Niles, IL: On Monday evening, November 22, 2010 at Nancy’s Pizza in Niles, the Lakeside Cardinals travel baseball team General Manager Matt Polinski and Head Coach Tony Gragnani presented Coach Bill Palmer’s widow Nancy Palmer with the Springfield Statesmen Baseball Award for 2010. The award inscription reads “In Gratitude To Bill Palmer and Family” for Coach Palmer’s dedication to his furtherance of baseball careers for high school players.
“Along with my family, we are deeply honored to accept this award,” Mrs. Palmer said. “Bill dedicated countless hours to the Cardinals, sometimes at the expense of our family life,” she continued. “But we made that sacrifice because it was well worth it helping so many boys and their families.”
Prior to taking the field for its first scheduled game Friday, June 25th at the 2010 Capital City Classic Baseball Tournament, Lanphier Park, Springfield, Illinois, the Cardinal team was pleasantly surprised when the squad was asked to take part in a ceremony at home plate honoring their former Head Coach Bill Palmer who passed away unexpectedly in November 2009. The new Cardinal Head Coach Tony Gragnani, in his first year as the field general who was groomed by Palmer to take over the team when needed, accepted the engraved award on behalf of the Palmer family. During the 2010 season the team hung Coach Palmer’s jersey #21 in the dugout before each game.
The entire 3-day tournament was dedicated to the memory of Coach Bill Palmer. The Capital City Classic organizers paid tribute to Palmer for helping young men achieve their dreams of playing college and professional ball, as well as for bringing his beloved Lakeside Cardinals, along with his enthusiasm for baseball, to the Heartland and Capital City Classic tournaments in Springfield for many years.
In the mid-1990s Bill Palmer became very involved with boys youth baseball, founding both the Niles Lakeside Cardinals (17-18 year olds) and the Niles Braves (15-16 year olds). Bill served as on-field manager of the Cardinals and led the team to multiple appearances in the NABF (National Amateur Baseball Federation) World Series. As general manager of the Niles Braves, coached by Matt Polinski, Palmer helped organize a team that captured five North Suburban Colt League titles since 1996. The Braves also made a 2005 appearance in the AABC (American Amateur Baseball Congress) Championship.
Not only did Coach Palmer achieve success on the field, he also worked tirelessly to help secure opportunities for those players who wanted to continue their baseball careers at the college level. He helped his players get baseball and academic scholarships to NCAA Division I, II and III universities located throughout the country, primarily in the Midwest, to include Missouri Valley Conference teams Bradley U. in Peoria, Illinois State U. at Normal, SIU at Carbondale, and Creighton at Omaha, NE, the Big Ten’s Northwestern U. in Evanston, Valparaiso U in Indiana, St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Indiana, Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington, Concordia U. in River Forest, Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, IL and many, many others.
Coach Palmer lived to see his dreams come true many times over when his boys received baseball scholarships and, in recent years, some became professional players and coaches, namely: Adam Rosales –Oakland A’s; Victor Diaz –NY Mets and Texas Rangers; George Kontos – NY Yankees minor league system; Christian Friedrich –Colorado Rockies minor league system; Mark Ori – Houston Astros minor league system; Chris Uhle – Houston Astros minor league system; Chris Schutt – Minnesota Twins minor league system; Kevin Carkeek – Houston Astros minor league system; Bill San Hamel – Head Varsity Baseball Coach at Loyola Academy, Wilmette; Brian Tews – Assistant Coach, Loyola Academy, Wilmette; and Tony Gragnani – Assistant Varsity Coach, Niles West HS, Skokie, IL and Cardinals Head Coach.
Contact: William San Hamel 847-692-3085 or 847-400-4984 rynebill1@aol.com
