Wiedmer: Southern League Hall of Fame a well-earned honor for Sal Rende

Mark Wiedmer
Mark Wiedmer

Sal Rende won't be in Biloxi, Mississippi, this week when the Southern League inducts its newest Hall of Fame class during its all-star game festivities, even though he's part of that group.

"My wife (Toni) is having a little trouble traveling right now, so the Lookouts are going to do something for me later on at AT&T Field," Rende said Sunday afternoon of his induction as both a Lookouts player and a Southern League manager at Chattanooga and Memphis.

"But it's definitely an honor. I was pretty shocked when they called. There's so much tradition and there have been so many great players come through this league."

One of the biggest parts of that tradition - former Lookouts president Joe Engel - also is part of Rende's class by virtue of the Special Consideration ballot. Joining them are the late pitcher Roy Halladay, whom Rende had a chance to know during their shared time in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, and Larry Walker, the former Jacksonville Expos All-Star who went on to win the 1997 National League MVP award.

Engel's induction, though far too late in coming for any Chattanoogan remembering his marketing genius, also has added to Rende's joy.

"Certainly heard all of the stories about Mr. Engel and seen all the pictures," Rende said. "How he gave away houses and cars. He was quite the promotor. Ahead of his time. He was a huge contributor to the success of the Southern League."

For those unfamiliar with Engel, who gave 34 years of his life to the Lookouts before dying in 1969, he was P.T. Barnum, Bruce Pearl and Jerry Jones all rolled into one.

On opening day one year he had his players ride elephants into the stadium. He once traded a shortstop for a turkey. He raffled off a house and cars. In perhaps his greatest marketing feat, he found Jackie Mitchell, a 17-year-old girl who threw left-handed, to face the New York Yankees in an exhibition game against the Lookouts.

To the sporting world's shock, she struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

So while it's nice that he's in, shame on the Southern League for waiting five years after it began the hall in 2014 to put Engel in it.

But at least it recognized both him and Rende, who played 540 games with the Lookouts from 1978 to 1982, batting .251 with 328 runs batted in and 87 home runs. He also managed the franchise in 1987, then guided the Memphis Chicks to the playoffs the following season after the Lookouts went from being a Seattle affiliate to becoming part of the Cincinnati Reds organization.

Said Rende with a chuckle of that 1988 season in Memphis: "Of course, Chattanooga beat us in the playoffs."

Rende later was hired by the Phillies, becoming a roving hitting instructor before joining the Class AAA Lehigh Valley IronPigs from 2011 to 2018.

"I actually played my first games in Engel Stadium when I was still in college at St. Xavier University in Chicago," Rende said. "We played UTC there and we played Covenant College there. Such a special place."

The memories of his time here as a player always will remain special. He was a Lookouts teammate of Joe Charboneau, who went on to become the 1980 American League Rookie of the Year with the Cleveland Indians.

"Phenomenal talent and such a great person," Rende said of Charboneau, whose promising career was wiped out by back issues. "He was wild. I wouldn't go out with him. But a really great guy."

He did go out one night with teammate Vassie Gardner to a local bar that had brought in a ventriloquist for that night's entertaining.

"He put Vassie under, then had him say 'chicken mother plucker' each time the ventriloquist said the word 'farm.' I'll never forget it."

For players such as Rende who spend the vast majority of their careers in the minors, it can become to easy to forget their accomplishments. Especially if, as Rende says of himself, "I like to put myself in the back."

But come this week in Biloxi he'll quite justifiably be front and center, forevermore a Southern League Hall of Famer.

"It is a nice achievement for someone who's pretty much spent his whole life in the game," he said. "But I also think it's for a lot of other guys who played a lot of games at this level, guys who played a long time for the love of the game."

And in a very big way, Rende also thinks it's both nice and fitting that his moment in the spotlight will take place here in the Scenic City rather than 462 miles away in Biloxi.

"This is where I met my wife," he said. "This is where we've raised our family. Playing for the Lookouts has wound up meaning everything for me."

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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