From Toledo with glove for Kernels

You may never have heard of Ollie Marquardt. Unless you are the most diehard fan, odds are you haven't.

He got a cup of coffee with the Boston Red Sox in 1931 and managed the old Cedar Rapids Raiders of the Three-I League from 1939 to 1942. The Cedar Rapids Baseball Club inducted him into its hall of fame in 2000.

Now it has some of his gear to remember him by.

Marquardt's great nephew, Jody Henning, personally delivered memorabilia to the Kernels front office Friday. He drove from the Toledo, Ohio, area with an old glove, autographed baseball that included the signature of former New York Yankees great Allie Reynolds, photographs and newspaper articles of Marquardt's time in Cedar Rapids.

"I just had all this stuff I found in my basement," said Henning, who attended last night's 11-1 Kernels win over Wisconsin at Veterans Memorial Stadium. "So I said 'You know, I should call up the team and see if they would want this stuff?'"

They did. The Kernels told Henning he could simply mail the memorabilia to them, but he wanted to make sure they got it unharmed, so he hopped in his car and made the eight-hour trip.

"I'd rather have everybody here see it than have it sit in my basement," he said.

Henning said he got the memorabilia from his father and had stored it for at least 15 years. He didn't know a whole lot about his great uncle's baseball career until recently re-discovering it.

Marquardt led the Raiders to the playoffs all four seasons he was in Cedar Rapids, including a Three-I title in 1942. They had a 293-189 record under him.

"I knew he played for the Toledo Mud Hens. That's what my dad told me," Henning said. "I knew he was in the Toledo baseball hall of fame, and that he played a few games for the Red Sox. But it wasn't until I saw this stuff that I found out more about him and that he was here."

It was a hall of fame pitching performance from Ariel Pena on Saturday night, as he threw Cedar Rapids' fourth complete game this season. It was a three-hit beauty with 12 strikeouts, including a streak of 16 outs in a row at one point.

"I'm happy," Pena said, after urging from teammates to speak to a reporter without help from a translator. "Fastball, slider, changeup."

"That was great for us," said Kernels Manager Bill Mosiello. "But it was great for him, and that's the important thing."

The Kernels (73-48) had 14 hits, including three from Randal Grichuk. Jeremy Cruz homered.

The teams play the second game of their four-game series Sunday afternoon at 2.