Longtime Waterloo area baseball, softball coach and supporter Rich “Fish” Fisher dies

If you were ever around a baseball or softball field in the metro-east, especially in Monroe County, then you probably ran into the gentleman affectionately known as “Fish.”

“He loved to go to games,” Waterloo High baseball coach Mark Vogel said of Rich Fisher, a Waterloo resident who died Thursday at age 71 after a battle with cancer. “If he could get out at all and if there was a baseball game in the St. Louis area, Rich Fisher was going to find it. I bet there’s a lot of people in the St. Louis area that would recognize him and did not know who he was.

“But if he sat down, he was going to to talk to you about baseball for a while.”

“Fish” was a huge supporter of Monroe County sports, especially baseball and softball. He helped organize and run the American Legion baseball program in Waterloo for 12 years and also spent many years coaching men’s and women’s slow-pitch softball teams throughout the region. He also was active in the Mon-Clair Baseball League through his affiliation as general manager with the Waterloo Millers and was inducted into the Mon-Clair League Hall of Fame in 2013.

Good friend Paul Baillargeon, a longtime area sports photographer, baseball coach and umpire, visited Fisher on Thursday at Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis.

“He didn’t want to tell too many people (how bad he was) because he probably felt it would have made him too emotional,” Baillargeon said. “He took everything in stride here over the last couple months. He knew what was going on.”

Visitation for Fisher is set for 4-8 pm. Monday at Quernheim Funeral Home in Waterloo and 8-10 a.m. Tuesday. A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday, also at Quernheim’s.

The Air Force veteran of the Vietnam War is survived by his brothers, Ed Fisher and Oliver Blase, a sister, Dori Blase and numerous friends and relatives, including John Mauer.

Fisher was a member of the American Legion and life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). Two of his favorite Waterloo hangouts were JV’s and Papa Vito’s Pizza.

Fisher could talk sports with the best of them, and being opinionated also meant he would sometimes argue about sports as well. He loved seeing the local teams do well and when Gibault won the Class 1A state baseball championship in 2013, Fisher made sure to commemorate the event.

He got a bat made that included all the team information, including each player’s name, and had it engraved on a bat he presented to Gibault coach Andy Skaer.

“It was personalized with the guy’s names on it and everything,” Skaer said. “It was a really nice present. He was just a guy who was always around. He was a guy who loved baseball and would come and support all the local teams. You’d see him out and about and no matter where the game was, he was always trying to be around the game.”

Two years earlier when Waterloo finished third at the Class 3A state baseball tournament, Fisher took care of the Bulldogs as well.

“He gave me a personalized bat that had our record and all the kids’ names on it,” Vogel said. “That was the first thing I thought of this morning when I found out he had passed. That bat still sits in my living room at home.

“He just absolutely loved the game of baseball and loved to watch it. He was good to the kids and good to the coaches, too.”

Baillargeon said Fisher was a giving sort of man who always did what he could to help his friends.

“I’ve had a lot of operations in recent years and every operation I had, I called Fish up and Fish would take me, then drop me off at the front door,” Baillargeon said.

Baillargeon also recounted how Fisher enjoyed Sunday night sports roundtable meetings at West End Tavern in Millstadt. He was part of the tight-knit group for more than 10 years.

“He became a fixture up there with those guys,” Baillargeon said.

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 4:47 PM with the headline "Longtime Waterloo area baseball, softball coach and supporter Rich “Fish” Fisher dies."