BThis is a story on Brian Ellinghausen. We called him Bauser.

To be able to go through life and get to meet certain people and then get to even know them better is a gift in itself. I knew Brian from when he played with Mike Glasscock and pitched for the Riverside team. I got to know Bauser better from playing against him before I had him as a teammate. But in the short time that I played with him on two different occasion I knew that his intensity level was very high. That he was one of those special players that would play for nothing. To play for the Love of the Game. The first time he played with my Steele's team in 1996 in Houston, Texas he was so pumped up that when we played one of the Texas teams he wanted to jaw with one of the players. I knew then that he had that desire to do what ever it took to win the ball game.

The Bause was always having fun on the mound or at the plate. It didn't matter what the score was he was having fun. Don't get me wrong because he hated to lose as much as anybody but he did it in an enjoyable way. When ever the umpire would make a call that he didn't like while he was pitching, he would take the ball and smack it off of his protective cup so you could here all over the ball park. He would hit it a couple of times.

. These few photos I have of him came from a tourney last year in Portland, Oregon while we were playing in an ASA Super NIT. A family member of mine sent them to me. He use to hang with Jimmy Devine and Dan Houchin on the team and they had a togetherness that was very strong. In the photo below he is with Jimmy Devine right before a game. If you get by Sunman this weekend stop by and watch the ball games being played. I spoke with Monty McCory (Brian's Brother-in-Law) about the tourney and he said they had 12 or 13 teams in the event. The tourney is to be held at a ball park with no fences because this is where Brian started playing his ball. Have fun playing the game Boys. Bause is watching.

Brian and his buddy & teammate Jimmy Devine......I can remember one incident that involved Bauser and I that I would like to share with you. It is kind of funny and yet the intensity level was so high pitched that the competitiveness was great. I was playing with Ritch's Superior in 1996 in Salem, Virginia for the USSSA Major NIT. We had lost an earlier game to Lighthouse at the baseball stadium and were in the losers bracket fighting our way back. Riverside did not have a berth to the USSSA World Series yet, so they were playing great ball knocking off teams through the losers bracket. We ended up playing them at about 10:00 pm. that night on one of the softball diamonds at the complex. Anyway it was a great game and it was back and forth and Riverside had actually taken the lead in the 7th and we had to come back and tie just so we could at least play another inning. In the top of the 8th Riverside scored 2 more runs and it looked bad for us until Darrell Beeler hit a 2 run shot to tie the game for us.

The next batter walked, and then someone got a hit and that left the runners at first and third. With 2 outs. So they decided to walk whoever was in front of me at the time. So now I come to the plate with the bases loaded and all we need is one run. So as I step into the box and Mike Glasscock (Riversides Manager) calls timeout and walks out to the mound to talk to Bause. Now he has done this to me before and usually I would say something to him.

While he is talking to Bauser, Kenny, who is one of their sponsors walks by me at home plate and whispers in my ear that this would be a great game for us to win. Now I have never ever thought about throwing any game in my life so now all he has done is made me even more mad. Now every body is hollering make sure you hit a good pitch, and no hurry. So Bauser being the competitor that he was starts hollering at me at home plate. Here it is big man, hit this out. And he fires one in about head high, with no arc and it definitely had some speed on it.

He Loved To Hit

Me being the hard head, thinking I can hit anything, swing at it and pop it up into foul territory. Not sure who was playing first base but he went behind the dugout to make the catch on the ball, I really took a cut at it and missed it bad, but it went so high that the first baseman (had plenty of time to get under it) puts his hand on the gate and it opens and he steps out of the ball park because it looked like it was going to land outside of the diamond. Instead the ball curves back inside the playing field, the player steps back inside the gate and makes the catch. Needless to say the Bauser had Won! But as we all know things don't always go our way. My Ritch's Superior coaches started arguing about the player opening the gate and coming back in.

Don't you know the umpire says No Catch. He stepped out of the playing area and the catch was ruled no good. Now I am at home plate disgusted because I did everything I was not supposed to. But the heat of the battle was so high that I was probably going to swing at anything he threw at me.

Now Glasscock comes out of the other dugout screaming you have got to be kidding me. So when all the smoke is cleared I get to hit again. Back on the mound is the Bauser looking right back at me. Now he knew he just had me eating out of his hand. In all reality I should have been out. I mean I am the one who choked and didn't get the job done. BUT! I was given a second chance and I took advantage of it. So I say to myself to try and not be too anxious. I waited out a couple of pitches and connected on a good pitch to hit a line shot home run to win the game for us. As I circled the bases Bause was hollering at me and I was hollering at him. It was like the scene when Babe Ruth hit the shot to Centerfield in Chicago years ago. As he was rounding the bases he was flipping off the Chicago ball team.
That's the way it was with me and Bause at that moment. But I remember as soon as the game was over we could go over and have a beer together and talk about it.

He Loved To Pitch

 

 

I can truly say that I feel like the Bauser played for
The Love Of The Game!

The last time I saw the Bauser play was 4:00 in the morning at the Smoky Mountain Classic last year, (1999). Bauser was playing with R&D and they were playing Team Easton in a losers bracket game. All Bause did that game was go 6-6 and had two triples in the big innings that they put up all of the runs. They ended up beating Team Easton 45-44. He was playing his butt off.

It was after a ball game in Cincinnati at Rumpke Park that Bauser had a bad car accident and we lost him.

I put this page up so you could remember him as the ball player.
He was not only a ball player though, as he was a family man first. My heart and prayers go out to his entire family.

God Bless You Bause!

ig J