No doubt, an unforgettable day for Joe Scheuermann

The date April 9 on the calendar is, no doubt, one that Joe Scheuermann won’t forget.

April 9, 1997, was, no doubt, one of the most difficult days of Scheuermann’s life. It was the day he eulogized and later laid his father – legendary coach Louis “Rags” Scheuermann – to rest.

April 9, 2019, will be, no doubt, one of the most memorable. On Tuesday, Scheuermann won the 1,000th game of his 29-year career at Delgado Community College – where he replaced his father in 1990.

On the field that bears his father’s name, Joe’s Dolphins swept a doubleheader from Coastal Alabama Community College-South to push Scheuermann to the milestone win mark.

Rags topped the 1,000-win mark for his career at Loyola, Delgado and his decades of leading New Orleans’ summer entry in the All American Amateur Baseball Association.

What Joe did to join the club his father entered some three decades ago is much different. His head coaching wins have all come at one place.

In fact, Joe Scheuermann is the first college coach to win 1,000 games, at one school, in any sport, in the storied sports history of our state.

I’ve known the Scheuermann family since I was a teenager and knew of them before that. Joe and I have been on the same team numerous times, from Tulane’s sports information office to summer baseball to the Sugar Bowl and countless other events.

Of the many thousands of people of which I have crossed paths in my professional career, few if any have the people skills Joe possesses. He could just as easily recruit a baseball player to come to Tulane or Delgado as he could start a conversation with a stranger at the next table in a restaurant.

How this milestone came is honestly surprising. By now, I fully expected Joe to either be a Division I head coach, probably somewhere in southeast Louisiana, or maybe even in some high-level executive position.

When those bigger jobs in our area have come open over the last quarter-century, Joe’s name has been mentioned more than once. To use a baseball analogy, he even got past first base a couple of times. But it didn’t work out – maybe for the best for all of us baseball fans.

Besides the fact that “Rags” Scheuermann Field at Kirsch-Rooney Stadium is the home of Delgado baseball, it’s the unofficial home of New Orleans baseball, hosting hundreds of games annually. It’s also the Scheuermann family’s second home.

Had Joe landed that home run of a job – again, more baseball clichés – what would that move have done to the course of amateur baseball in our area? It’s hard to quantify, but it wouldn’t be where it is now.

Rags and Joe are both members of the AAABA Hall of Fame. Next month, Joe will get the next of what is sure to be the first of many more hall of fame honors when he is inducted into the National Junior College Athletic Association Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame as part of the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Rags is a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame – he handed the reins of the Delgado program to Joe in his acceptance speech in June 1990 – and the Allstate Sugar Bowl Greater New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame, among others.

In due time – in other words, when he becomes eligible – Joe will join his father in those hallowed institutions, and not just because his career win total now has a comma in it.

Twenty-two years ago today, in eulogizing his father, Joe observed the packed house inside St. Francis of Assisi church.

“I look out here in the crowd and we have a helluva team here today,” Joe said. “We’ve got lead-off guys, good four- and five-hole hitters, a deep pitching staff; we’ve got the press, TV stations, even some bad umpires. We could play a game!”

There was a similar crowd on Tuesday to watch Rags’ son reach a milestone. Dignitaries who couldn’t be in attendance – from Gov. John Bel Edwards to Sean Payton to Skip Bertman – congratulated the coach in a postgame video played on the Kirsch-Rooney scoreboard.

Just as Rags warranted that packed house, Joe warranted all of those appreciations Tuesday.

No doubt.