MOUNTAIN HOME -- Lester White may be best described as a kindly curmudgeon.
The Mountain Home Lockeroom manager plays the part of the surly skipper and the doting grandfather equally well. He may rip one of his players to shreds one minute and build them back up the next. He encourages as well as he scolds.
He also hasn't missed an American Legion game for the Baxter County team in 32 years, a span of 1,474 games.
"He's amazing," Lockeroom third baseman Kyle Stephens said of the team's 68-year-old manager. "He's here every game, every practice, and he brings something new to us every year. ... He's forgotten more about baseball than most of us will ever know."
White is chasing a major milestone as the American Legion season draws to a close.
Entering Saturday's district tournament losers' bracket game against Batesville, White held a career American Legion record of 899-569-5. His first attempt at earning victory No. 900 ended with a 13-5 loss to Blytheville on Friday night.
"When I first got in it, I never thought it would last this long," said White, whose 1997 team won a state championship. "For the most part, I've had good kids. Oh, there's been a bad apple every now and then, but when you've had as many good kids as I've had it makes it easier to stay with the program."
White, who will turn 69 on Aug. 2, was born in Springfield, Mo., and graduated high school in Gainesville, Mo., a town 20 miles north of Mountain Home. Gainesville didn't have an American Legion program, however, and when Mountain Home formed its first Legion team in 1963 White earned a spot on the roster as the team's center fielder.
That first Mountain Home team also featured shortstop Gaylen Pitts and catcher Dick House, who were eventually picked up by the St. Louis Cardinals before the start of the 1964 season.
"We thought we had a shot of winning the state tournament in '64, but Dick and Gaylen both signed out of high school with the Cardinals," White said. "We lost our catcher and shortstop. That kind of ruined our chances."
White played semi-pro baseball in Springfield and Fort Scott, Kan., before realizing his true talent was coaching baseball.
"Eventually I started coaching in the Babe Ruth league and realized I liked working with kids," White said.
White spent three years as a Babe Ruth coach in Mountain Home before accepting the Lockeroom manager's position in 1984.
Ron Czanstkowski, who played on White's first Babe Ruth and American Legion teams, is a former head baseball coach for Mountain Home High School and is currently a principal in the Mountain Home School District.
"[Coach White] was demanding, very intense, and he had high expectations for all of us," said Czanstkowski, who hit a combined 35 homes runs and drove in 134 runs in his final two years of Legion baseball. "It was fun. We had some good times."
Czanstkowski also was on one of White's best teams, when Lockeroom completed the 1986 season with a 48-8 record.
"We had a very young club in '84, my first year, but I knew they would grow into something special," White said.
Mountain Home's Legion program is known for its varied uniforms and unlikely combinations. During the 2014 state tournament, Mountain Home played its first game in "highlighter" fluorescent yellow uniforms, attended the opening ceremonies in a dark red combination and finished the tournament wearing burnt orange.
White said black and teal is actually the team's most widely used colors, but that there are 31 different combinations the team can use.
"We do have a home white and a road gray," White said. "We just don't have to wear them."
While the various uniforms and 900 victories make for good talking points, White's streak of 1,474 consecutive games without a missing a game is the most impressive aspect of his career.
The closest White came to missing a game came in 1995 when his nephew passed away after a bout with cancer. White's team was scheduled to play in a tournament in Oklahoma that week. While players remained on site for the tournament, White flew back to Arkansas for the funeral.
A torrential rainstorm kept White's streak intact.
"It rained all day and during the night," White said. "The next morning the field was covered in water by a creek that had overflowed. They cancelled the tournament and the boys came home."
White worked as a boilermaker for most of his life and moonlighted as a bouncer for his family's nightclub. They were jobs that molded him into a tough customer who knew how to handle different kinds of heat.
"He's very good with kids. He keeps them in line," said Becky Robbins, who is a board member for the Lockeroom program and whose son Matt plays as an infielder/pitcher. "He treats the boys like they're his own. If they're having a bad time, even if it's outside of baseball, he'll help them out. He does things to keep them out of trouble. He's like a father-figure to them. He's there for them."
"He allowed us to have a personal life," Czanstkowski said. "We could spend time with our girlfriends, we could go to the lake, but we also loved baseball and so we would do a lot of that too."
In 2012, while Mountain Home was hosting the American Legion state tournament, Lockeroom's home park was renamed Lester White Field. The surprise ceremony caught White off guard.
"They were so good at keeping it a secret that I think they could work for the CIA," White said.
"He had the biggest tears running down his face," said Hillrey Adams, who was the president of Lockeroom's board of directors at the time. "It's amazing what Lester has done for Mountain Home baseball. It's not just a summertime job for him, it's 12 months out of the year. At Christmas, you'll see him selling Christmas trees trying to raise funds for this program.
"I'll hate to see it when he's no longer around."
This season has been a tough one. Jim Fudoli, the program's longtime pitching coach, died earlier this year and Mickey Huskey, the owner of The Lockeroom Sporting Goods, died Tuesday while vacationing in Oklahoma.
Lockeroom has been the program's sponsor since 1983, the year before White became the team's manager.
"I couldn't have asked for better sponsor," said White, who has been married 34 years to his wife Roberta, who works in the concession stand while he manages the team. "They've provided us with the best equipment, the best uniforms you could ask for. Whatever we needed, we got."
White said he has only one rule if you want to play for his team: Do what's right.
"If you do what's right, then we'll never have a problem," White said. "If you mess up, then we'll probably have problems. I tell them to be respectful. When we go places, we respect other people's property. If you don't know how to say 'yes, sir,' 'yes, ma'am' and 'thank you' then you better go home and learn them. It's pretty simple."
"He's mellowed out some, but I think we all have," said Czanstkowski, whose son Ryan is a pitcher for Lockeroom. "My first year of coaching I was a lot more intense than I was 15 years later. When you get older, you know when to pick your battles better.
"I think Lester knows when to be tough and he knows when to back off and let things play out."
Because of that, White's players give their coach a ton of respect.
"He's awesome," Stephens said. "Any time you're coaching and your name is on the field, you know you've been doing it right."
Sports on 07/19/2015