Frosty Microbrews: Charlie Capper - A Press Box Constant

In May of 2008, in front of a small gathering of friends and family, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers held a ceremony to officially reintroduce the press box at Fox Cities Stadium as the Charlie Capper Press Box. Even before that announcement, however, the press box had always been Capper's office.

"I'm guessing my first time meeting him was here working the scoreboard, and he was still on the board (the Timber Rattlers' Board of Directors) at the time," Timber Rattlers president Rob Zerjav said of his first encounter with Capper in 1997. "The first interaction feels like all the interactions: Being able to go in and out of the press box, in and out of conversation, talking about anything and everything from the current game to the Chicago Bears to his chicken farming down in Iowa. It all kind of just blends together but it was always this nice constant to have Charlie running the scoreboard."

Capper was living in Iowa in 1979 when he came to Appleton for the first time to interview for the Appleton Foxes' general manager position. He didn't get the job, but enjoyed his visit to the city anyway and ended up moving there.

"The guy they hired in place of me they fired anyway," Capper said.

Capper is a lifelong baseball fan, and became a fan of the Cleveland Indians when fellow Iowa native Bob Feller pitched for them in the 1948 World Series. After moving to Appleton he started regularly attending Foxes games at Goodland Field, and in 1987 he started running the scoreboard.

"First (longtime Foxes executive) Milt Drier asked me to be the PA guy one Sunday afternoon when I was here. I turned that down," Capper said. "So I was there one other time and Larry Dawson, who I knew pretty well, was the GM at the time and asked me, 'Would you run the scoreboard today for us?' So that's what really started it. And then it was shortly after there that Paul VanderHeyden approached me, he was president of the team at the time and he asked, 'Do you want to get on the board?'"

After spending a few months as a non-voting member of the Foxes' then-21 member Board of Directors, Capper was appointed to the executive board in 1989 and remained as a voting member through 2000. During that time he oversaw the team's transition to Fox Cities Stadium, where they became the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in 1995.

"The first year we had a lot to learn," Capper said. "They ran out of money building the stadium, so the third base line was flooded every time we had rain here. The stands washed down in there and there was no drains, so we had to call some games that we didn't have to. Then that fall they put in the money. I remember, the men's restrooms to save money they put all the urinals in the floor but they all cracked during the winter. So they had to replace them the next year, too."

Today when Capper runs the scoreboard he sits next to Timber Rattlers Official Scorer and Merchandise Director Jay Grusznski. Even before his days working in the press box, Grusznski found time to be in there during games.

"Even when I worked in the ticket office I liked to go sit in the press box," Grusznski said. "Charlie was always entertaining, so I would go sit in there and eat my lunch or whatever and listen to his stories."

It's been more than 20 years now since the Foxes moved to Fox Cities Stadium (later renamed Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium) and became the Timber Rattlers, and none of the team's current full-time staff ever worked at Goodland Field. Grusznski and Zerjav both noted the value of having someone like Capper around to retell the stories.

"It's great just to keep that stuff alive," Grusznski said. "We kind of got to a point here when we became the Timber Rattlers you kind of want to become a new franchise and break free and be your own thing. But once you get removed from it you don't want to lose that history. Even learning stories and stuff like that, as you get further removed it just seems more and more important to learn all that stuff."

"It's getting some of that history that you just wouldn't have," Zerjav said. "Nobody here was at Goodland Field, so we wouldn't know about that. I've been here since 1997 but even the first few years, the history of it was great. He's been great to have around. It's important, because in this day and age you're having people move and leave. We'll see, maybe in the next 20, 30 years I'll be that guy that's been here and they'll say, 'Oh yeah, he knows all the stories and all the history.' But for now that's Charlie."

All told, Capper has spent well over 1000 games running the scoreboard for the Foxes and Timber Rattlers. Over that time he's seen an impressive list of future MLB players and stars.

"(1987 Kenosha Twins second baseman) Chip Hale, he just got fired in Arizona. I can remember him pretty well," Capper said. "(1989 Kenosha Twins shortstop) Chuck Knoblauch started up here. (1987 Springfield Cardinal) Todd Zeile was one that I thought was good, and Jose Canseco's twin brother (Ozzie Canseco) was in Madison (from 1986-88) so I got to see him a fair bit. There's been a lot of good players to come through here."

Capper was also in the press box when Appleton native and Timber Rattlers manager Matt Erickson hit a home run at Fox Cities Stadium as a member of the Kane County Cougars in 1998.

"I was here running the scoreboard when Matt Erickson hit his home run here," Capper said. "He was the second kid from Appleton to hit a home run here. The other kid (Bryan Roskom, who did it in 1989) was with Kenosha, the Kenosha Twins."

Over nearly 30 years in the press box Capper has made a variety of friends. Even when he's not in the park, it's not unusual for multiple traveling scouts to stop in looking for him daily.

"It's great because I've known some of them over the years. A lot of them are getting old like me, though. They're not around anymore," Capper said. "But it's always been fun for the scouts because, especially at Goodland Field where I first met a lot of them, they're sitting right out in the open and they knew you and everything. It's the same thing here: Some of the scouts I've known for quite a while. It's fun to talk baseball with them and stuff."

"They all remember him, because he was so friendly with everybody," Grusznski said. "He had no agenda or anything, he just loved talking to everybody and finding out where they were from, and obviously those guys being on the road all time they normally only talk to other scouts who don't care where they're from or what's going on at home or if they have kids or anything. So I think it's kind of nice for them, because Charlie cares. He legitimately cares where you're from, where you live, are you married? Where have you been? What games are you going to? He legitimately cares about all of that and I think they appreciated that. And I think that's why all of them ask about him and say, 'Hey, next time you see Charlie, say hi.' They all remember it."

The Timber Rattlers also remember his decades of dedication to the organization, and surprised Capper by renaming the press box in his honor in 2008. Capper described the experience as a "pure shock."

"I was in the press box and somebody was in there talking to me and keeping me there and I wondered why. 'It's the first time you've ever talked to me,'" Capper said. "And then Nikki (Zerjav) came in and said, 'There's something out here in the hallway I want to show you.' And I looked and my daughter and my son were there with their families and I was in complete shock when I was standing out in the hallway."

"He was surprised," Grusznski said. "He's not one for accolades and doesn't like attention. He's kind of a quiet, unassuming guy. But you could tell it meant a lot to him. All of his family was here and everything. I don't think he knew any of them were coming. I really think it meant a lot to him. I think he was touched. He just does it because he enjoys watching baseball. For us to honor him that way, it was fitting and well-deserved, and I think he really appreciated it."

"I told him that was something that I could always look forward to: If you're having a bad day, whatever's going on you could go into the press box, Charlie was going to be there and he was going to put a smile on your face because he'd say something funny or interesting. It was always a good conversation," Zerjav said. "That was one of the biggest no-brainers we've done here because he was just always there, a constant."

Capper doesn't run the scoreboard for every game anymore, but is always a welcome sight at the ballpark.

"I miss him not being here all the time, this year it was great having him back to help out a little bit, and hopefully he'll help out a little bit more and continue to help out," Zerjav said. "And that's the thing too with Charlie: He's very humble and doesn't want to get in the way and doesn't want to be somewhere where he's not wanted. And we keep telling him, he's wanted, he's wanted here, but he downplays it. But you miss him when he's not here and it's hard to find time and make time to get together. He's meant a lot to me personally, he's meant a lot to our organization, the Appleton Foxes and Wisconsin Timber Rattlers."