When we opened the Friday edition of West Virginia's oldest newspaper, The Intelligencer, we turned to page 2 first because that's where the obituaries are listed.

And we didn't have to view a name because a familiar photograph jumped off the page. It was the same 1948 picture of an outfielder for the Philadelphia Phillies that the Ohio Valley resident mailed to us 25 years ago for a series of articles. In 1979, we contacted some 45 of 65 living individuals with Ohio Valley or West Virginia roots who had competed in major league league baseball.

JOHNNY  "CHIEF "  BLATNIK was one of those ex-athletes and he wasn't hard to locate. The Bridgeport High School luminary was a lifelong resident of Belmont County who made his home on Chermont Road in Lansing. Blatnik, whose funeral is today, not only provided us with the photo for the series of articles but filled in a lot of blanks on his professional career in the 1940s and 1950s prior to our taking a sports department seat at 1500 Main Street.

His background revealed the following:

(1) He played high school basketball for one of the greatest coaches in OV history, FLOYD BAKER, as well as competing in baseball for coach ORVILLE EDMUNDSON. During the summer months, he competed for coach FRED ENGLEHARDT on the Bridgeport National Bank Juniors' team.

(2) After high school, he signed his first professional baseball contract in 1939 with Cleveland Indians' scout BILL BRADLEY.

Blatnik told us that "I was signed as a shortstop and second baseman and never played either in pro ball.'' He joined the Greensburg, Pa., team in the Penn State League in 1939 before moving to Fargo, N.D., in the Northern League, where he played third base. He made his final move to outfield in 1941 with the Charleston, W.Va. team in the Middle Atlantic League. (3) From 1942-1946, he served in the United States Army Air Force before returning to pro baseball for 10 more seasons. The first stop, in 1946, was again at Harrisburg, Pa., in the Inter-State League followed by a year in the Eastern League with Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

(4) Blatnik received his major league break in 1948 when he was drafted by the Phillies. After playing the entire season in the National League, he started the 1949 season in Philadelphia before competing with the International League franchise in Toronto and finishing the season with the Phillies. He started the '50 season in Philadelphia before being obtained in a trade by the St. Louis Cardinals. He finished out the season with Houston in the Texas League.

(5) He concluded his pro career with six seasons in New York state in the Class AAA International League, in Rochester in 1951, four years with Syracuse and the final 1956 campaign in Buffalo before retiring from the game.

"After my playing days,'' Blatnik told us, "I got into the field of worker's compensation for the state of Ohio.''

At that point in time, the former athlete had been working for 23 years in the field of unemployment compensation and worker's cost controls.

While Blatnik hasn't been actively involved in athletics the last several years, his memory continues for every traveler of Interstate 70. The roadside billboard between Bridgeport and St. Clairsville features six of Bridgeport High's most famous athletic products. Johnny Blatnik is one of them and won't be forgotten. 

SPECIAL TO CANADIAN BASEBALL NEWS – 26 JANUARY 2004