Big Fish in Tiny Danville : Downtrodden City Yearning for Heroes Looks to a Pair of Master’s Pitchers

The little city of Danville, Ill., has been star-struck before. After all, entertainer Dick Van Dyke and actor Gene Hackman were born there.

And, in terms of sports, a Brooklyn Dodger farm team used to call Danville Stadium home. So too, periodically, did minor league clubs from the Milwaukee Brewers and California Angels organizations.

Robin Yount was born there, one Danville historian says, but the town cannot really claim him. Yount grew up in Woodland Hills, in an environment far removed from the assembly lines of that blue-collar community, a city of 39,000 (and shrinking) surrounded by farmland in central Illinois.

It is an area wanting for sports heroes, at least for 10 months each year.

June and July are the exceptions, because it is then that the Danville Dans are in action, competing with the best that the Central Illinois Collegiate League has to offer.

The CICL is a six-team, wooden-bat amateur summer league, and Danville is the only team in the league that secures summer jobs and rent-free lodging and meals for its players.

Given those circumstances, Mike Smith and Eric Totemeier, pitchers for The Master’s College baseball team, have made Danville their summer home. And the city has taken them in with open arms.

Danville’s affection for its Dans became obvious rather quickly to Smith who, like Totemeier, will be a senior at Master’s next year.

On his second day in town Smith, wearing a T-shirt from a summer camp the Dans were sponsoring, ventured into a fast-food outlet. He was there only a short time when an older man, mouth agape, warily approached him and stammered, “You’re . . . you’re . . . one of them?” while gesturing toward Smith’s shirt.

“You mean a Danville Dan?” Smith said. “Yes I am.”

As it turned out, the man was a season ticket-holder. “I have a grandson that just loves you guys,” he said.

Smith introduced himself, explained that he was a pitcher, and offered to take the man’s grandson onto the field before a game so he could meet the team.

“The fourth game, he brought his grandson and a couple of other kids and they hung around the lockers, watched batting practice and just had a great time,” Smith said in a telephone interview.

Smith and Totemeier have part-time jobs and live with “host” families.

Doral and Connie Miller took in Smith, figuring he would be a positive influence on their 13-year-old son Erik, a Little Leaguer.

Totemeier lives with Rick and Susan Chapin and their sons Doug, 16, Zack, 8, and Nick, 6.

“Doug is a pitcher at Danville High School and we thought it would be a good experience for our boys and ourselves,” Susan Chapin said.

Totemeier, who is 6-foot-4, made an immediate impression on the younger children. “Doug is 6-2 and was by far the tallest in the house,” Susan Chapin said. “The two younger boys didn’t think they came any bigger than that. Then Eric walks in. They just said, ‘Wow!’ ”

The Chapin boys have taught Totemeier lessons about life in the Midwest and also lured him into trading baseball cards. In turn, he preaches baseball and talks about life in California.

Totemeier and Smith have part-time jobs they hold between games and practices. Totemeier provides maintenance labor at a local junior college--”I’ve done a lot of mowing lawns and scraping paint off curbs”--and Smith works in the credit office of a department store.

Smith reports that his employers couldn’t be more cooperative. “I went on vacation to Pittsburgh for a wedding and had to ask for some time off,” he said. “They said, ‘Sure, fine, we’re here to help you with whatever you need.’ ”

Indeed, that seems to be the prevailing attitude.

“People go out of their way,” Susan Chapin said. “We’re all experiencing tough times around here and baseball gives everyone something to look forward to.”

General Motors, Quaker Oats and the Hyster Co., which builds forklifts, are among the major employers in Danville, where many of the factories have experienced a series of cutbacks and layoffs. The county’s unemployment rate has frequently been at double figures in recent years and is presently just under 9%.

“Economically, this area is very depressed,” Susan Chapin said. “We just went through a tax referendum to keep the schools going.”

But baseball, particularly this summer, has provided escape--and even a few employment opportunities. Segments of the movie “The Babe,” starring John Goodman as Babe Ruth, are being shot at Danville Stadium this week.

As a result, the stadium has been renovated (a fake Fenway Park “Green Monster” has been installed) and baseball has been brought even more into focus around the city.

So far the Dans have played up to the attention. Danville is 12-8 and second in the CICL behind league-leading Champaign. Totemeier has a record of 4-1, and Smith is 5-1 and picked up his first save of the season in relief of Totemeier in a 5-3 win over Decatur on Wednesday.

For The Master’s, Smith was 5-5 and Totemeier was 2-5. But since coming to Danville, their fortunes have changed.

“For me, this whole summer has been kind of like a movie,” Totemeier said. “The whole community is with us. Because it’s a small town, I don’t know if there is much to do. Coming out to a ballgame is a big thing, I guess.”