Mitch Chetkovich

Mitch Chetkovich pitched four games for the 1945 Philadelphia Phillies.

Mitchell Chetkovich was born July 21, 1917, in Fairpoint, Ohio, which is in the eastern part of the state, near Wheeling, West Virginia. He was the fourth of five children of Mike and Mary Chetkovich, both Serbian immigrants. In the 1930 census the family lives at 12645 Camden Avenue in Detroit, in a house they own which is valued at $7000. Mike is 44 years old and was 22 at the time of their marriage, while Mary is 35 and was 16 at the time of their marriage, which doesn’t add up; since oldest son Stephen is 22 it looks like either Mary was 13 when they got married or she was lying about being 35. Mike, Stephen, and second son John, 19, are all employed in the automobile industry; Mike as an enameler, Stephen a foreman, and John an enamel finisher. Anna, 15, Mitchell, 12, and Rose, 11, are in school.

Mitch turns up next on February 6, 1937, when he married Betty Heymes. His age was listed as 21 and hers as 19, though apparently he was actually 19 as well. He was listed as a factory worker and Betty as an office worker, both in Detroit. In 1938 his name starts to appear in the Detroit Times, in box scores for Belgrade in Detroit’s semi-pro Sandlot League and also for Murray Local No. 2 in a United Auto Workers league. In 1939 he again pitched in the Sandlot League, this time for the Four Leaf Clover team; the Times reported on August 28:

MAJORS SIGN NINE SANDLOTTERS 

Five of Them Are Going to Washington Nats 

Cardinal Scout Attracts Three 

…Most of the signing took place yesterday at Northwestern Field, which each Sunday is a general meeting place for scouts from just about every team in the “big show.” But only Cleveland, Washington and St. Louis Cardinal representatives came away with any signatures… 

Now on the Washington farm list are Michael [sic] Chetkovich, right-handed Four Leaf Clover pitcher… 

Four of the players already have been assigned to minor-league teams next Spring. Chetkovich and Gira will get a tryout with Orlando, Fla….

On February 2, 1940, Mitch and Betty got married for a second time; I don’t know when they had gotten divorced. Mitch’s occupation was given as factory worker, while Betty had none. I found nothing about him going to spring training with Orlando, and nothing at all about him playing professionally that year. In June and July he was appearing in box scores for UAW No. 154 back in the Detroit Sandlot League.

In 1941 Mitch pitched for Four Leaf Clover in the Sandlot League and for Motor Products 203 in the CIO League. By then he had filled out a draft registration card, which gave his address as 3296 Canbon Avenue in Detroit, which was typed in with 682 Continental crossed out. His employer was Hudson Motor Car Co., E. Jefferson, Detroit.

In May, June, and early August of 1942 Mitch appeared in box scores with UAW 174 in the Sandlot League and for Ternstedt in the UAW-CIO League. At some point, though, he made his professional debut with the Quebec Athletics of the Class C Canadian-American League; he pitched 61 innings in nine games, allowing just 51 hits but walking 41, for a 3.84 ERA and a 5-4 record.

In 1943 the number of operating minor leagues, which had been 41 in 1941 and 18 in 1942, was down to ten, due to the war, so the number of jobs was way down. Whether that was the reason or not, in April Mitch found himself back in Detroit Sandlot ball, pitching for the Chevrolet team, and then he went into the Army. The next year he got a medical discharge; I didn’t find any stories about it at the time but later in his baseball career there would be references to his suffering a frozen lung in Greenland. On May 14, 1944, he made his first sandlot start, with the Virgies team, then he was immediately snapped up by the Philadelphia Phillies, desperate for players during wartime like all the other teams. They signed him to a contract with the Utica Blue Sox of the Class A Eastern League, but I found no evidence that he pitched for them; by June 1 he was pitching for the Wilmington Blue Rocks of the Class B Interstate League. On June 29 he pitched a four-hitter, and on July 21 he set a league record with 15 strikeouts. For the season he pitched 185 innings with a 3.94 ERA and a 16-8 record, tying for second in the league in wins. He walked just 64 batters, much better control than with Quebec in 1942. He finished sixth in the league MVP voting.

Mitch went to spring training with the Phillies in 1945, and he made the team. On April 19, the third game of the season, he made his debut, in Brooklyn, and got a mention in the next day’s New York Times:

Sproull, who won sixteen for Milwaukee last year, and Mitchell Chetkovich, who twirled the eighth, kept the Dodgers at bay thereafter, the victors getting five hits in all. The latter recently was discharged from the Army, after he had suffered a frozen lung at Iceland [sic].

After starting pitcher Charlie Sproull was pinch-hit for in the top of the eighth, down 3-1 after allowing three runs in the third, Mitch pitched the bottom of the inning. He walked Dixie Walker, then each of the next three batters forced the runner on first out at second. Even though that seemed to go well, he didn’t get into another game until May 2, at home, when he pitched the top of the ninth in a 9-8 loss to the Giants. He continued his knack for force outs—after the first batter grounded out, he walked the next guy, followed by two forces at second. On the 5^th, at home, he pitched the ninth in a 10-1 loss to the Dodgers, in the first game of a doubleheader; this time he allowed an unearned run and the only force out was part of a double play. The day after that, in the second game of another doubleheader, again against the Dodgers, he came in to start the ninth, down 8-7. He walked Eddie Stanky, then made an error on a bunt by Goody Rosen that allowed Rosen to reach first, after which he was removed, and wound up being credited with two more unearned runs.

As it turned out this concluded Mitch’s major league career, despite his 0.00 ERA. He was optioned to the Oakland Oaks of the Class AA Pacific Coast League, where on May 18 he “developed a painful stitch in his side while throwing batting practice and was rushed to a doctor” (Oakland Tribune). On May 22 he earned his first victory, in relief. On June 17 he got a start and pitched a one-hit shutout; on the 24^th he got another start, as reported on by the next day’s San Francisco Chronicle:

Chetkovich Brilliant But Oaks Lose, 1-0, After Taking Opener 

By Clyde Giraldo 

It’s a shame the way that Mitch Chetkovich, the Serbian Lothario, pitches. A week ago he throttled the Seals, 2-0, on a one-hit performance. Yesterday he lost an equally brilliant effort, a seven-hitter but a beauty, to Los Angeles, 1-0, in the nightcap at Emeryville. Thereby the Oaks split the day’s bill, having won the opener, 11-3, with unassuming case over Pitchers Red Adams, Ralph Marshall and Jodie Phipps. But that Chetkovich— 

The man’s the hero of yesterday no matter if he lost. He wasn’t responsible for the lone run which beat him in the ninth inning, the second extra inning [minor league doubleheader games were often seven innings], of a duel against George Comellas. The latter, stingy and cautious, yielded only two measly hits, singles by Frankie Hawkins in the second and Les Scarsella in the fourth. If the Oaks could have hit Comellas perhaps Chetkovich would have won.

Mitch continued to both start and relieve. On July 22 it was reported that he was ill, and on the 25^th that he “reported sick last night” but “should be all right by the end of the week” (Oakland Tribune). From the Tribune of July 27:

Mitchell Chetkovich, pitcher who only recently has indicated he can hurl good ball, is added to the team’s growing list of ill and injured athletes… 

The loss of Chetkovich for an indefinite period is a blow to whatever immediate hopes the Acorns had of climbing out of the second division. 

Chetkovich, here on option from the Phillies, collapsed on the field last evening shortly before the game was to begin. Carried to St. Luke’s Hospital in an ambulance, he was said to have suffered an attack of acute indigestion, with incipient pneumonia noted. 

The hurler will remain under observation until all danger has passed. Mitchell, Manager Raimondi said, has suffered similar attacks recently, but none so severe as last evening’s. 

Chetkovich was in the United States Army in Greenland, where damage to his system by the cold left him susceptible to periodic illnesses…

On the 30^th it was reported that he was still in the hospital, and on the 31^st that he had not accompanied the team south. But on August 3 the Tribune reported:

Hero of last night’s double bill was Mitch Chetkovich, Oakland’s former serviceman hurler. Chetkovich, suffering from a frozen lung received in Greenland, was rushed to a San Francisco hospital last week during the Oak-Seal series. He was left at home when Manager Bill Raimondi took his charges south. 

Always a fighter, Chetkovich soon was on his feet and he headed south. Mitch went in to hurl the last inning of the first game and then relieved Jack Lotz in the second contest. This one Chetkovich won. 

Mitch has been used as a starting hurler, a relief man, a pinch hitter, a runner. A nice man to have on your club.

In August the San Francisco Chronicle began to refer to Mitch as “’Sugar’ Chetkovich,” with no explanation that I could find. On August 12 he injured an ankle running the bases, and on August 15 he and a teammate were given the night off to celebrate Japan’s surrender that ended the war. From the August 29 Oakland Tribune:

It was Mitch Chetkovich, the mad Slovenian [sic], who racked up last night’s victory… 

It’s too bad that Chetkovich is not the property of the Oaks. He’ll return to the Phillies this fall, but next Spring he appears to be a cinch to be transferred to either Portland, as partial payment for Shortstop Johnny O’Neil, or to Hollywood, in return for infielder Ken Richardson. 

The Acorns would like to buy his contract outright, but he is not for sale for cash. He was originally sent to Oakland for Les Scarsella. Scar refused to report. The sale was changed to an option deal—and the Phils are taking up their option…

From the same newspaper, September 7:

The absence of Mitch Chetkovich, who has not yet reported back from Detroit where he was called by family difficulties, leaves Raimondi short handed for pitching. 

Chet was recalled by the Phillies today, but this is only routine. He will finish the season with Oakland—if he ever gets back from his present journeying.

And from September 12:

A current problem on the Oakland club is what to do about Pitcher Mitch Chetkovich who unexpectedly returned from Detroit yesterday and reported for work. 

Only a few hours before Victor Devincenzi, Acorn general manager, had mailed him notification of his suspension. He was scheduled to return a week ago Monday and there now appears to be considerable doubt if he will be reinstated.

But he pitched on the 13^th, as reported by the following day’s San Francisco Chronicle:

Sugar Chetkovich, taken off probation two hours before the game, relieved Len Gilmore for the Oaks but put on an exhibition of pitching which no doubt the Philadelphia Phillies too wonder [sic] why they exercised their option on this right-hander for 1946. 

Chetkovich cut loose a wild pitch on the first throw to let in a run, threw the ball wild to third base trying to trap a man, letting in another run; walked the next three men and Roy Paton tripled, clearing the bases and finished off an unglorious denouement for the future Philly.

Meanwhile, the Detroit News had run an item on the 9^th saying that Mitch was “said to be” the only Serbian in baseball. On the 16^th they ran a retraction, naming four other known Serbians.

Mitch finished the season with a 3.32 ERA in 168 innings in 33 games, 16 of them starts, with a 10-11 record. In October, as predicted by the Oakland Tribune in August, he was sent by the Phillies to the Portland Beavers as partial payment for shortstop Johnny O’Neil. In November he began pitching in the San Mateo Winter League in California, where he injured his arm—we will eventually hear more about this.

During early 1946, the Portland Oregonian ran thumbnail sketches of the Beaver players, and Mitch’s appeared on February 18:

Mitchell Chetkovich, right-hand pitcher from the Phillies via Oakland, in part payment for Johnny O’Neil: Back in the late 1920s John Miljus of Seattle and later the Pittsburgh Pirates, used to be called “the only Serbian pitcher in baseball”…Now there’s another. Though Chetkovich was born at Fair Point, O., his parents both came from the present Jugoslavia…”Mitch,” as he is called, or “Chet,” stands 6-3 ½, weighs 212, has huge shoulders and long arms and is big all over…Dandy fast ball and good curve…With anything but a good ball club behind him at Oakland, he won 10, lost 11, one of his defeats being 1-0 at Vaughn street against Ad Liska…Two evenings later he relieved Guy Stromme with men on in the second inning and blanked the Beavers to the end of the game—he has stuff. 

“Mitch” attended Denby high in Detroit, where he played baseball and football…Started in baseball as an outfielder and first baseman, but could throw so hard he was switched to pitcher…Began professionally with Quebec of Canadian-American league in ’42 and won his first start, 4-3, in 13 innings…Baseball ambition, to get to the big leagues and stay there; winter occupation—listen to this—host in night club!...Once struck out 16 men in a game, and last year pitched a 1-hitter against San Francisco.

This is the only mention I found of his high school experience or of the night club thing. On March 7 the San Francisco Chronicle observed:

Down in San Jose the Oaks will be glad to see the Beavers’ Mitchell (Sugar) Chetkovich, if he’s signed and working. Sugar pitched heavy duty for Oakland last year, both on the mound and in the finance and loan department.

I don’t know if that last part was a joke, but either way I don’t know what it means. On March 15 the Oregonian reported that he had not agreed to contract terms so the Beavers, who didn’t really need him, were going to return him to the Phillies. But on April 9, Oregonian Sporting Editor L.H. Gregory, in his “Greg’s Gossip” column, reported:

Mitch Chetkovich, big right-handed pitcher with Oakland last year whom the Phillies turned over to Portland in part payment for Johnny O’Neil, has apparently concluded to accept the Beaver terms, to wit: that he work out one month without pay to make up his neglected spring training, and incidentally, also to make up a cash advance he wrangled out of Bill Klepper on a visit to San Jose…At any rate, he’s working; whether he sticks out the month is something else. The Beavers had intended to turn him back to Philadelphia…

That same day he appeared in the Beavers’ game, so his working out one month without pay seems to have included actually playing. Then on April 23 the Oregonian reported:

Mitch Chetkovich, the big pitcher with the Beavers from the Phillies via Oakland, had his sacro-iliac bumped out of place last week and spent a night of pain, tied up in an aching knot, when a “joker” pulled a chair out from under him as he was about to sit down; Julian George, the Beavers’ new trainer, did an adjustment on his back and got the sacro-iliac back in place.

On the 29^th the Oregonian reported that Mitch “has been fined $50 and suspended indefinitely for failing to appear at the ball park Sunday [28^th] and also for breaking training rules Saturday night.” On May 3^rd they reported that he had been sold to Chattanooga of the Southern Association, while the next day came this:

By the way, that man Chetkovich made the longest ride Thursday [2^nd] for a dime in the history of baseball. He rode from the ball park to the hotel. When he left the ball park he had been sold to Chattanooga. When he returned Friday he wasn’t sold after all, the deal having been canceled, so went out and showed his best stuff yet while relieving. It was a long, long ride for only a dime, or maybe he used a street car token.

Mitch pitched in a few more games, then was unconditionally released on May 30. He pitched 12 innings in nine games for Portland, allowing 19 hits and eight walks, but an unknown number of runs. If he played baseball anywhere the rest of the year, I didn’t find any evidence of it.

On February 25, 1947, Mitch and Betty got divorced for the second time, in Michigan. He caught on with the Tacoma Tigers of the Class B Western International League, where, despite a 5.53 ERA, he had a 12-12 record and pitched a career-high 192 innings in 36 games, with 76 strikeouts and 101 walks.

In 1948 Mitch pitched for Tacoma in the second game of their season-opening doubleheader on April 18, but I didn’t find any reference to him appearing for them after that, and he did not get into enough games to be listed in the league’s official stats. On May 19 the Tigers sent him to the Bisbee-Douglas Javelinas of the Class C Arizona-Texas League. On May 27 he was ejected from the game for using profanity after being called out at first base, on June 6 he allowed 11 runs and 19 hits in a complete game, and on June 18 he was named manager of the team, as reported in the next day’s Tucson Daily Citizen:

Chetkovich To Head Javelinas 

BISBEE, June 19. (AP)—Mitchell “Chet” Chetkovich, ace hurler of the Bisbee-Douglas Javelinas in the Arizona-Texas league is the new field manager of the team. 

Announcement of this was made last night by Mel Steiner, business and player manager of the squad. Steiner is turning over his field managership to Chetkovich, a veteran of 10 years in organized baseball. 

Two weeks ago it was announced Steiner would withdraw as field manager to devote his full time to the business end of the club. Steiner will continue on the roster as utility outfielder… 

In making the announcement, Steiner said, “This will give me a chance to get some rest and devote some time to promotion of local games and office affairs.” 

Chetkovich said: “This is a break for me and something I have always wanted to do. 

“I think we will be out of the cellar before long. We have a fair ball club with a lot of good material.”

At the same time Steiner changed the name of the team from Javelinas to Miners. On June 27 and 28 Mitch pitched back-to-back complete game victories over Phoenix, and on July 2, as the El Paso Herald Post reported the next day:

Manager Mitch Chetkovich of the Miners got chased by everybody, first by the Brownies who pounded him off the mound, then by the umpire who thumbed him out of the game. When the ump saw him sitting in the stands, he was ordered clear out of the park.

On July 10 the El Paso paper ran a feature on Mitch:

Sun Bakes and Heals Arm of A-T Iron-Man 

By Bob Ingram 

The hot Southwestern sun is good medicine for a pitcher’s ailing arm, Mitchell (Chet) Chetkovich, iron man hurler of the Arizona-Texas League, and manager of the Bisbee-Douglas club, has found. 

The therapeutic value of hot weather in the cactus country has made his right arm strong again after it went dead in 1945, and has enabled him to attain a pitching mark no other A-T hurler has approached. 

Chetkovich recently twice has won games on successive nights, the power-laden Phoenix club being the victim of his pitching all four times. 

On June 27, in Phoenix, he went nine innings to whip the Solons, 11-6. He came back to the mound the next night to throw a five-hitter against the Phoenix club as his Miners gained a 5-4 decision. Then, this week, in Bisbee, he repeated the double win. He hurled the Miners to a 9-4 win Wednesday, was back on the rubber to spin a seven-hit, 7-5 triumph on Thursday. 

“How does your arm feel now after 18 innings in two nights?” he was asked yesterday as he brought his Miners to the border for a series against the Juarez Indios and Texans. 

“To tell you the truth, it’s not a bit tired,” he said. It felt good enough, at any rate, for him to take his third pitching chore in three days when he appeared against the Indios in a relief role in the eighth inning last night. 

“My arm feels as strong as it did before I hurt it playing winter ball with San Mateo in California in 1945. It’s getting stronger all the time in this hot weather.” 

Chetkovich is not afraid he’s going to throw his arm away again with night-after-night pitching. 

“I don’t throw hard enough to hurt it,” he said. “I just use slow curves, sliders and fork balls—nothing fast—and that has worked pretty successfully so far for me in this league.”… 

One reason why Chetkovich sees so much duty with his Bisbee-Douglas Miners is that he has the smallest squad and the smallest pitching staff in the circuit. He has only 13 active players, including five hurlers. Most other teams carry seven and eight pitchers.

On August 3 he was hit by a pitch that cracked his kneecap, and the Sporting News reported on August 18:

PITCHES WITH CRACKED KNEECAP 

Manager Chet Chetkovich of the Bisbee-Douglas (Arizona-Texas League) club, plagued by a shortage of pitchers, chiseled off his kneecap protecting cast, August 6, and, replacing it with adhesive tape, went to the mound against Juarez and hurled a 7 to 1 victory. Though grimacing with pain on almost every pitch, Chet scattered six hits and walked only two. Two nights later he beat Phoenix, 7 to 6, then was ordered to put the cast back on his knee and rest a week.

The Tucson Daily Citizen reported on the 14^th that he would be out the rest of the season, and as far as I can tell that was the case. But those final weeks of the season were not uneventful for him; the Sporting News reported on September 1:

CHETKOVICH HONORED AT BISBEE 

Mitchell Chetkovich, Bisbee-Douglas (Arizona-Texas League) pitcher-manager on the disability list with a cracked kneecap, was honored with a night at Bisbee, August 19. His arms were loaded with everything from a box of handkerchiefs from an admirer to a gold wrist watch. The watch was a gift of the fans, a surplus of $161.75 from the fund also being given to Chetkovich. Other presents included a cigarette case and lighter combination from the batboy and other youngsters who worked for him at the park. League President Riney B. Salmon sent a check.

And the El Paso Herald Post had this story on August 31:

Chetkovich Charge Dropped 

PHOENIX, Ariz., Aug. 31. (UP)—Embezzlement charges against Mitchell (Chet) Chetkovich, colorful player-manager of the Bisbee-Douglas Miners of the Arizona-Texas Baseball League, were withdrawn Monday and extradition proceedings dismissed. 

Acting Gov. Dan E. Garvey said the charges were withdrawn by Tacoma, Wash., authorities who charged Chetkovich of embezzling about $70 from the Tacoma chapter of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. 

Garvey said he did not know why the charges were dropped. He added that he understood Chetkovich stood ready to pay the Tacoma group. 

Chetkovich, in Phoenix with his ball club, declared the entire affair was a “misunderstanding” regarding some raffle tickets he sold for the Eagles. He said in his hurry to report to Bisbee from Tacoma he forgot to make an accounting of the sum involved.

That’s the only story I found about that.

On March 14, 1949, Mitch was traded to the Pampa Oilers of the West Texas-New Mexico League, also Class C, for 21-year-old catcher-outfielder Richard Samek. However, they let him go, and he went back to semi-pro ball, pitching for Elk City in the Oklahoma Semi-Pro League, for whom he had a 17-2 record.

On March 9, 1950, Mitch, now 32 years old, got back into organized ball, signing with the Ardmore Indians of the Class D Sooner State League. On March 12 the Ardmore Daily Ardmorite reported that he would be moving his family to Ardmore on March 21; before this I didn't know he had a family, and had found no evidence of his having remarried.

From the March 31 Daily Ardmorite:

Mitch Chetkovich, the Ardmore Indians’ only pitcher with major league experience, is a confirmed fisherman. He caught a 3 ¼-pound bass his first try in Lake Murray and hasn’t missed a day since.

Same paper, April 7:

Mitch Chetkovich, veteran right hander, returned to the Tribe training field Thursday [6^th]. He has been moving his family to Ardmore.

The season opened on April 25, and on May 1 the Ardmorite’s “Rambling Reporter,” reporting on a baseball parade, mentioned:

Mary Chetkovich was the little beauty wearing the silver crown and driving the miniature buggy pulled by a Shetland pony. Mrs. Roy Brady was seeing that the pony didn’t run away with the little girl. Mary is the daughter of Mitch Chetkovich, pitcher on the Ardmore Indian team.

So he had a daughter, and since this is just three years after the divorce, I’m guessing Mary is his daughter with Betty, unless he had remarried and she’s a stepdaughter. Later in the season there are mentions of sons Tommy (age ten) and Jerry pitching in midget baseball; again, I don’t know where they came from.

Through July 2 Mitch had a 4.23 ERA and a 12-5 record, the 12 wins leading the league. Three weeks later, he had given up ten earned runs in ten innings, was 12-7, and was out with an injured finger. On August 10 he was hit by a pitch that broke his right arm above the wrist, ending his season. He pitched 145 innings overall, with a 4.66 ERA, 88 strikeouts and 36 walks; he also hit .323 and slugged .485, never having been an impressive hitter previously in his pro career. On September 28 the Ardmorite ran the following:

Mitch Needs A Job; Arm Is Healing 

Mitch Chetkovich, stalwart pitcher for the Ardmore Indians during the past season until he received a broken arm when hit by a pitched ball, is in trouble. 

The season over and the pay checks stopped, Mitch is looking for a job. 

The doctors tell him it will be six or more months before his arm is healed enough for him to do heavy work. 

In the meantime he has to make a living for his wife and four children. 

Mitch says he is out of work and needs a job badly. He has had experience as a salesman and can do that type of work. 

Any persons who might have information about a job for Mitch are urged to contact Vernon Moyer immediately.

Mitch next pops up in the Ardmorite in February 1951, by which point he is the athletic director of the local American Legion, directing the baseball team’s workouts and trying to expand the boys’ athletic program to include other sports. On March 22 it was reported that he had been replaced as manager of the baseball team by the previous year’s manager, but I don’t know if that meant he had lost his athletic director job. Perhaps it was time for Mitch to start pitching himself, but I found nothing about that until May 9, when he is mentioned in the Ardmorite as playing for the semipro McMakin’s Chevrolet team of Marietta, which started its regular season on May 15 and went to the district tournament at the end of July. Meanwhile, the 1951 Ardmore City Directory listed him as living at 1301 B Street SE.

In the November 7 Valley Morning Star of Harlingen, Texas, there was a report on the Harlingen Capitols Baseball Club’s search for a new manager; my impression is that it was a semipro team. Mitch is listed as one of the applicants:

Chetkovich wrote that he had experience as a professional ball player, but did not mention the teams or leagues in which he has played.

Apparently that spotty resume didn’t get him the job, but he got a different one, as reported by the Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman on May 25, 1952:

Durant GI Hurler Chetkovich Stars On Traffic Patrol 

DURANT, May 21—If Durant GI hurler Mike Chetkovich can halt enemy batters as he stops speeding motorists while serving on the local police force, he should win 20 games this season. 

Chetkovich joined the GIs a couple of weeks ago, and went to work as a traffic cop this week. 

The long, lean veteran has played with the Philadelphia Phillies. In 1945 he compiled a 11-12 record with Oakland in the Pacific Coast League. 

Chetkovich played briefly with Ardmore in the Sooner State League in 1950 and won 12 games in two months. He sparked the Marietta sandlot team into the finals of the state tournament last season where it was defeated by Wilson & Co. of Oklahoma City. 

Chetkovich, a good hitter, will play first base for Durant while not taking his regular mound turn.

Mitch didn’t keep the police job for long, though; the Ada Evening News, on July 9, in a brief item on somebody else, mentioned as an aside: “Willoughby joined the force after Durant GI baseball player Mitch Chetkovich resigned.”

After this Mitch’s trail goes mostly cold. On September 9, 1953, a Mitchell Chetkovich married Mary Virginia Holland in Rockwall, Texas, but this isn’t necessarily our Mitch, as there were at least two other Mitchell Chetkovichs in the US, born around the same time as him. But Texas is the right part of the country.

The 1965 city directory for Grass Valley, California, shows Mitchell and Eleanor Chetkovich living at 100 Manzanita Drive, Mitchell being a carpenter. This is our Mitch. He and Eleanor appear at the same address in the 1966 and 1968 directories; what complicates things is the fact that on March 16, 1968, a Mitchell Chetkovich, state of residence given as Massachusetts, and Eleanor Pinter, state of residence Virginia, got married in Goldfield, Nevada.

Whatever that means, Mitch passed away in Grass Valley, which is not far from Nevada, on August 24, 1971, at the age of 54.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/C/Pchetm101.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=chetko001mit

Howard Camp

Howard Camp was an outfielder in five games for the 1917 New York Yankees.

Howard Lee Camp was born July 1, 1893, in Hopeful, Alabama, in Talladega County in the eastern part of the state, the second of eleven children born to Nathan Christopher Columbus Camp and Lucy Arleen Adams Camp. In the 1900 census the family was living on a farm near Munford, the closest larger town to Hopeful. At this point six of the children had been born, though only four of them survived.

In the 1910 census the family was living on Talladega Road in unincorporated Talladega County, and Nathan was president of a cotton mill. Howard was 16 years old and was the eldest of six children at home, older sister Mamie having moved out and the two youngest not having been born yet.

In 1913, the year Howard turned twenty years old, he made his professional baseball debut, playing outfield for the Talladega Indians of the Class D Georgia-Alabama League. He played in all 90 of the team’s games, hitting .314 with a .375 slugging percentage. In 1914 he returned to Talladega, played in 57 games, and hit .283 with eleven stolen bases; in 1915 he was back again, played in 57 games again, and hit .325 with a .445 slugging percentage despite hitting just one home run. (Incidentally, Howard is listed as “Howie” on the baseball websites but I did not find a single instance of him being referred to that way in the newspapers.)

In 1916 Howard again started the season in Talladega, but after hitting .309 and slugging .404 in 59 games, he moved up to the Charleston Sea Gulls of the Class C South Atlantic (“Sally”) League. He didn’t do well there, though, hitting .205 with a .282 slugging percentage in 42 games.

On March 11, 1917, Howard got mentioned in the Anniston Star and Daily Hot Blast, the earliest newspaper reference to him that I found, and the earliest bit of information about him outside of censuses and sparse baseball stats:

Howard Camp, the Talladega outfielder, has always been anxious to play in Anniston, but not half as much as the local fans would like to see him in an Anniston uniform. He now belongs to Charleston, South Atlantic league, and is trying to buy his release, so that he can join the Moulders. Here’s hoping.

Anniston was in the Georgia-Alabama League, so Howard was trying to go back; perhaps he was feeling overmatched in Class C. But he was not able to buy his release and he stayed in Charleston, and this time he did much better: in 77 games he hit .357 with 15 doubles, six triples and three home runs, for a .480 slugging percentage, in 294 at-bats.

Meanwhile, on June 5, Howard filled out his draft registration card. He gave his address as Munford, his occupation as “Ginner + Ball Player,” and his employer as W.H. Walsh of Charleston. He described himself as height: medium, build: stout (he is listed now as having been 5-9, 169), eyes: blue, and hair: light, and under “Do you claim exemption from draft (specify grounds)? he put “Yes Religious belief Church of Christ.” Under “Has person lost arm, leg, hand, feet, or both eyes, or is he otherwise disabled (specify)? he put “Both arms been Broken.”

On June 23 the Seagulls sold Howard’s rights to the New York Yankees, for delivery in the fall, which is pretty impressive for a guy who hit .205 at Charleston the year before and wanted to go back to Class D. At some point in July he was moved—I’m guessing at the Yankees’ instigation—to the Newark Bears of the Class AA International League. In 50 games there he hit .302 and slugged .396, then at the end of the Bears’ season he joined the Yankees.

Howard made his major league debut on September 19 at home against Cleveland, playing right field and leading off. He went 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a walk against Stan Coveleski, with one putout in the field. The next day he again led off, playing center, and went 0-for-4 against Ed Klepfer, with three putouts and an error. The day after that the Browns came to town, and Howard, again in center field and leading off, went 4-for-5 with a double and three runs scored off Allen Sothoron, with two putouts and another error. The next day, the 22^nd, he led off and played center in both games of a doubleheader, going 2-for-9 with four putouts and two assists in the outfield. On September 24 the Bridgeport Evening Farmer reported that “Manager Bill Donovan considers him one of the finest outfield prospects he has seen in years,” but though the Yankees had eight more games left in their season, Howard was done, not only for the year but also for his major league career. He hit .286/.318/.333 in 21 at-bats.

Howard was on the Yankee reserve list during the off-season, and he reported a bit late to spring training in Macon after a contract holdout. On March 16 the Evansville Journal, in an article with the headline “HUGGINS PUTS BAN ON CIGARETTES AND CRAPS" (Miller Huggins had just replaced Bill Donovan as Yankee manager), mentioned that:

Howard Camp and Aaron Ward have made good impressions by their snappy work in the infield. Camp is an outfielder, but he looks as if he were trying to take [third baseman] Frank Baker’s job away.

It sounds like things were looking good for Howard, but, as the New York Daily Tribune reported on March 26, the draft board didn’t go for his religious exemption or his two broken arms:

Howard Camp, Yankee Rookie, Answers Call 

By Wood Ballard 

MACON, Ga., March 25. Uncle Sam’s long arm reached into the camp of the Yankees to-day and plucked one of Miller Huggins’s young recruits, who is wanted for the more serious business that is going on “over there.” Outfielder Howard Camp, last season with Charleston and Newark, received his call to the colors just before noon, and at 1:30 o’clock he had said farewell to the boys and was on his way. He went from Macon to his home at Talladega, Ala., where he will receive orders to report at one of the nearby cantonments…

The next mention of Howard (who was a private, Company E, 327^th Infantry, 82^nd Division) I found was over a year later, in the Montgomery Advertiser of June 1, 1919:

HOWARD CAMP IS LEAVING U.S. ARMY 

Young Ballplayer Was About to Enter Big League When Called to Colors 

(Special to the Advertiser) 

ANNISTON, Ala., May 31—A letter from Howard Camp to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. N.C. Camp, at Munford, tells of his honorable discharge from army service at Camp Upton, N.Y., and of his early return home. Young Camp is a well-known ball player…Last season he was training with the Yankees in Macon when called to the colors and he still belongs to that team. After a brief rest at home he will get back into the ball game.

It must have been a brief rest, as he got into 123 games with the Toledo Mud Hens of the Class AA American Association. He hit .252 and slugged .324, while leading the league in outfield errors.

On January 10, 1920, the US Census found Howard living with his parents and five of his younger siblings on Munford Road in Munford; Nathan was still the president of a cotton mill, while Howard was listed as a ball player. Still the property of the Yankees, after his sub-par 1919 he was dropped down to the Dallas Submarines of the Class B Texas League, and he rebounded at the plate. From the July 13 Beaumont Enterprise:

HOWARD CAMP SLATED TO RETURN TO YANKS 

Howard Camp, outfielder of the Dallas Marines, is slated to return to the New York Yankees at the end of the Texas League season, if he continues to perform at bat and afield as he has been during the past few weeks. Camp has been going at a great clip. He is right up among the leaders in batting, is covering a world of ground in the outfield and has one of the deadliest whips in the Lone Star league. Camp is the property of the Yankees and many critics believe he will prove a valuable addition to Huggins’ ranks despite the fact that he would have little chance to break into an outfield that boasts such stars as Pink [Ping] Bodie, Babe Ruth and Tommy Vick. Camp, it is believed, would fit in well with the Yanks as an extra gardener.

Howard finished the Texas League season hitting .333/.367/.418 in 110 games, stealing 18 bases but getting caught 20 times. Instead of going to New York, though, the Yankees sent him to the Vernon Tigers of the Class AA Pacific Coast League, where he had nine hits in 33 at-bats, including two triples and a homer. He then reverted to the Dallas roster, from which he was drafted by the Memphis Chickasaws of the Class A Southern Association. From the April 15, 1921, Arkansas Gazette:

Bad Start Brings Defeat to Travelers in Opener 

After Chicks Score Two Off Jonnard in First Inning, Ingram Holds Them Scoreless, but Camp’s Outfielding Ruins Chances for Local Scores. 

…Ingram kept the Chicks from getting any more, but the handicap beat him—the handicap and the excess activity of Howard Camp, a stubby center fielder, who did more than his share of playing on behalf of the Memphis club. 

This Camp person was a regular little busybody in the early innings of the game, but his conduct in the seventh is what ruined the party for the home folks. In that round the Travelers made their most dangerous threat to score and had the stage all set for a big time, when this Camp guy horned in and upset everything. Three Travelers were on bases and there were two outs, when Frank Kohlbecker swung into one of Senor Oskar Tuere’s fast ones and headed it for the deepest spot in center field. Mr. Camp misjudged it slightly, but not seriously. He started in and then headed out and grabbed the ball as it was about to drop into an excavation in center field, made during the process of the erection of the new flagpole. Had that ball hit the ground it would have gone into the ditch, out of sight, and four runs would have counted. As it happened, the Travelers were shut out for another inning, and Mr. Howard Camp was a hero. This ex-Texan certainly looked the part of a real outfielder.

Howard played mostly right field the rest of the season, and generally batted sixth. He ended up with a career-high 218 hits in 632 at-bats for a .345 batting average, fifth in the league. He had 34 doubles, eight triples and five homers for a .448 slugging percentage, and stole 23 bases while being caught 16 times. He also had 27 outfield assists, tied for third in the league, while Memphis won the league championship with a 104-49 record.

In 1922 Howard was back with Memphis. On May 20 it was mentioned in a few newspapers that he was ill in a Memphis hospital, but I didn’t find any other information on that, and he was back in the lineup by at least May 28. On June 10 he hit his third homer in two days, and he finished the season with ten, twice his previous high, as the deadball era faded into the past. He also had 20 doubles and five triples, hitting .311 and slugging .419 in 556 at-bats. Then, on October 6, he got married, to Frances “Peggy” Casey, in Memphis. Seven plus months later, on May 16, 1923, their son Howard Casey Camp was born.

By then, Howard had begun another season in the outfield for the Memphis Chickasaws. From the April 20 Arkansas Gazette:

Those who saw the game probably still are wondering why Patrolman Johnson went out and conferred with Howard Camp, Memphis right fielder, while Little Rock was at bat. The conversation stopped the game temporarily, and when the player agreed with the officer that profane language in a public place was improper, the officer left the field and play was resumed. 

Officer Johnson said he heard Camp swearing, and acting on Chief Rotenberry’s recent order that no profanity would be allowed at the park, did not hesitate in going after the athlete. The player promised the officer he would refrain from further abusive language, He explained that a “boneheaded” play caused his outburst.

This season Howard played mainly in center field, and he hit .305 and slugged .398 as his homers dropped to two while his doubles and triples went up to 31 and nine; there is no record of how many times he was spoken to by law enforcement about swearing. He was on the Memphis reserve list, but in December they traded him to Southern Association rivals Birmingham, as reported in the December 13 Sporting News:

BARONS FILL NEWS AS FOOTBALL QUITS 

DEAL FOR HOWARD CAMP OPENING GUN AT BIRMINGHAM. 

Now if Detroit Will Return Some of Those Recalled Players Stuffy Stewart Will Be Happy. 

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Dec. 9.—Just as the death-knell of football was sounded, Birmingham fandom was brought back to life with the announcement that Howard Camp, premier right fielder of the Southern League, would come to Birmingham as an aftermath of the Taylor-Milner trade last season. Holt Milner returns to Memphis as the property of that club and Birmingham acquires Howard Camp. Camp last season hit .305 and drove in over 80 runs, which is a good season for any outfielder. Camp is an Alabama boy and has always been popular in this man’s town. Last season he played wonderful ball on his every appearance here, making one of the prettiest catches ever seen at Rickwood Park during Memphis’ second sojourn here, and with Birmingham fans he should be a very popular player.

Howard played right field for Birmingham in 1924, hitting .312 in 609 at-bats, with 36 doubles, ten triples and six home runs for a .433 slugging percentage. That was his only season there, though; from the Birmingham report in the December 11 Sporting News:

Prexy Smith also announced the sale of Howard Camp, slugging right fielder of the locals, to Reading of the International League. It has been known for some time that Camp, along with several others on the local roster, including all the pitchers with the exception of Delmar Lundgren and Red Estes, were slated for the market. The sale of Camp is the first of the lot.

This brought Howard back to the AA level for the first time since his 13 games with Vernon in 1920. In 75 games with Reading in 1925 he hit .294, which may have been regarded as disappointing in that high-offense era, but with excellent power, slugging .495 with 18 doubles, seven triples and seven homers in 279 at-bats. In any case, on July 12 the Keystones sold him back to the Southern Association, this time with the Nashville Volunteers. He played left field and batted mainly in the second spot for Nashville, and in 65 games he hit .368 with 22 doubles, eight triples and nine home runs for a .594 slugging percentage; for both teams combined his totals were 40 doubles, 15 triples and 17 homers, hitting .332/.545.

On January 17, 1926, the following appeared in the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Former Chick Player Sought 

(By the Associated Press) 

Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 16—Howard Camp, Southern Association baseball player, was arrested today on a charge of assault and battery as a result of an encounter with Floyd Harris, fellow worker in an automobile assembling plant here, in which it was alleged Camp struck Harris with a wrench. 

Camp denied that he used a wrench or anything but his hands in the set-to and declared the fight was fair. 

Harris, however, was badly bruised and seven stitches were made to close a laceration in his cheek. 

Camp declares Harris started the argument. The matter will be threshed out in police court.

I didn't find a follow-up to the story. Two months after this, Frances gave birth to their second child, daughter Paula Ruth.

Nashville was excited about having Howard back in 1926 after his impressive half-season the year before. However, as reported in the Sporting News of April 22:

THEY’RE NOT ‘BREAKS’ WITH HAMILTON, BUT FRACTURES 

Injury to Howard Camp, Young Outfield Star, Recalls That Similar Mishap Cost Nashville Pennant in 1923; Present Outlook Good, However. 

NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 18.—The jinx of a broken leg trailed Jimmy Hamilton out of a pennant chance in 1923, when Lance Richbourg fractured his leg when the team was traveling at championship stride. Now ‘tis Howard Camp that is missing with a dislocated bone in his lower leg and his services lost for a month or more. 

Camp is doubtless the most valuable man on the Vol team. His terrific hitting was to have been a factor. He amassed a mark of .368 last year and started like so many hurricanes again this year, only to be lost in the second game of the season. 

Howard had singled and slid back to first on an attempt to catch him off. His leg took the force of the slide against the bag and the long bone between the ankle and knee was torn from its ligaments. Physicians state that fully a month will be required before the injured member can even be used for walking and that Camp may suffer pain all summer. 

Camp’s undying enthusiasm, his constant pep and assurance to his mates, and his slashing hitting, cannot be replaced at this time and any pennant chances are wavering in Jimmy Hamilton’s vision…

Howard actually made it back in the first week of May. This year he was the right fielder, and he finished the season hitting .326 with a .473 slugging percentage on 29 doubles, seven triples and nine homers in 476 at-bats. That sounds pretty good, but in January 1927 he was released. From the March 6 Knoxville News-Sentinel:

Hornets Sign Former Vol Fielder 

Special to the News-Sentinel 

CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 5—Outfielder Howard Camp, Southern League slugger, who was with Nashville last year, has accepted terms with the Charlotte Hornets, according to a message received here to-day by Felix Hayman, owner of the Insects. Camp wired the local moguls as follows: 

“Have returned signed contract.” 

This bit of information followed negotiations of several weeks and definitely settled two outfield berths on the Hornets. Camp was purchased from the Nashville club, but refused to sign until the Charlotte owners came thru with more money. Another contract was mailed him Thursday [3^rd] and the player evidently was satisfied with the salary offered him, for he lost no time in signing. 

Camp hit the agate for the healthy average of .326 last season and is figured to make the Hornets a good man. Manager Kennedy intends to use Camp in left field and Johnny Jones in right, leaving the center field berth open to a flock of candidates.

Charlotte was Class B, in the Sally League. From the Sally League report in the April 7 Sporting News:

From Charlotte comes a yarn that will be of interest to all baseball fans who know Howard Camp, the former Southern Leaguer, now a member of the Queen City team. Let Bill Munday tell the story: 

“Some folks may prefer these high-falutin’ linaments with high-sounding names, but not for me,” declares Howard Camp the veteran Southern Leaguer. “No, siree, I have a little concoction of my own which can cure any ailment I may have.” 

The mighty slugger was referring to his home remedy for aching muscles which consists of camphor gum tablets and gasoline. He avers that this mixture will cure anything from gout to eczema. 

And he tells an interesting story relative to “his medicine.” Several years ago, it seems Alvin Crowder, the youthful Washington mound sensation, was turned loose from a certain Virginia League club because of a sore arm. 

“They told him his baseball sun had set,” Camp related, “and that the best thing he could do would be to go home and take up ploughing or something. 

“Well, very much dejected, he trekked his way to his domicile. One day an aged negro washerwoman advised him to apply the gasoline-camphor gum mixture to his sore hors de combat whipper. He did. Overnight his arm was cured. He returned to his old team, went so good he was sold to Birmingham. And today he’s in the big show. And all because of that homespun remedy.” 

“Do you think it will alleviate the pangs of lovesickness?” Camp was asked. 

“I could not dogmatically say it could. However, I’d give it a trial,” he advised curtly.

I don’t know whether it was due to the gasoline-camphor gum mixture, but Howard played in every one of Charlotte’s 150 games. He hit .305/.342/.486 in 564 at-bats, with 26 doubles, eight triples, and a career-high 20 home runs.

Baton Rouge Advocate, 1-19-28:

Howard Camp to Manage Meridian Baseball Outfit 

Former Southern League Player is Signed As Pilot by Cotton States Team. 

Meridian, Miss., Jan. 18 (AP)—Howard Camp, veteran outfielder formerly of the Memphis Chickasaws and Nashville Volunteers of the Southern league, and last year of the Charlotte club of the South Atlantic league, Wednesday evening signed as the 1928 manager of the Meridian Metros of the [Class D] Cotton States loop. Camp was the unanimous choice of the board of directors on the recommendation of President Mose Winkler, and won out over several other applicants for the job. 

The new Metro pilot served six years in the Southern league and won an enviable reputation as a player and a gentleman, both on and off the field. He bears the unique distinction of having been within the select .300 circle of batters every year, and is a steady, polished fielder. He is 33 [actually 34] years old, married, and the father of a 5-year-old son.

Howard predicted that the Mets would be in the thick of the pennant race, and he played himself in right field and batted himself second. He was let go as manager five days before the end of the season, replaced by fellow outfielder Dee Payne, though he finished the season as a player. He hit .331/.386/.434 in 459 at-bats in 121 games.

1929 found Howard, now 35 years old, back with the Talladega Indians of the Georgia-Alabama League, where he had started in pro ball back in 1913. He hit .327 and slugged .549, the highest mark of his career, with 25 doubles, eight triples and nine homers in 306 at-bats in 85 games. It was his tenth straight year with a batting average over .300—each year of the 1920s.

Howard’s family was counted for the 1930 census on April 16. They were living in a rented home on Snead-Brooksville Road in Blount County, Alabama, and Howard was listed as a cotton ginner in a public gin, working on his own account (as opposed to working for wages). Howard C. was six years old, while Paula Ruth was not listed. Frances was pregnant, and would give birth to son Joseph Lee on August 1.

On April 13, three days before the census, Howard played right field and batted cleanup for the Pine Bluff Judges of the Cotton States League in their opening day game. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, of all places, reported on April 20:

GAME’S LURE TOO STRONG 

Howard Camp, veteran outfielder, has signed with the new Pine Bluff team of the Cotton States League. Camp has a prosperous cotton business in Arkansas [sic], and had announced his intentions of retiring, but the call to return to the game was too strong.

From the May 26 Baton Rouge State Times Advocate:

ONE ON CAMP 

Howard Camp, veteran outfielder, who is now playing with Pine Bluff, doesn’t believe in hero worshippers as firmly as most ball players and he has a good reason. Three seasons ago he was with Charlotte in the South Atlantic league, and was going pretty good, hitting quite a few home runs over the short fences in that city. 

One day he won the game with a homer and an excited fan called him over, wrote out a check and presented it to Camp for his work. The genial red-faced veteran accepted same, smiled and thanked the fan. He cashed said check at the hotel and it bounced back the next day, hotter than even the two ground balls Camp hit at Tatum yesterday. 

No, Camp doesn’t believe in hero worshippers.

Howard only played 39 games for Pine Bluff, hitting .267 and slugging .380 with 11 doubles and two homers in 150 at-bats, and then he was done with baseball. As a player, that is.

In 1938 Howard was hired by the Southeastern League as an umpire; after two seasons he moved up to the Southern Association. In 1940 the census again counted the Camps on April 16. This time they were living at 410 Brown Street, Boaz, Alabama, in a house they owned, valued at $2500. Howard is again listed as a cotton ginner working on his own account, who worked 60 hours the previous week and worked 44 weeks during 1939. His income is given as zero. The children are listed as Howard C. 16, Ruth, 14, and Lee, 9.

From the Arkansas Gazette, July 2, 1942:

Two days ago, Percy Hinton, Arkansas’s human acre, observed a chunky individual rush out of a downtown hotel and observed: “I’ve seen him somewhere.” Hinton went to the ball game that night and there was the same little round man, all dressed in blue, headed for home plate. Then it hit Percy. He played ball with him in Dallas in the Texas League 20 years ago. The man was Umpire Howard Camp, most jittery batter who ever lived.

Tampa Times, August 26, 1943:

Howard Camp, more or less the aristocrat of the umpires, has six cotton gin mills in the vicinity of Birmingham. Camp is also a gentleman farmer with a country estate at Boaz, Ala.

New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 26, 1945:

Umpire Continues Job for Pleasure 

(The Associated Press) 

Memphis, April 25.—Howard Camp is one umpire who is “standing the gaff” simply because he loves it. 

Strike calling is more a hobby than a livelihood for the 51-year-old Memphian, who is one of the South’s most prosperous cotton men. 

Camp invested the earnings from a 15-year [17] baseball career in cotton. He is now a grower and owner-operator of several large gins in Alabama…

Howard continued in the Southern Association through 1947, then moved on. From the February 15, 1948, Arkansas Gazette:

Howard Camp, probably the Southern’s best umpire during the past two seasons, has doffed his mask but he still will be in baseball. He sold his farm near Helena, returned to his old home at Anniston, Ala., and hooked up with his friend, Billy Evans and the Detroit Tigers as a scout. Arkansas will be in his territory.

Arkansas Democrat, May 6, 1948:

…And while on scouting, it might be said that the job is not all the fun that some imagine. For instance, Howard Camp, the veteran umpire who is having his first fling at the scouting business as a representative of the Detroit Tigers, has already put 15,000 miles on his new automobile in the couple of months he has been scouring Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi for promising lads…

Omaha World-Herald, January 25, 1949:

Tiger Scout, Family Escape Burning Home 

Helena, Ark. (AP)—Detroit Tiger Scout Howard Camp and his wife and son escaped through a window as fire destroyed their home near here early Monday. 

The Camps saved only a few pieces of clothing. They were uninjured. Camp is a former Southern Association umpire.

I found one or two stories a year about Howard signing somebody, but it was never anyone I had heard of. On the other hand, in April 1950 commissioner Happy Chandler ruled that Howard had signed Faye Throneberry before his high school class graduated, and voided the contract.

From the January 20, 1956, Arkansas Democrat:

In recent years it has been the tremendous task of Howard Camp, the veteran ex-umpire and now baseball scout, to check five states, including Arkansas, for young baseball hopefuls for the Detroit Tigers. 

But the Tigers will branch out in 1956…lifting some of Camp’s load and assigning two more scouts to this territory. 

Bobby Mavis, Little Rock skipper of spring ’55, will take the western half of Arkansas, all of Oklahoma, and south Missouri for his talent search. 

Schoolboy Rowe, taken from the Tiger coaching list and given a scouting job, will have East Texas, Northern Louisiana, and South Arkansas. 

Camp will then take Eastern Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and part of Kentucky.

Anniston Star, December 9, 1956:

Mr. and Mrs. Howard L. Camp have moved to this community from Memphis and are living in the S.W. Pace home. With them are Mrs. Howard C. Camp and her two children while Mr. Howard C. Camp continues his work as a student at Mississippi State College.

In July 1957 it was reported that Howard had signed Tennessee high school catcher Ralph Harrell; this was the last reference to him as a scout that I found. From the Soil Conservation News column in the August 1, 1959, Anniston Star:

Howard Camp of Eastaboga plans to start construction in his acre and a half farm pond in the near future. Mr. Camp said he is very much in need of the pond for stock water. It will also be managed for fish production when completed.

Same newspaper, August 20:

Howard L. Camp, who recently started to work as a traveling representative for a Clanton firm, was at home for the weekend.

Same newspaper, May 10, 1960, the sports page:

Howard Camp Passes At 66 

Final rites were held Monday afternoon at the Munford Church of Christ for Howard Lee Camp, 66, of Eastaboga, a former major leaguer and a long-time favorite of Southern Association fans during his playing days with Birmingham. 

Mr. Camp played with the New York Yankees in 1917. He played the outfield and batted .286. 

The ex-baseball player, who died suddenly Sunday afternoon, is survived by his wife, Mrs. Francis [sic] Camp of Eastaboga, two sons, Howard C. of Eastaboga and Joseph L. of Opelika, one daughter, Mrs. E.L. Smith of California and his father, N.C. Camp of Munford.

It’s interesting to me that he “died suddenly” on Sunday but the funeral took place the next day. His father passed away a few weeks later at age 90.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/C/Pcamph102.htm
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/campho01.shtml