PREP BASEBALL: Big Al Swaim has had huge impact on youth in River Valley

Alan Swaim, fourth from left, stands with members of his 1985 American Legion team prior to a AA American Legion state baseball tournament at Hunt's Park in Fort Smith. Since the 1980s, Swaim has impacted area youth as a coach and as the director of the Field of Dreams complex in Van Buren. 
Courtesy photo Jerry Glidewell, Fort Smith Boys and Girls Club
Alan Swaim, fourth from left, stands with members of his 1985 American Legion team prior to a AA American Legion state baseball tournament at Hunt's Park in Fort Smith. Since the 1980s, Swaim has impacted area youth as a coach and as the director of the Field of Dreams complex in Van Buren. Courtesy photo Jerry Glidewell, Fort Smith Boys and Girls Club


VAN BUREN -- The city of Van Buren was in dire need of help with the building of the Field of Dreams complex in the 1990s.

When John Riggs was elected mayor in 1995, he turned to Alan Swaim.

Swaim, being the avid baseball fan that he is, knew the value of a good reliever. He had just sold his office supply business, the Paper Clip, and was actually deciding what he might do next.

"I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my future," said Swaim. "(Riggs) called me and asked if I would be willing to take over the Field of Dreams. It had run into a brick wall. It was a long way to completion."

Only the original four fields currently at the entrance of the complex had been built.

Swaim stepped in and guided the completion of the complex with the addition of seven more fields, including two full-size baseball diamonds. The Van Buren Pointers still play at the complex at one of the most picturesque high school parks in the state with the scenic bluffs of Vista Hills high above Lee Creek overlooking it.

"People told us at that time that we had the premier facility in the state," Swaim said.

Swaim was instrumental in bringing four youth World Series to the Field of Dreams complex, hosting the 2004 13-year-old World Series, the 2007 12-year-old Babe Ruth World Series, and the 13-to-15 year-old Babe Ruth World Series in both 2008 and 2012.

"We had an army of volunteers for those World Series," Swaim said. "We had over 300 volunteers that helped in each one of those. We had so much pride in our city at that time. I'd give anything if a group of younger businessmen and women would start that up again. I've got boxes of notes that I took and sponsors that we had and how we raised the money. I'd love to turn that over to somebody."

In 2008, Swaim, who is known as Big Al, received the Lefty Gomez Volunteer of the Year Award by the Babe Ruth Baseball Organization as the top volunteer in the nation.

A press release by Babe Ruth Baseball read, Swaim "is most recognized for his leadership role in bringing the Babe Ruth World Series to Van Buren. Under his leadership, Van Buren has hosted several successful Babe Ruth World Series. Babe Ruth Headquarters was so amazed by their community pride and accomplishments that Van Buren now serves as a training site for future World Series hosts."

In 2014, Swaim was named to the Southwest Regional Babe Ruth Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was inducted into the Babe Ruth International Hall of Fame.

"It just blows me away," Swaim said, borrowing lyrics from a John Conlee song. "I'm just a common man who drives a common van."

Swaim ran the Field of Dream complex from 1996 to 2012, organizing tournaments, preparing fields and providing whatever other maintenance was needed.

"The 17 years that I worked out there were the greatest of my life," Swaim said. "If you love kids and you love baseball, how can it get better than working on ball fields. That's as good as it gets."

Swaim coached American Legion baseball for 14 years, including 1981 through 1988 for Fort Smith Coca-Cola and from 1990 through 1995 for the Paper Clip, the legion team for Crawford County.

His Coca-Cola teams won the district tournament four of his eight years and advanced to the state American Legion Tournament.

American Legion baseball was at its peak in Fort Smith at that time with Kerwin's and Ernest R. Coleman (ERC) also sponsoring top-notch teams.

"We won the district tournament four years and got beat by one run in the finals the other four," Swaim said. "Any of the three could have won the state tournament any year. They were that good."

Swaim recalls taking his Coca-Cola team to Fayetteville one season and before the game the home plate umpire, during the pre-game meeting at the plate, explained to the coaches what his strike zone was.

"So, I said, 'it looks like we're not going to play by the rules', and he did not like that," Swaim said. "No, I didn't get any calls that game."

Having coached baseball at the grass roots level, Swaim, like many old-timers, doesn't like the direction of professional baseball these days.

"I watch pro ball, and it drives me crazy," Swaim said. "They can't bunt, they don't hit their cutoff man, they overslide bases, they change pitchers about every five batters. The good old days of tough, hard-nosed baseball is gone."

Then there's the personal protection equipment that players use now while running the bases.

"What are those? Oven mitts," Swaim said. "If I was playing these days, I'd get an oven mitt 24 inches long. How many times are you either safe or out by an inch."

This past spring, Swaim and a couple of old buddies checked off a bucket-list item when they rented the farmhouse, the field and the lights at the original Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, the location used for the Kevin Costner film of the same name.

"That night at 7 o'clock, it was 38 degrees and we went out and played baseball," Swaim said. "It was so much fun. That night we're in the farmhouse. They had the Field of Dreams movie cued up so you can turn around and touch the things that you see on TV. It's just incredibly cool."

Swaim also owned a sports memorabilia shop, mostly baseball, on Main Street in Van Buren named America's Pastime for four years at one point with a soda fountain and sandwich shop.

"It was neat," Swaim said. "I had people tell me that we were right up there with Cooperstown as far as memorabilia. I went to Cooperstown a few years later, and they were wrong. It's just wonderful. I love the Negro League Museum in Kansas City. It's equally as awesome. I'm just a baseball nut."

Swaim more recently returned to coaching, teaching his grandson, Carson Curd, who is currently 13, when he was aged 8 to 11. His daughter, Kelley, married Brian Curd, who played shortstop at Southside and for ERC.

"It was more than cool, it was wonderful," Swaim said. "That whole group was wonderful to coach. That group was all from Alma except one from Ozark."

Health issues have forced Swaim to give up coaching, though. He's suffered two near-fatal heat strokes, has type 2 diabetes that requires four injections per day, has been diagnosed with neuropathy and Parkinson's Disease and most recently with temporal arthritis.

"Every day is a blessing," Swaim said. "When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is thank God. People tell me I'm tough. I'm not tough, I'm just blessed. My grandkids keep me going. I got to every event that I feel like watching."

Last month, Swaim was asked by Jerry Glidewell and the Fort Smith Boys and Girls Club to throw out the first pitch for the AA American Legion State Baseball Tournament at the restored historic Hunt's Park.

"I didn't know this, but they had my 1985 team there to join me," Swaim said. "I was greatly surprised by that. That team finished No. 1 in the state. They went out to the mound with me, I threw the pitch, and we said a prayer right there on the pitcher's mound while both teams respectively stayed on the baseline. Then we went to Calico County to eat. It was one of the nicest nights of my life because I didn't know they were going to be there."

That game featured Van Buren against Fort Smith, the two towns Swaim represented during his American Legion coaching career.

While he's given up coaching, and in between watching the grandsons play, Swaim has taken up a new project of finding and donating baseball gloves. Last year, he donated about 100 and now he has another 120 that he plans on donating soon.

"I give them to underprivileged kids," Swaim said. "The looks on the kid's faces and their parent's faces are just priceless, and that warms my heart. That's my new mission."

  photo  Alan Swaim delivers a ceremonial first pitch during the AA American Legion state baseball tournament at Hunt's Park in Fort Smith. Swaim was honored prior to the game for his many years as an American Legion baseball coach in the River Valley. Courtesy photo Jerry Glidewell, Fort Smith Boys and Girls Club
 
 


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