Field of Dreamer

By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
You almost need to be a bleeding-blue Chicago Cubs fan to know of Sandy Martinez.

Or have an encyclopedic knowledge of Major League Baseball records.

A .230 lifetime hitter with a grand total of six home runs in eight seasons, Martinez is tied with four other players for most putouts in a single 9-inning game — 20.

That’s what can happen when you get a chance to catch Kerry Wood on a day when his stuff is particularly nasty.

Larry Stewart also recorded his share of catcher putouts during his youth. And he could thank battery mate Robert Picken for that.

“He was our best pitcher, and I often caught for him,” Stewart said. “He had a real good fastball.”
Classmates at Floyd High School, Picken and Stewart were part of Floyd’s baseball team that won the Waterloo Courier Tournament of Champions in 1948. The tournament attracted a crowd of nearly 5,800.

Picken also attracted attention from major league scouts. In the spring of 1950, the St. Louis Browns — a franchise that eventually became the Baltimore Orioles — came calling.

“Here came a big limousine on our farm,” Picken told the Charles City Press in 2015, “and they wanted me to sign with (the Browns). I was plowing corn, barefoot, on the tractor when they rolled up.”

It had always been a dream of Picken’s to play professional baseball with the goal of eventually making the major leagues. He seemed well on his way.

In four seasons at various minor league levels, Picken compiled a 40-26 record with an earned run average of 3.85 that Picken said may be a little higher than it should have been because it took him awhile to realize that the fastball heat he heavily relied on to blow high school hitters away couldn’t alone do the same at the professional level.

Like for many aspiring ballplayers at the time — including a bevy of hall of famers — service to his country was a speed bump in Picken’s budding career. Picken served two years in the United States Air Force during the Korean War before resuming his career in 1953.

A shoulder injury ended Picken’s pro ball playing days in 1956.

Varying life trajectories separated the pitcher from his high school catcher after graduation.

“He went on to play pro ball, and I went away to college,” Stewart said.

Eventually the two former teammates found their way back home and resumed their friendship while often reminiscing about their “glory days” whenever they would get together about once a week.

Four years ago, the Floyd High School Class of 1949 and the City of Floyd honored Picken while naming the ballpark he often played on during his youth — “Robert D. Picken Field”. The ceremony, which Picken attended, culminated a renovation project that included a new backstop and new fencing made possible from contributions from the community.

On April 7, Picken died at the age of 88. Stewart was among those with him during his final days.

“There are not too many pro athletes who have come from around here,” Stewart said. “It would be nice if more people knew about him.”

Though his baseball career ended while he was still in his 20s, Pickens proved to be an outstanding sportsmen for most of the rest of his life. A longtime member of the Amatuer Trapshooting Association, Picken was honored in 2013 after hitting his 50,000th singles target.

To note, Picken shot down many of those clay pigeons from the 27-yard line — the furthest distance assigned in the ATA’s handicap system due to Picken’s success while competing in nearly 500 sanctioned tournaments.