Longtime Capahas manager Jess Bolen's final home game filled with fitting moments

First came the nervy, weather-induced dance unique to baseball, as first pitch approached and rain clouds loomed overhead. Then came the foul ball off the arm, leaving a nasty gash on the bicep of Capahas manager Jess Bolen.

Maybe it was the baseball gods' way of making sure that if Bolen was going out, he was going to have to deal with baseball at its fullest.

"The last time I got hit at third by line drive, Rex Crosnoe, 1995," Bolen said. "I made it 21 years without getting one, and then of course the last game I've got to get one more going out the door."

If there's one thing that's been full of baseball, it's been Bolen's life, but on Tuesday night, he took to Capaha Field for the final time helming the Burger King Capahas. He did it in front of his family -- both blood and baseball -- and community, which gathered to honor Bolen as he retires after a 50-year stint (if half a decade can be called a "stint") in charge of the club.

"It was supposed to be a year, and it turned into 50," Bolen told the crowd gathered at the field.

The Capahas are the oldest amateur baseball team in the country, dating back to 1894, and Bolen's managerial reign with the club spanned parts of two of those centuries, as Cape Girardeau mayor Harry Rediger was quick to point out.

Rediger was on hand, along with Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce President John Mehner, members of the Bolen family and 21 former Capaha players to recognize Bolen's achievements.

The mayor read a proclamation recognizing Bolen for his extensive career.

The long-time manager currently has a record of 1,515-409. He has led his teams to 19 Missouri state championships, and Friday will mark the club's 35th consecutive appearance in the National Baseball Congress (NBC) World Series. He has been inducted into the NBC Hall of Fame, Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, St. Louis Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame and the Southeast Missouri Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame.

"Through the years, to stay with it, he and [wife] Mary and the family, to stay with this team over 50 years," Rediger said. "You saw how many former players [came tonight]. They didn't have to come tonight. They love Jess and Mary and the Bolen family.

"They've just meant so much to our community and the Capahas and Capaha Park. ... In the summer when you talk baseball, you talk Jess Bolen and the Capahas."

For 50 years, it was all about love. How else do you explain a half-decade marriage to a team? When it comes to Bolen's longevity, Rick Wieser, one of the former Capahas in attendance, points to heart at the, well, heart of things.

Wieser played for Bolen for nine summers from 1976-84.

"He just loves the game," Wieser said. "He's just sometimes like a kid that fell in love with it and never grew out of it. It's not just the game, but the friendships he's made over the years."

Tuesday night was all about Bolen and baseball. So, naturally, the Capahas won on a walk-off hit thanks to a four-run ninth-inning rally. But why would it be any other way?

"I'll tell you, as long as I can remember it's always been the Cardiac Caps," Tom Bolen said. "We always find a way to squeak it out."

Tom is Jess' son and the heir apparent to the Capaha throne. He'll take over control next summer. In the meantime, he got to start in one final Capaha game -- his first in years -- when his dad wrote him in on the lineup card and put him out on first base.

But it has always been about family for the Capahas, and that's what Tom is proudest of when he thinks about his family's relationship with the club.

So how else could it possibly end, than in the quiet moments after the Capahas celebrated a dramatic victory, when the fans had shuffled out of the stadium and all that was left were the lights and the dirt and the grass -- dirt and grass that will be replaced by turf in offseason renovations. When all that was left were the basic components of baseball. There, running their short legs across the infield grass, was a third generation of Bolens -- T.J. and Ty.

Bolens on Capaha Field.