for Eastern Illini Electric and farms with his brother. He played for the Dutch Masters until 2003, and now his son, Ryne, plays both there and for Kankakee Community College.

The Dutch Masters will play a home doubleheader Sunday. All former Dutch Masters were invited to attend.