I played with your dad, for 3 yrs. in high school, and uncountable sandlot games. he came to our house, along with the entire town to play basketball on our court. what you didn't mention is, he did all that with WOOD BAT. i've always said, if we would have had aliminum, he'd have hit.674 at least. i believe he could've hit .300 with a Jasonville Leader newspaper. If i voted for baseball HOF at Shakamak High School, Dennis should be the first in. He was made to play baseball. we grew up at each others houses. My sister taught him to dance. I'll just say, he's the best natural hitter i've seen in my era.

Offense wise, no question the top of the list all-time at Shakamak, and Drew the '71 team maybe still the greatest team of all time. The '96 team was close, but defense was not close and the wooden bats give 71 team the advantage.

With all due respect to the '96 Lakers, I will say again, Dennis Landry hit .474 with A WOOD BAT. When you hit a baseball off the end or handle of wood, its a broken bat and an out. If the whole '71 team used aluminum, the records would be untouchable. Not many bloop hits in '71

HarveyGrant,

i guess you could be right. i don't know anything about the '96 team. they could be the best in Shakamak history, but thats a lot of baseball teams since 1964. i played my last game in the '70 sectional and haven't watched much high school ball since, so i really should'nt chime in. i'll just say, if you hit well enough to lead the state in avg., and no one from SHS has done it since 1971, you must have been good.

That is right simmons!!!!! This school is so rich in traditional baseball, that I would bet there isn't another school so decerated!!!!!

I would like to add a little to Drews blog. If I may. First, I would like to say that dad just wasn't a hell of a player, but he too was a great coach. He taught me so much more about the game than any other coach did. There was a time when he was trying to teach me something in a cage and as any 17-18 yr. old teen would do I smarted off. I said something like, yea, like you could do any better, or something like that. He had the machine that day cranked up!! Well, he calmly told me to get out of the cage and hand him a bat. I jesterd to him the one I had in my hands and he just laughed. Then, he turned and took an old, what I would have called a splinter, wooden bat and really showed me!!!!!! EVERY ball was hit right back at the machine. Never miss hit anything. I just stood there in awe. This was in '95. He hadn't picked up a bat in years. No practice swings. Nothing!!! To this day, I still listen and learn. I just wanted to share this cause I know he wouldn't, and never will, mention this.

I, like Drew, am proud to have him as a father. The man has tried to give all three of us the world, and he is still trying. I want to thank the ones for the great comments and insight about Dennis Landry.

Lot better blog this go around D!!!!lol!!

Great article. I have to make one comment. Drew, the reason you never heard very much about this time in your Dad's life is; he doesn't consider this his greatest accomplishment in life. He loved playing ball don't get me wrong AND he was good BUT his most proudest accomplishments are named Kris, Greg and Drew. He considers all the baseball accalades as "high school stuff" he knows you guys are the real thing. LIFE!!! Oh and Harvey Grant, you're always prejudice for the team you're either on or have someone on so you just keep on believing that '96 was the best if you want to. Like Drew mentioned we've had two sons play on the other winning teams. Another extremely proud moment for Dennis. Shakamak has a wonderful baseball family tradition. Sims knows this along with S French and B McNabb and the list goes on.

I'd assume he's refering to a regional before the class system was implemented.

I would like to have seen all the teams play in regionals without the class system.

Drew, I think its awesome you can honor your father with this blog. Anyone that hits .474....in any league is a stud. Is '71 the best team ever..no clue. They were obviously good.

I will take the 88-90 run as the best at Shakamak.

I had the honor of playing with both your brothers and winning two sectionals, had to throw that in. I can't wait till our nephew hits .475(tops the grandpa)and continues the winning ways.

I will point out that LaPorte actually at one time had the best baseball tradition. They were #1 in going to the state for YEARS...

Kokomo was not far behind...

Shakamak is just an upstart (but I like the upstarts)

Drew: I was fortunate to play with your dad on the 71 team as the catcher. And I don't have to rely on memory for some things because I have the 71 stats in front of me now. To answer some of the questions: Probably the best team we beat that year was Indian Creek in the Regional Championship. Indian Creek had beaten Bloomington South in the afternoon game, and the next year Bloomington South won the State Championship. Our season record was 15-8, and back then our toughest competition was Linton, North Daviess, Owen Valley, Sullivan, and North Central. Baseball was really a relatively new high school sport back then. Considering that the first IHSAA post season tournament was in 1967, only five years prior. In addition, most of the players on our team also ran track, so obviously we didn't practice baseball on the days we had track meets. We also didn't have a batting cage, pitching machine, lights, or even dugouts back then. We had one coach, who coached third base and kept the score book at the same time, and a substitute player for the first base coach. Still, our team batting average for the regular players was .327, which I think would still be pretty good. Most of our games were started in the early afternoon so we didn't have the fan following like the teams do now. And we played about 10 fewer games per season than they do now. But as simmons said, we did have a lot of fun. I remember that we played Rosedale that year at Rosedale and simmons batted 3 times in one inning. I can't remember for sure, but I think he got 3 hits, which is probably some kind of record. That would certainly catch some attention on a record board: MOST HITS IN ONE INNING -- SIMMONS, 3

Though it was a big disappointment for us to lose the first game in the semi-state after being 2 runs ahead in the bottom of the last inning with 2 outs on the other team. One of my memories of your dad that is not in the record books was: Back then a lot of places we played at didn't have a home run fence. And in left field at Sullivan the fence was way back at the property line, not like it is now. Your dad hit a ball that hit the property line fence on a short bounce, which left me in shock.

I was the assistant coach at Shakamak for 3 straight years 93, 94, and 95, and I've tried to follow Shakamak baseball as much as I could before and since then. And it would be hard for me to pick the best team. But if I had to choose it would be the 96 team. Since my nephew Scott French played on that team, I saw all but a couple of games. That team had no less than 7 or 8 players that hit home runs. And as a pitcher, Jimmy John was a complete stopper. The 88 team was also very good and they could put up huge numbers as well with a lot of home run hitters. And they had two very good pitchers in Shawn Lambermont and Todd Martin. They beat South Vermillion in the final game of the Regional that year 20 to 5. I didn't get to see the 83 team that much but I know they were also very good. And we've had a lot of good teams and players since. Sectional Winners: 71, 73, 83, 88, 90, 92, 94, 95, and 96, Regional Winners: 71 and 88. I also think the 2004 team was very good at a record of 27-3.

And just to clarify one point, Scott French was the State Batting Champion in 98, and he completed that season without striking out.