MAX ELLIOTT
A casual pass through the archives of the Cedar Rapids Gazette,
specifically looking at the years 1967-1971, produces an extensive list of
game summaries and box scores from Norway High School baseball games in the
championship heyday of the team. In many of those contests, on teams that
included future major league player and coach Bruce Kimm, as well as future
minor leaguers Dick McVay, Steve Stumpff and Rick Ryan, the slugging star
was often the slick-fielding shortstop, a player whose name is recorded in
the various baseball
encyclopedias as Donald M. Elliott. To the town he
is known simply as ‘Max’.
Since before Max’s birth in 1953, his parents, Donald and ‘Dot’ (nee: Dorothy
Laird), were the proprietors of the Norway barber shop called “Rasty’s”,
a shop that Max’s grandfather Andrew had founded. Don was, himself, a Norway
High School baseball alum, so the Elliotts raised Max in the same manner
as most Norway boys of the era. That is to say, from the age of four or
five, baseball was the activity of choice for most of the year. Max’s “Little
League” coaches - Lyle and Wayne Kimm and Don Stumpff - inculcated the “Norway
way” of baseball, with an emphasis on the fundamentals of pitching and defense,
into the young player, and those lessons were later reinforced by both the
town team coach Jeff Pickart and by his Legion team coach Art Holland (himself
a former minor league player from Norway). Elliott’s aptitude with a bat,
however, was purely innate.
Those same newspaper stories paint a picture of a brilliant shortstop, a
right-handed thrower and left-handed hitter who, at the age of sixteen, was
the youngest player ever to chosen to play for the semi-pro team in nearby
Amana. By the time he was a senior in high school, Elliott was widely acknowledged
as the best shortstop in the state, and batted an almost-unthinkable .640
during his final season.
In 1971, after that phenomenal senior season which capped a scholastic career
that included five state titles, four selections as All-State shortstop,
the “Earl Proctor” award for his play on the Cedar Rapids Legion team, and
countless other plaudits, Elliott was chosen by the San Diego Padres in the
sixth round of the Major League Baseball draft. The eighteen year old was
assigned to the Tri-City Dust Devils in Pasco, Washington. Tri-City was
then part of the Northwest League, a short-season “A” level team where young
professionals got their first taste of playing the game as a business.
That year, 1971, Max batted .250 in over 200 at-bats in his abbreviate debut.
The following summer, still with Tri-City, his .263 batting average and solid
fielding earned him a promotion past ‘high A’ ball and all the way to AA,
to the Abilene Aces of the Texas League.
Double-A (AA) baseball is widely considered the make-or-break step for young
prospects. In his initial foray at that plateau, the nineteen –year old
Elliott sustained his batting average at .257, an excellent mark for an infielder.
He returned to Alexandria in 1973, but distractions surrounding contractual
negotiations grew, and his average slid to .240 over eighty games. Max demanded
the Padres “promote me, trade me, or release me”. The Padres released him.
Max returned to Norway, and took up fast-pitch softball in 1974 as an outlet
for his competitive drive. The fact that he was a supremely talented hitter
made him attractive to local, Cedar Rapids teams like “Welty Way” (a team
that, in 1971, had won the Amateur Softball Association “Major” National
Championship), “Modern Piping”, and “Kirby Vacuum”. His performance at regional
and national tournaments soon drew the attention of a club team from New
Zealand.
Softball is part of the athletic DNA in New Zealand, and some of the more
opportunistic Kiwi players invited Max to play for their team on occasion.
The relationship deepened, and for three years Elliott played six months
in the US and six for the Poneke-Kilbirnie club in New Zealand. He had married
Sharon Schulte in 1975, but after the marriage ended, there was little to
keep Max in America.
During a tournament with his New Zealand club, in Elliott’s first year ‘down
under’, one of Poneke-Kilburnie’s opponents was the Poirura club in Wellington.
At the tournament, among the array of players Max met, one was Julie Ryan.
The two developed a relationship over the next few years, and eventually
married. They have two sons, Aaron and Jared, and both are following in
their fathers footsteps as quality softball players.
During his early years in NZ Max was hugely respected for both his fielding
(at shortstop) and batting ability and his club, Poneke-Kilbirnie, went on
to win many titles over this period.. He played for the Wellington regional
(‘state’ equivalent) representative team at national championships, and once
his New Zealand residency was approved, Max was selected for the national
men’s softball team. He was slated to attend the 1988 World Series in Canada,
but unfortunately was compelled to withdraw from the team for personal reasons.
By 1990, Max was playing for the “Red Lions” All-Star team in Wellington.
After his serious playing career ended in 2000, he continued to play at a
more social level until 2009. He and Julie remained closely tied to the
sport as members of the Board of Directors of the “Poirura” softball club
in Wellington. Max still lives near Wellington, and now works for TELTRAC
Communications (a major telecom activity throughout New Zealand), but he
manages to return home to Norway every year.
Max specifically wishes to acknowledge the players from his early baseball
days and says without them he wouldn’t have had the stats he had. “Guys
like Roger Boddicker (cousin of Mike) had more heart and determination than
most of the guys who were fortunate to go onto a higher level. Without guys
like Roger we wouldn’t have succeeded.” He also wishes to thank his parents,
the supporters and the coaching staff who contributed to his success.
Max Elliott left Norway, but his legacy will last well beyond his lifetime.
He fondly recalls the cheering and appreciation of his high school teams
and their amazing record…as the locals say, “Baseball is Norway. Norway
is Baseball.” Max Elliott will, forever, be part of both.