{"id":5522,"date":"2012-08-31T14:22:22","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T20:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/?p=5522"},"modified":"2012-08-31T14:22:22","modified_gmt":"2012-08-31T20:22:22","slug":"peak-profile-oscar-soule-62","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/2012\/08\/peak-profile-oscar-soule-62\/","title":{"rendered":"Peak Profile: Oscar Soule '62"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar Soule \u201962<\/strong> found his passion \u2014 baseball \u2014 while growing up in St. Louis.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Says Oscar: \u201cThis is a picture of Connie Marrero and me in his Havana apartment in January 2012. The picture of Victor Mesa and me was taken at the home stadium of Matanzas. I was about to ask Mesa for his autograph on a ball when the Cuban national play by play announcer came up to do his pre-game interview. One game per night is televised all over the country due to the fact that electricity is so scarce that night games are limited nationally to one. Mesa threw his arm around my shoulder and began talking. It was my \u201cAndy Warhol 15 Minutes of Fame,\u201d but it lasted for three. However in those three minutes, I became a national celebrity, seen by millions since baseball is a national religion in Cuba. I must say that was one of my life\u2019s \u201cmagic moments,\u201d being hugged by Victor Mesa and viewed by a nation. Needless to say, I was the envy of my Cubaball teammates.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

The retired ecology professor and academic advisor spent his 33-year career helping his students discover theirs after heeding some excellent advice at Colorado College.<\/p>\n

CC professor Richard Beidleman took aside the \u201cnot very good\u201d student after Oscar had received his first and only \u201cA\u201d in a history class while struggling in his zoology major. He suggested that Oscar might want to consider studying what he loved, rather than what he felt he had to.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt taught me to look for what my students do well and be a springboard to what they want to do,\u201d he said of his 33 years at Evergreen State (Wash.) College. \u201cLike me, they say, \u2018my Dad is a doctor so I am going to be one,\u2019 even if they are not suited for it. That advice molded me into the kind of teacher and advisor I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

After receiving a master\u2019s and doctorate in ecology from the University of Arizona, he became one of the original faculty at Evergreen State. Oscar took advantage of the interdisciplinary nature to explore his passion and how it relates to other disciplines.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaseball was the eye of the needle into subjects such as business, economics, women\u2019s studies, music, art, and science throughout the years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One of his favorite courses focused on minor-leaguers who never made \u201cThe Bigs\u201d and how their careers mirrored the plots of classic literature.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cThe stories were often the same: \u2018I was the last guy cut at spring training or I was called up but pulled a hamstring and missed my chance,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cSomething, sometimes out of their control, sometimes their own fault, kept them from realizing their dream. It is that humanity, sometime tragic, that makes the characters of Dickens and Dostoyevsky so engaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his final year at Evergreen, Oscar \u201crationalized\u201d a 2004 trip to Cuba to prepare for his Economics of Baseball in Latin America course. He goes back every summer. He has met such legends as 19-year All-Star Victor \u201cEl Loco\u201d Mesa, Enrique Diaz, the nation\u2019s all-time hits and steals leader, and Connie Marrero, the oldest living former Major League Baseball pitcher, who turned 101 on April 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe either saw or played against Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Sandy Koufax,\u201d Oscar said. \u201cAny question I had, he had an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is high praise from a trivia devotee like Oscar, who was the Seattle Mariners\u2019 2008 Fan of the Year. He organizes annual trips for fans to attend Opening Day, and has led more than 7,000 fans on such trips since the franchise started in 1977.<\/p>\n

It all dates back to Beidleman\u2019s advice to follow his passion, which he does now full-time in retirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery culture has a spring festival based on hope and new life which is the case for most every baseball fan every year,\u201d he said. \u201cMy avocation has now become a vocation of sorts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oscar Soule \u201962 found his passion \u2014 baseball \u2014 while growing up in St. Louis. The retired ecology professor and academic advisor spent his 33-year career helping his students discover theirs after heeding some excellent advice at Colorado College. CC professor Richard Beidleman took aside the \u201cnot very good\u201d student after Oscar had received his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-5522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-august-2012","tag-alumni-profiles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}