By Mike Moll
WKTV Sports Director
WKTV will once again bring you highlights of the Stubby Overmire Benefit and Card Show with a program set to premiere on WKTV 25 Dec. 27 at 7 p.m. The program will run again Dec. 30 at 11 a.m. and Jan. 1 at 1:15 p.m.
Stubby Overmire was born in Moline, Michigan, but went to high school at Wyoming Lee in the mid 1930s. Overmire went on to become a major league baseball player from 1943-1952 including seven seasons with the Detroit Tigers from 1943-1949. Overmire would have turned ninety-eight this year, but passed away at the early age of fifty-seven in 1977.
Each year for the last twelve, Wyoming Lee baseball head coach Ty Emelander, along with a host of many others, has put together the Stubby Overmire Sports Card Show and Auction, usually in November, as a fundraiser benefitting not just the baseball team and its facilities, but other athletic departments in the school as well. What is now a two-day event is called by many of the participating vendors, to be one of, if not the largest show in West Michigan.
WKTV had cameraman/producer Gary Vande Velde, sound man Doug Hansen, and sports director Mike Moll attended the 12th Annual Stubby Overmire Sports Card Show and Auction, held on Nov. 18 and 19, to not only get entertaining video of the products available, but also to interview multiple vendors along with Stubby’s daughter Jane Overmire Keller, baseball coach Emelander, Lee football coach Tom DeGennaro, and a host of others. Highlighting the event were the guest appearances, autographs, and interviews with three members of the 1968 World Championship Detroit Tigers team. Also there was super utility man Tom Matchick along with all-star center fielder turned World Series shortstop Mickey Stanley, who made his second trip to the event, Denny McLain, who was baseball’s last 30-game winner having posted a 31-6 record in 1968 was there, just as he has been for every one of the twelve years. In this year’s WKTV special, you will hear humorous stories from all three players from not just the 1968 championship season but others as well.
This year’s program was dedicated to Shirley Peuler. Shirley recently passed away unexpectedly and was the wife of 60 years to longtime WKTV volunteer Ray Peuler, who is called by many “the godfather of WKTV broadcasting.”
