Editors note: This is the third installment in a series looking back at Eastern baseball coach Jim Schmitz’s 20 years coaching the Panthers.

Jim Schmitz had back-to-back seasons coaching the Eastern baseball team to the Mid-Continent postseason tournament, but entering the 1997 season he had a new challenge.

Eastern was in its first year in the Ohio Valley Conference, but before Schmitz coached his first conference game, he had a lesson about gamesmanship to teach to Brandt Whitehead, a Panthers’ catcher that season.

The lesson came early in the season, as the Panthers began their 1997 campaign with a four-game road trip to Arkansas State.

During one of the first few games, one of the Arkansas State players misplayed a ball in the air and dropped an easy pop up, Schmitz said.

Then, Whitehead began to mimic circus music, mocking the Arkansas State player’s mistake, which Schmitz did not appreciate.

“I went, ‘oh my god, what are you doing making fun of him,’” Schmitz said.

Eastern had already lost the first few games 9-4 and 3-1.

Schmitz does not remember exactly when it happened, but sometime after Whitehead made fun of the dropped pop up, an Eastern player committed a silly error, which garnered this response from Schmitz.

“If they’re the circus, then we’re the guys shoveling the elephant crap in the tents,” Schmitz said.

Eastern was swept by Arkansas State, losing the final two games 8-0 and 4-3, respectively.

From that moment on, Whitehead and every future Panther knew not to cue the circus music in front of Schmitz after the other team’s mistakes on the field.

It is one of Schmitz’s cardinal rules of the game — never laugh at the opposing team.

“Never make fun of the other team,” Schmitz said. “It bugs me to death when we do that.”

Following the Panthers’ season opener on the road, Eastern played six more games before opening up OVC play for the first time.

It came early in the season and the Panthers found themselves hosting Tennessee-Martin.

March 15, 1997, the average temperature for that day in Charleston was 43 degrees.

Tennessee-Martin coach Vernon Prather thought that was too cold, Schmitz said.

“They pulled up in one of those mini 24-seat passenger buses that we all used to drive in back then and he barely opens the door and says, ‘Jimmy, what time does the game start,’” Schmitz said.

Prather did not leave the dugout during the three-game series because of the cold temperatures, but surprisingly for Schmitz, the Skyhawks won game one of the series 6-2.

“I remember that, they beat us in our cold game, our first OVC game,” Schmitz said.

But the Panthers responded, winning the final two games of the series.

Eastern finished with an under .500 record at 25-28, but finished fourth in the OVC at 13-11 and made it to the OVC tournament.

It was a quick exit, though, for Schmitz in the tournament, as the Panthers lost to Southeast Missouri 6-5. Despite the disappointing end, Schmitz said it did not lessen the Panthers’ success being in the OVC for their first year.

“A lot of people were saying how are you going to play in a southern conference, you know, warm weather, but we kind of showed right off the bat that it didn’t matter,” he said. “If you had some good players you were going to win.”

But 1997 was only a glimpse to what Schmitz had in store for the OVC in the next couple of years.

Aldo Soto can be reached at 581-2812 or asoto2@eiu.edu.