Claremore Daily Progress

Sports Columnists

June 21, 2008

Terrell Lester on David Chester

Legion star loves the game of baseball

TERRELL LESTER Column



David Chester is all baseball. Through and through. He works at it. Plays at it. Lives it.

He’s a throwback. He plays baseball the way it used to be played. He enjoys baseball the way it used to be enjoyed by players.

He’s daytime baseball. Bubble gum-and-trading card baseball.

The way he frolics, he could have been a member of the Cardinalsí Gas House Gang.

The way he hits the ball, he could have been a member of the Yankees’ Murderer’s Row.

As it is, he plays baseball for the Rogers County Rangers — themselves something of a Murderer’s Row.

David Chester is the spiritual leader, the statistical leader of the Rangers, the Claremore-based American Legion team that has been averaging a dozen runs a game with a team batting average in the high-rent neighborhood of .350.

This is a team with talent. A lot of talent. Chester says so. Assistant coach Todd Bingham says so. Statistics say so.

But the face of this team, the heartbeat of this team is the 6-foot-5, 250-pound first baseman with a savage bat and a gentle nature.

“He is our dugout,” Bingham says. “He is a natural-born leader.”

David Chester is a natural-born baseball player.

He played football in high school at Collinsville. Played basketball, too. He had scholarship offers to play football at the collegiate level. Had even accepted one of them.

But baseball won out in an emotional tug-of-war with David Chester's decision-making psyche.

He was named to the 2006 All-State baseball team, and accepted a scholarship to Seminole on the day of the All-State game.

He calls baseball “America’s pastime” — a 19-year-old calling baseball “America’s pastime” has to be ballpark organ music to Bud Selig’s ears.

“It’s a beautiful game,” Chester says, his voice strong with passion.

It is, indeed, beautiful when you’re hitting .450, as Chester is this season, or hitting .472, as he did last season with the Rangers.

And, in between, he batted .350 as a freshman at Seminole State College, where in the fall and spring, the tradition-rich Trojans played more than 100 games.

For a fellow wanting to play baseball, wanting to follow his dream, life could be no better for David Chester.

He is a student of the game. He is inquisitive. He listens. He studies. He plays.

And he does it all with a smile on his face.

He is the clubhouse clown. He laughs. He jokes. He pulls pranks.

“I try to keep to keep it lively in the dugout,” he says.

But being the student of the game that he is, he knows when to end the laughter and when to begin the game.

He wants to coach someday. Not even out of his teens, he already possesses the maturity of a coach, the mentality of a coach.

“I love when the younger players come ask me questions,” he says.

“If I see them hitting, and they have a flaw, I’ll try to help them out.”

The same 19-year old who talks about “a beautiful game” and “America’s pastime” also refers to the 18-year-olds on his Rangers team as “younger players.”

He talks to his younger teammates about the importance of being a positive role model for youngsters in the stands. He talks about being a good representative for the game of baseball.

He is articulate and bright, responsible and mature.

He’s All-American handsome and all-world talkative, Roy Hobbs in “The Natural” with a loquacious turn.

“I like talking baseball,” he says, his eyes expressive in agreement.

At first base, he talks to umpires, coaches, opposing players.

In the dugout, he talks to teammates, coaches, fans in the stands.

As a schoolboy catcher, he talked to anyone within earshot.

“I love being around the game. It’s my life now,” he says.

“I work some, but I focus on baseball.

“I wake up, work out, hit.

“Hitting is the biggest part of the game of baseball. You can make a living off of it if you learn to do it right.

“It’s such a hard thing, though, hitting that round ball with a round surface. It can get frustrating.

“But like I tell some of the younger players: ‘Don’t worry, this game’s not meant for success. You’re going to struggle at times.’

“You can have seven out of 10 failures, and you can still be an all-star. You can be a Hall of Famer.

“That’s what’s so good about this game.

“If you miss seven out of 10 shots in basketball, you’re in trouble. You’re done.

“But in baseball, you can go 3-for-10 and make money. That’s a great thing.”

With the Rangers this summer, Chester has been going 4-for-10 and that has been an even greater thing for the team.



Chester on the Rangers

The Rangers entered the weekend with an 11-3 record. They have reached the state tournament the last two seasons, going 24-13 last season when Chester was on the squad.

“I’d say we’re three times the team we were last year,” Chester said. “We’re good.

“We’ve got some athletes out there. We’ve got some kids that can play.

“We can blister the ball. One through nine (the batting order), we can hit the ball anywhere in the park.”

He mentioned shortstop Kevin Phillips, infielder-pitcher Jarod Peper, outfielder Ben Kozma.

Peper has evolved into the closer, the stopper for the Rangers. “He can bring it,” Chester said.

Phillips, he said, “is a great defensive shortstop, great bat.”

Kozma “knows how to play the game,” Chester said. “He’s a great ballplayer.”

Text Only
Sports Columnists
  • DAHLBERG: Brady will get another chance at legacy

    Tom Brady was one of the last ones out of the shower, perhaps hoping some extra hot water would help take the sting out of a crushing Super Bowl loss. In a nearly deserted New England Patriots locker room, he sat wearily pulling on his boots, the pained look on his face never changing.
    A few moments earlier, Joe Montana had walked down the hallway just outside, but there would be no meeting of Super Bowl greats. Nor would Brady join Montana in another way, as a four-time NFL champion - something he seemed destined to be at one point in the fourth quarter.
    This was not a night when legacies would be debated. That will have to wait for another time, another place, another Super Bowl. For the second time in the last five Super Bowls, Brady had come up oh-so-short, beaten late once again by the New York Giants and another quarterback starting to make a pretty good name for himself, too.
    Brady wasn't going to come out and say it, but he was blaming himself. Had to, because he had the ball in his hand to win the game with 57 seconds left and couldn't deliver the long touchdown drive that Patriots fans and even his teammates thought would be forthcoming.

    February 6, 2012

  • HORNING: 'Too early to tell who will impact Sooners'

    I have this line kicking around in my head. I want to share it, but not use it. I want to say something profound about Oklahoma’s national signing day experience without becoming part of the national signing day hype machine.

    Here it is:

    Consider the Sooners 1-0 heading into next season.

    It’s awful, really.

    Also, true.

    Not much longer than a month ago, OU had a small and likely very effective verbally committed 2012 recruiting class. It was high on quality but low on quantity.

    Wednesday, a positively beaming Bob Stoops introduced the class high above Owen Field. The class he unveiled was high on quality and quantity: 26 in all, six of them already enrolled.

    February 2, 2012

  • DAHLBERG: From cancer to Super Bowl for Herzlich

    The player on the screen was a 6-foot-4, 246-pound bundle of fury, flying across the field in search of another target to attack. Mark Herzlich watched himself over and over again, slamming into opponents, busting up plays and generally creating havoc for the Boston College defense.
    The video he made in a college class kept him going as he sat for hours at a time for the chemotherapy he prayed would make his cancer go away.

    February 2, 2012

  • LITKE: 'Tell me he doesn't look like Mr. Ed'

    We already know why they play the game.
    The real question is why they still talk about it all week, since the last time a player or coach said anything memorable during the run-up to the Super Bowl was 1999. That's when Falcons cornerback Ray Buchanan and Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe had this exchange:
    "Shannon looks like a horse,'' Buchanan fired first, quickly warming to the task. "I'll tell you, that's an ugly dude. You can't tell me he doesn't look like Mr. Ed.''

    February 2, 2012

  • DAHLBERG: Tebow's time has already come and gone

    It was fun in a way the NFL often isn't, a midseason diversion that sent fans into a frenzy in Denver and prompted people around the country to drop to a knee. Even if you didn't believe in Tim Tebow, it was hard to take your eyes off him as he found ways to win despite passes that fluttered about like balloons on a windy day.
    That it wasn't pretty hardly mattered. Somehow, some way, Tebow got the Denver Broncos an invitation to the playoffs for the first time in six years - something that seemed unimaginable after the team sputtered to a 1-4 start.
    Now he's got to do something even more unimaginable. Find a way to regroup after finishing the season in a funk and beat the banged-up but still intimidating Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday in Denver.

    January 5, 2012

  • Tim-Ritter.jpg American Legion drops ball on state tourneys

    Word out of Pryor from the American Legion Baseball Commissioner George Stump is the 2A and 3A state tournaments have been cancelled due to lack of participation in the western part of Oklahoma.

    June 30, 2011 1 Photo

  • ‘One of a Kind’

    When it comes to sports team names the city of Claremore has a pair of mascots that do not fall under the common scope of handles.

    June 25, 2011

  • Gridiron Memories

    Some 60 years ago a young entertainer out of the backwoods of North Carolina recorded an extended play comedy record album.  His name was Andy Griffith.

    December 4, 2010

  • Big 12 fans deserve a vote

    Has it really come down to money and TV networks when it comes to deciding the fate of conference realignments?

    June 12, 2010

  • Naming Barkley

    The selection this past week of Justin Barkley as the new Rogers State men’s basketball coach has brought mixed reactions.  Not good and bad, mind you, but delight and surprise.

    May 1, 2010