THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Talkin’ baseball, from Jenks to Bulldogs past

With the same competitive spirit he showed on the mound in North Idaho, in high school and with the Prairie Cardinals in American Legion baseball, Bobby Jenks vows to beat a cancer diagnosed as terminal. 

“I’ve come to the realization that it could be six months, or it could be three years,” Jenks said, in a story published earlier this week in The Athletic. “But I’m ready. And however long it takes, I’m going to be here fighting it.”

Jenks, 44, who lives in Portugal these days with his wife and her family, was diagnosed with a form of stomach cancer in January.  

The family dropped their health insurance years ago, in part because of cost, so he’s paying for all treatments out of pocket. A GoFundMe has been set up. 

In January, his family’s home in California — along with all of his baseball memorabilia — burned to the ground in the Palisades wildfires, The Athletic reported. 

Despite the diagnosis, Jenks had planned to return as manager of the Windy City Thunderbolts, an independent team in Chicago, but will have to settle — for now — watching them play online. 

Jenks is hoping to make it back to Chicago this summer, for a 20-year celebration of the White Sox winning the World Series. Jenks pitched in all four games of the sweep of the Astros, closing the 1-0 finale. 

“I guarantee you, everybody thinks about death on a daily basis,” Jenks said in The Athletic story. “It’s just that people don’t usually have an actual day on theirs.” 

THE QUESTION stumped me. 

Ricky Klontz, Sandpoint High’s baseball coach, is updating his program’s school records — specifically, best batting average in a season, and most RBIs in a season. 

It’s believed that Shaun Warren set the batting average record in 1998, hitting somewhere around .515. 

And the RBI mark might be held by Travis Reese with 39, set around 1996. 

But no one knows for sure, even those involved with the team at the time.

I kept lots of stuff during my time at the Daily Bee in Sandpoint, but I don’t remember if I kept a list of Bulldog baseball school records, or even if such a list still exists in the Bee office after all these years away from there.

It may be hard to believe now, but I was at the Bee during the pre-internet days, so the chance of any of that stuff showing up in a Google search is next to impossible. 

Anyway, if someone out there has a list of school records from Sandpoint High baseball, or has any intel about those two records in particular, let Ricky know. Or let me know, and I’ll pass it along.  

SPEAKING OF Google, taking a stab at trying to find that information led me to a page (not sure how complete it is) that listed some Sandpoint High players who went on to play in college — or in one case, the major leagues. 

Those listed as being taken in the MLB draft from Sandpoint included Darrin Gleiser (1988, 31st round, 793rd pick overall by the California Angels), Mike Lindgren (1996, 38th round, pick No. 1,127 by the Chicago White Sox), and Dewayne Martin (1985, 17th round, 443rd overall by the Toronto Blue Jays). 

Back in those days, the MLB draft was mostly hearsay — you might hear that a local kid got drafted, but nobody was sure exactly what round, especially if it was deep into the draft. 

The aforemention web page is thebaseballcube.com. 

Among the Sandpoint High baseball alumni listed is Leon Cadore, born in Chicago in 1891, and who lived with his uncle in Hope, Idaho, and graduated from Sandpoint High and played for Gonzaga University from 1906-08.  

He pitched 10 years in the major leagues, with an overall record of 68-72. He pitched in 192 games, starting 147 of those, with 83 (83!) complete games, and 1,247.1 innings pitched. 

According to his Wikipedia page, he pitched for the Brooklyn Robins from 1915-23, the Chicago White Sox in ‘23 and the New York Giants in 1924. He was a roommate of Casey Stengel while with the Robins. 

Also according to Wikipedia, he is best known for a 1920 game where he and the opposing starting pitcher threw all 26 innings for their respective teams, before the game was called and ruled a tie due to darkness. He shares the MLB record for most innings pitched in a single game. Cadore faced 96 batters in the game, an MLB record dating back to at least 1901. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.