| BASEBALL AND AVIATION LOVES BROUGHT FRIENDS TOGETHER What’s it like to share a real love of both baseball and aviation? If you’re Tommy Giles you have to be careful not to pay too much attention to the plane flying overhead when you’re playing in the outfield at a ballgame. Giles, from Vero Beach, is in Ocala as a freshman at Central Florida Community College. He plays outfield, first base, and pitcher for the Patriots, while majoring in aeronautical science and flying the family’s Piper Seneca I. If that sounds like a lot of accomplishments for such ayoung man, it is. And there are more. The aviation bug bit him at the age of 12 when an uncle gave him a ride in a Cessna Cardinal. He liked it fine, but when his uncle let him handle the controls, the die was cast. It took him awhile to be old enough to take flying lessons, but he did for a year while in high school, earning his private pilot’s license at age 18. After graduation he attended Indian River Community College in Vero Beach. “I went there to play baseball but they wanted me to pitch, not hit, and I got cut,” said Giles, so he dropped out of IRCC and switched over to Vero’s Flight Safety Academy instead. This proved to be a good move. “I was with older guys and learned a lot, it helped me grow up.” He also was able to fly every day, enabling him to obtain his instrument, multi-engine and commercial pilot ratings in six months. About this time he and his dad hit some baseballs and he realized he’d also become a much stronger hitter than he’d been previously, so with his new self assurance he started looking for a place to continue his education while playing ball. That’s what brought him to Ocala and CFCC last August. Now 20 years old, he’s a Dean’s List student and a top player on the ballfield. Currently rated fourth in the state of Florida, the CFCC Patriots are one of eight teams to go to the Junior College World Series. As you read this, the team is in Kissimmee competing with other Florida community college teams. The winner will go to Colorado to compete in the Nationals. A modest young man, it took another fellow with the same pair of mutual loves to discover Giles and suggest we’d all like to read about him. Russ and Dot Mount, who live out at Oak Run, have been in Ocala 13 years, coming down from New Jersey. They’re baseball fans so started watching the games at CFCC. They’ve become big supporters, never missing a game. Dot even tried promoting the games through the newspaper. “It’s wonderful family entertainment…people come from all over Florida and Georgia to watch their kids, or friends, play,” she said. Eventually the Mounts met Giles and got to know him. With their mutual interests, they’ve become good friends as well as supporters. Mount flew 13 missions in Europe during World War II, three over Berlin. He was a flight engineer and top turrett gunner in England with the 306th bomb group. After the war he used the GI Bill to earn his private and commercial ratings back home in Freehold, NJ. His flying experience covered a range from cropdusting in a Stearman for the Cherry Brothers down in Belglade, FL to charter flights based out of New Jersey. He’d fly one regular customer down to Florida on frequent land-purchase trips. His charter’s area of interest was around the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area; Mount recalls walking over to the ball field to watch the spring training teams when he’d fly into St. Pete and land at Albert Whitted Airport down near the waterfront. He also ferried Luscombes from the Texas factory to New Jersey customers. He too always loved baseball. “I used to play in high school, and played some Legion ball.” With this combination of interests it’s little wonder that Mount and Giles’ paths eventually crossed. Now the Mounts are cheering their young friend on toward his goal of playing professional ball. If that doesn’t work out, Giles has all the initial steps taken to become a professional pilot, so his future looks very bright indeed. We wish him well! |