MEADVILLE — By most accounts, throwing batting practice was an activity that took up a pretty substantial portion of Ed Acker’s 79 years on this planet.

“When it comes to throwing batting practice, I don’t know how many hundreds of thousands of pitches he’s thrown,” said Tim Crum, who is the head coach of the Saegertown High School baseball team and Acker’s son-in-law.

“When I picture Ed, I always picture him walking around carrying a 5-gallon bucket of baseballs.”

There was this one time, though — this was years and years ago — Acker was throwing BP for one of the teams he was coaching and, as the story goes, one of the batters drilled a come-backer to the mound and it caught Acker, “right between the eyes,” said Crum.

“It must have broken his nose. There was blood gushing everywhere. And Ed — he has the highest pain threshold of anyone I’ve ever seen — he just wiped the blood away and kept throwing baseballs.”

Crum continues with a tone of disbelief, “Finally, I had to say, ‘Ed, you’re bleeding all over the baseballs. Get off the field.’”

No one can ever say that Ed Acker didn’t give his absolute all for the game.

For upwards of six decades Acker was at times a baseball player, a coach and an umpire; from the littlest leagues through varsity and beyond. And throughout that entire span he was, and still remains, one of the most ardent supporters of the sport.

“He is definitely the local baseball icon,” said Randy Schlosser, a former player of Acker’s, who later went on to play in the Houston Astros organization. “Any time you talk about baseball in the Saegertown area, Ed Acker’s name is going to come up.”

It certainly came up in conversation with Larry Acker, a distant cousin and former player of Ed’s who went on to play with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“I can’t say enough good things about the man,” he said. “What he taught me gave me the opportunity to go on to college and to play professionally. A lot of those skills he taught me carried over.

“Ed’s as good as they come.”

Baseball has attempted to give a little back to Acker in recognition of his decades of dedication and hard work.

In 1986, for example, the baseball diamond at the Saegertown American Legion Post 205 — the very diamond where he started the Saegertown American Legion program back in 1973 — was named in his honor.

And to this day one can occasionally find Acker raking the infield or riding a mower, getting his namesake confines ready for a game.

“He’ll go out and mow,” said Crum. “But getting on his hands and knees and edging the field or laying down chalk, that’s a little too much for him these days.”

And now, yet another accolade is heading Acker’s way. On July 30, he will be inducted into the Pennsylvania American Legion Baseball Hall of Fame. The ceremony will be held in Boyertown, the day before the start of the American Legion State Championship Tournament.

Acker, as is his style, remains aloof about the honor.

“I told them they can have it,” he laughed. “I’m too old to be running around that far out of town.”

Despite the distance (Boyertown is east of Reading), Acker will indeed be attending the ceremony and accepting the honor.  

Still, he adds, “I didn’t do what I did for any recognition. I did it because I love the game.

“Nobody loved baseball more than I did,” he said.

Then he repeated it. “Nobody loved baseball more than I did.”

His family will back him up on that point.

“For as long as I can remember my dad was either coaching or umpiring or just going to games,” said Mary Crum, the youngest of Ed Acker’s four daughters. “That was his life. He enjoyed that more than I ever saw him enjoy anything.”

And growing up in the Acker family meant growing up a baseball fan.

“Yeah, my dad made it a family thing,” Mary said. “My mom would go and cook food for doubleheaders, feed the team and the families from opposing teams. I remember, I don’t think I was reading or writing yet, but I was keeping score and chasing after foul balls.

“He made sure it was a family thing. It wasn’t just him going. It was us as a family going and helping the program along. That’s the way we looked at it. We didn’t know any differently.”

She added, “As far as I knew growing up, every family did that.”

That passion for the game even trickled down to the grandkids, of course.

“Papa is my life,” said Acker’s 14-year-old granddaughter, Hannah Crum. “Baseball is my life because of papa.”

And Hannah’s brother, Brandon Crum, is the head coach of the French Creek Valley American Legion team, the team that calls Ed Acker Field home.

Currently, French Creek Valley is doing battle in the Pennsylvania Region 8 tournament, trying to make it to Boyertown to play in that state championship event.

“It would be pretty awesome to have our group playing in that tournament at the same time that Ed gets inducted,” said Brandon. “Our kids know him and they think the world of him.”

It would not be Brandon Crum’s first trip to the state tournament.

“I remember, I couldn’t have been 7 or 8, and I was in a truck with Ed and one of his best friends driving down to watch him at the state tournament in Boyertown,” he said. “I was the bat boy.

“Now I’m coaching the team. And going down there again, the same year that Ed gets into the Hall of Fame, there would be nothing better.”

You can still find members of the Ed Acker’s family living their life at the ball park; coaching the team, running the scoreboard, working the consession stand, or just watching.

And, typically, there’s Ed, parked in a chair behind the backstop, quietly, humbly, surveying his legacy.

“He’s touched a lot of peoples’ lives,” said Tim Crum. “He’s a firm believer in baseball and what it’s all about. And he never wanted any recognition. That’s the way he is. He’s just a humble person — ‘Don’t mention my name. Just play baseball.’”