On Sunday, June 30, 1940, Babe Ruth gave a batting exhibition to a crowd of 3,000 in Rockwell City’s city park. The event was followed by a baseball game between semi-pro teams, including the Storm Lake White Caps versus Audubon. This photo was taken on Monday, July 1, 1940, at Twin Lakes Golf Course, where George Wilson, 14, of Rockwell City, served as a caddy for Babe Ruth.

CALHOUN COUNTY — Now that Major League Baseball players have reported to spring training camps across Arizona and Florida, baseball is officially back. For Mick McCarville, however, baseball season never stopped.

The Rockwell City native is focused on sharing the story of a long-forgotten, but remarkable, piece of Iowa baseball history that includes everything from an epic state baseball tournament played in Manson to connections with the big leagues.

“It happened in my hometown around 1939-1942,” said McCarville, who now lives in Arizona and is a driving force behind the movie script “Once Upon a Diamond.”

“This is a true story that could have happened in any small town in any state in America, but these events in Calhoun County were especially captivating.”

The story began in 1928, when a young teacher and coach named William Cobb came to Rockwell City.

Cobb, who grew up on a farm in the Eldora/Union area in central Iowa, had recently graduated from Drake University in Des Moines. Rockwell City High School hired him to teach commercial and social science. By 1933, “Cobbie” had become the principal of Rockwell City High School, as well as the school’s head baseball coach.

Fast forward to late June 1940, when one of America’s biggest celebrities — Babe Ruth — came to Rockwell City for a batting exhibition in front of a crowd of 3,000 people.

McCarville’s late father, Edward “Bud” McCarville, often spoke of that unforgettable day.

“Dad was 17 and pitched to Ruth during the exhibition,” McCarville said. “Before Dad took the mound, Coach Cobb told him to throw fastballs so the Bambino could knock them out of the park. The problem was my dad couldn’t throw a straight ball.”

Bud McCarville was a left-handed, curve-ball pitcher, McCarville noted.

“He tried in vain, but his first two pitches sailed over Ruth’s head. Ruth walked out to the mound, put his arm around my dad and said, ‘Sonny, I couldn’t hit that pitch if I was standing on a step stool.'”

Manson hosted state tournament baseball games

Around 2002, McCarville decided to see what details he could find about that batting exhibition in Rockwell City so long ago. His search took him to Central School Preservation, a museum in Lake City with an archive of local newspapers.

“Curiosity got the best of me, and I started researching stories in the Rockwell City Advocate,” recalled McCarville, who was an insurance adjuster in the Rockwell City area at the time.

As he expanded his research, he began combing through old issues of the Fort Dodge Messenger and Des Moines Register.

Along the way, he uncovered an incredible, David-versus-Goliath story about how Rockwell City won the 1942 state baseball tournament. As he read about Coach Cobb and some of his star players, he sensed there was more here than some long-forgotten baseball games.

This was a phenomenal story of a small-town baseball coach who was so focused on capturing a state tournament title that he put his health and marriage in jeopardy to win before World War II took his players.

Coach Cobb had come close to winning a state title in 1939, when his team finished fourth. Among the team’s outstanding players was freshman Dean Corson, who pitched in the 1939 tournament.

“By the time Dean was a senior in 1942, he was a well-seasoned, once-in-a-lifetime high school pitcher with a record of 17-0 his senior year,” said McCarville, a 1967 Rockwell City High School graduate.

Prior to the 1942 state tournament, Coach Cobb had been complaining about stomach pain, but he ignored the issue, forging ahead to help his team clinch the title. At that time, the

state baseball tournaments were played just up the road in Manson. In fact, Manson hosted 14 spring tournaments in a row from 1933 to 1946.

The state tournament had been held in Ames in 1928, 1930 and 1931, followed by Des Moines in 1932, McCarville noted.

Those tournaments failed to attract big crowds, however.

This presented an opportunity for Manson to pitch the idea of a tournament site change.

Manson’s superintendent of schools, H.C. Dekock, presented a plan to the Iowa High School Athletic Association. His deal guaranteed the association a certain amount of gate receipts and a volunteer organization with small-town enthusiasm. For the teams having to stay overnight, Manson residents would open their homes and furnish free food and lodging.

“The offer was accepted, and Manson stepped up to the plate as hosts and competitors,” McCarville said.

Before long, a young broadcaster named Ronald Reagan from WHO Radio in Des Moines started covering the tournament games in Manson in the 1930s.

Baseball was a big source of pride for many small communities in pre-World War II Iowa, said McCarville, who added that Rockwell City hosted the state American Legion baseball tournament for nearly a decade.

“It was amazing that Rockwell City and Manson, 10 miles apart, hosted the two biggest baseball tournaments in Iowa,” he said.

‘Dangerous dark horse’

Rockwell City clinched

1942 state title

High school baseball was played in the spring back then, McCarville added.

“There are stories of coaches and players shoveling snow from ball fields in April so they could get a jump on the upcoming spring season.

Several of the Rockwell City players recalled how Cobbie would have the local Standard Oil dealer spread gasoline on the field and light it on fire to dry the ball field in the early spring.”

During the spring of 1942, Coach Cobb ignored his declining health as he pushed himself and his team to the limit. By late May 1942, Rockwell City had dominated baseball teams of all sizes, including mighty Mason City, to win the state title.

“At that time, high school teams had no divisions, so small towns like Rockwell City could end up playing ‘big-city’ teams,” McCarville said.

Dubbed the “dangerous dark horse” of the tournament, undefeated Rockwell City was the sole survivor of 474 teams that began sectional tournament play. The small-town team’s unexpected victory made headlines across Iowa and beyond. Scouts from five major league baseball teams who had attended the 1942 state tournament games in Manson also took note, including representatives from the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers, Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Cardinals.

Even the sports editor from the Mason City Globe-Gazette had to give credit where credit was due.

“If anyone gets around to writing a book about Iowa state tournament baseball history and has need for a picture on the cover, the 1942 tournament provided one. Just use a picture of Dean Corson of Rockwell City,” noted the article “Corson Twirls Rockwell City to State Title,” which appeared in the May 25, 1942, edition of the newspaper. “Corson’s performance brought probably the biggest ovation a player ever received, as the overflow crowd of 2,000 fans cheered the new champions and Corson in particular.”

‘That would make

a great movie’

Corson would go on to serve in the U.S. Army during World War ll in the European theater of operations under General George Patton. He returned to Iowa after the war.

“A tryout with the St. Louis Cardinals came, but he turned the offer down and returned to college,” McCarville said.

Corson later worked for Garst and Thomas Hybrid Seed Corn Co. in Coon Rapids and pitched for the Coon Rapids Merchants baseball team.

After researching Corson’s story years later, McCarville was astounded to learn that this standout player had never been included in the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches’ Association — IHSBCA — Hall of Fame. He mounted a campaign to change this and attended Corson’s induction ceremony in Cedar Rapids in 2004.

“Dean was 81 years old then,” McCarville recalled. “When he gave his induction speech, he got very emotional and teary-eyed. He told the audience this award also belonged to his coach and his town.”

Corson said Cobbie was like a second father to him.

“He was the kind of coach who expected a lot and was well-respected by his players,” said Corson, who passed away in 2013. “I was honored to be one of his players.”

Sadly, Coach Cobbie only had months to live following Rockwell City’s amazing championship win in 1942.

“Cobbie had two goals that year — to win the state baseball championship and get his master’s degree from Drake University. He accomplished both before he died at age 36 in November 1942,” said McCarville, who noted that Cobbie and his wife, Helen, are buried in Rosehill Cemetery at Rockwell City.

A number of years ago, McCarville shared many of these stories in the article, “The Iowa World Series,” for the Manson Journal. “People kept saying, ‘That would make a great movie,'” McCarville said.

Encouraged by friends and Coach Cobb’s daughter, Lavaine, McCarville worked with his wife, Vicki, and screenwriting specialists to create a script for “Once Upon a Diamond.”

He also created McCarville Productions and began pursuing his dream of getting the story made into a film.

He continues to seek investors and partners in the film industry who can help bring “Once Upon a Diamond” to life.

One compelling scene from “Once Upon a Diamond” takes place in 1942, after Coach Cobb is diagnosed with cancer following his team’s state tournament win. As he’s lying in a bed in a hospital room, all his players come to visit him and surround his bed, wishing him well.

They know life will never be the same for any of them. Cobbie tells his players he wants them all to go to the baseball diamond and get a pinch of dirt and take it into war with them. It will be their luck.

“When people ask me why I want to do this film, I tell them, ‘It’s not about me. It’s about the people who inspired ‘Once Upon a Diamond,'” McCarville said.

“It’s important to share this powerful, small-town story.”

Baseball coach Willard Cobb and his wife, Helen, were married in Eldora, on Aug. 14, 1930. Willard was a teacher in Rockwell City at this time, so the couple established a home in Rockwell City.

Dubbed the “dangerous dark horse” of the state baseball tournament, undefeated Rockwell City was the sole survivor of 474 teams that began sectional tournament play. Their accomplishments made headlines across Iowa and beyond, in this news clipping.

Manson hosted 14 spring state baseball tournaments in a row from 1933 to 1946. Rockwell City High School’s baseball team won the state title in Manson in 1942. A program from that 1942 tournament is pictured.

By 1942, Rockwell City standout Dean Corson was a well-seasoned, once-in-a-lifetime high school pitcher, with a record of 17-0 his senior year. He is pictured at bat.

Star pitcher Dean Corson, who helped lead the Rockwell City team to victory during the 1942 state baseball tournament in Manson, is shown with the trophy. Corson later worked for Garst and Thomas Hybrid Seed Corn Co. in Coon Rapids, pitched for the Coon Rapids Merchants baseball team and was inducted into the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches’ Association — IHSBCA — Hall of Fame in 2004.

Rockwell City native Mick McCarville worked with his wife, Vicki, and screenwriting specialists to create a script for “Once Upon a Diamond,” which tells the remarkable story of the 1942 Rockwell City state championship baseball team and their coach, Willard Cobb.