Minor league trainer Steve Ciszczon explained his role to his hometown South Bend Tribune in February 1989.
His job involved much more than keeping the players healthy, he told The Tribune.
"Keeping the ballplayers healthy is the easy part of the job," Ciszczon told The Tribune. "The trainer is also the traveling secretary. I have to make arrangements on flights, hotels, ground transportation - the whole works. I'm always working in advance, trying to keep ahead of everyone."
Ciszczon spent more than a decade in that minor league role. He then continued on as a trainer in the high school ranks - and as a teacher.
Ciszczon's career began out of Ball State University, where he graduated in 1974. He then got his Masters from the University of Arizona in 1976. He joined the Indians system as a trainer in 1977.
In 1980, as a trainer at Tacoma, Ciszczon's work was cited by a player who'd suffered a sore shoulder but later got back on the mound, The Tacoma News Tribune wrote.
"Give (trainer) Steve (Ciszczon) a lot of credit," player Tom Brennan told The News Tribune late that June. "If things keep going this way, I should be 100 percent in two weeks."
Overall, Ciszczon worked as a trainer at Toledo, Chattanooga, Tacoma, Charleston, Maine, Buffalo and Colorado Springs over 14 seasons. He's last credited in the minors in 1990 at AAA Colorado Springs.
By then, though, he had already started his high school training career, appointed in 1985 in the offseason as assistant athletic trainer at his alma mater Penn High School in Mishawaka, outside South Bend.
He's also gone on to be a teacher at Penn. In 2008, he taught ninth-grade geography there. He's listed as retiring in 2017. Reflecting upon his retirement, he cited his training work in a post on the district's website.
"One of my fondest memories is when I was the athletic trainer at Penn," Ciszczon said then, according to the site. "After a home game on a crisp autumn evening, when all the post- game work was done, I greatly enjoyed sitting in the office of the athletic training room with my feet propped up on the desk, watching television and getting the latest scores and highlights from the other games in the area … a great way to unwind and relax!"
- Tacoma News Tribune, June 30, 1980: Revived Tigers continue comeback
- South Bend Tribune, Feb. 5, 1989: Penn grad Ciszczon becomes fine juggler
- PHMSchools.org, May 20, 2017: 2017 Employee Recognition Night
Made the Majors:1,408-32.2%
Never Made Majors:2,962-67.8%-X
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