WFXS, MyFoxWausau - News and Weather for Wausau, WIRemembering "Bear Tracks"

WAUSAU (WAOW)--Johnny Schmitz played 13 seasons in the major leagues and pitched against some of the best in baseball. He died Saturday in Wausau at the age of 90.

Schmitz liked to throw the curveball. "That's why my fingers are crooked," he said in a 2003 interview with Newsline 9. Those fingers took him through the minor leagues with the Milwaukee Brewers, where he earned his nickname "Bear Tracks."

"So they took a picture of me sitting on the bleachers putting on my spikes and then the next day they put it in the paper, they blew it up, they thought I had big feet, so that's why I got the name bear tracks."

He broke into the big leagues with the Chicago Cubs. According to the Baseball Reference, he pitched 86 complete games and had 235 career starts. During that time, he and his teammates made the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.

"How many people do you know of that were in a Norman Rockwell picture?"said Woodchucks owner Clark Eckoff. He knew Schmitz and said his passing marks the loss of a Wausau legend.

"Bear Tracks" pitched against some of the leagues most prolific players. "They asked me how I pitched to him and I said I just go out there and do the best I can. That's all I can do. They only had one left handed hitter and that was Duke Snyder and I got him out pretty good."

Schmitz pitched for the Cubs for most of the 1940s, but missed three seasons while serving in the Navy during World War II. As long-suffering Cubs fans know, the team last made the World Series in 1945. Schmitz was called back in 1946.

"They didn't have the pitching," he said of the 1946 team he was a part of.

That first year back he lead the National League in strikeouts. He also made the first of two All-Star teams.

After his career ended, he moved back to Wausau. That's where childhood friend Mark Margnuson said Schmitz's love for the game began. "We grew up in the ballpark. During the depression, this was in the 30s, we had nothing to do. So, early in the morning, where did we go? To the ballpark," said Magnuson.

In 2003, he was inducted into the Central Wisconsin Baseball Hall of Fame. 

"He was a very sincere person, but he was laid back. He was a person that didn't ever want to be in the limelight," said friend Mark Resch.

The game has changed a lot since "Bear Tracks" shuffled to the mound, and he was never one to brag about his accomplishments.

Friends will tell you, he'll be missed.

Online Reporter: Bonnie Shelton