Bill Travers Drafted by Milwaukee Brewers-June 5, 1970

Travers Taken in Third Round

The call came from New York, and Bill Travers started believing it. Bill Enos, the Milwaukee Brewers’ baseball scout from Cohasset, was on the telephone informing the Travers family that 17-year-old Bill Travers was Milwaukee’s choice in the third round of yesterday’s major league free agent draft.

A 6-4, 185-pounder who will graduate from Norwood High School Sunday, Bill wasn’t home when his parents first heard of his selection by the American League’s newest team yesterday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. “We had heard through the grapevine that Bill had been drafted by Milwaukee,” said the young Norwood star’s father, William J. Travers Jr. “We were sitting tight until we were able to confirm it. We called some people, then some newspapers. Finally your paper! The Patriot Ledger confirmed it about four in the afternoon. We were about ready to jump off the table by then. Finally, we got a call from New York and Mr. Enos and that took all the pressure off us. We were like wet rags at that stage.”

Young Travers was chosen by Milwaukee for its Class A Newark, N.J. farm team in the New York-Penn League. Two other Norwood athletes are currently playing with big league ball clubs: Richie Hebner with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Skip Lockwood with the Houston Astros.

Enos and Travers will sit down next week to talk baseball and money. Travers throws and bats left-handed and is as much a threat pitching as he is hitting. “I like to hit,” he said, “but I like to pitch, too. Mr. Enos didn’t tell me if they were interested in me as a pitcher or a fielder, but I would like to pitch.” He added, “I’m pretty interested in signing. We’ll sit down next week and talk everything over. We’ll know a lot more then.” Travers has been accepted by the University of Massachusetts, the University of Michigan, and Clemson University, but has not yet decided which school he will attend, expressing a desire to work out an arrangement to play professional ball and attend college during the off-season.

For Travers, the selection is the realization of a dream that began last year when the highly talented pitcher-first baseman-outfielder was a junior at Norwood High. He started winning baseball games with regularity and batted a healthy .393. Major league scouts began flocking to watch him perform, and Bill justified their attention by posting a spectacular senior campaign. He registered a 13-1 pitching record and a .392 batting average, which included five home runs, leading Norwood to the Bay State League championship and into the Eastern Massachusetts Tournament.

It was in the state tournament that Bill suffered his only defeat of the year—a heart-breaking 3-2 decision in 13 innings. Despite the loss to Durfee High School, Travers could hold his head high, having struck out 20 batters while allowing only four hits in the opening-round tournament marathon. His 26 pitching victories (against only five losses) across a three-year varsity career are the most ever for a hurler in Norwood High School history.

Although scouts from several major league organizations came to watch him perform, Bill said he didn’t have “any special team in mind” as far as the draft was concerned. “I’m just glad I got picked,” he said. “I was hoping I would get chosen by some team. I figured I had a pretty good chance. But I didn’t know the draft was today (yesterday),” he admitted. “Everyone was telling me it was June 15 or 16. When I came home, my mother said, ‘Congratulations, you’ve been drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers.’ I didn’t believe it. Later, Mr. Enos called and he told me we’d get together some time next week.” Then he believed it.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger