Jermoe M. Dybzinski
Jerome M. Dybzinski '77 1988 Baseball
Barely more than a week remained before the start of classes for the 1973-74 academic year when The Kid from Collinwood worked his way through the underground maze of Cleveland State's Geodesic Dome in search of the office of Baseball Coach Garry Roggenburk.
Mission accomplished, he politely entered the cubicle which served as the heart of the Vikings' baseball program, introduced himself, told Roggenburk plans to enter Kent State had not worked out and asked whether he might be able to qualify for a baseball scholarship.
Roggenburk smiled the friendly smile of a coach who had just seen his infield solidified and allowed as how that could probably be worked out.
Thus did Jerry Dybzinski embark upon one of the finest careers in Cleveland State baseball history.
That career began at third base where he had put in two seasons at Collinwood High, with back-to-back .340 batting averages, good enough to earn him all-scholastic honors as a senior.
Tall, gangly and owning a cannon for an arm, he possessed a fluid grace in the field and speed and was a starter virtually from Day One as a Viking, playing his first two seasons at third, and then switching between shortstop and third base as a junior.
He was named the team's "Most Outstanding Player" in that junior season when he hit .308, banging out three triples amongst his 33 hits to set a CSU career record of six with a full season yet to play.
But it was in his senior year that "The Dybber" truly blossomed. Now a full time shortstop, his fielding became more brilliant than ever, the best most observers agreed ever seen at Cleveland State where good shortstops had been the rule, not the exception.
And in that final season his work with the bat more than matched his showing with the glove.
In 35 games and 100 at bats he hit .350, slammed six home runs to tie a school single season record, scored 33 runs to break another, hit eight doubles to miss a third season mark by one and was two base hits short of still a fourth.
He added one more triple to his career mark and also established Viking career records for runs scored (85 in 120 games), and hits (119) and tied the school record for runs batted in with 68.
Named the team's "Most Outstanding" for a second straight year, he was also named to the 1977 All-Mideast Region third team by a vote of the regional coaches (the second team selection was a youngster from Minnesota named Paul Molitor) and was honored by the Sports Media Association of Cleveland and Ohio (SMACO) with its annual "Can't Miss Award" as the Northeastern Ohio amateur athlete with the brightest future.
The Cleveland Indians agreed with SMACO and drafted Dybzinski, who had put the icing on the cake of that sweet senior year by graduating with a 3.25 average in physical education.
After three years in the minor leagues, he realized a dream by winning a promotion to Cleveland.
Then, on April 10, 1982, he became the first Cleveland-born player in 43 years to appear in an Indians' Opening day lineup.
"They Dybber" remained with the Indians into the 1983 season, retaining his ties with CSU by serving as the chairman of the Luke Easter-Wahoo Club Scholarship Endowment fund drive.
He was traded to the Chicago White Sox in 1983 and played for them until the 1985 season, playing in 127 games and the League Championship Series for the American League West Champs in 1983.
Now married to the former Kimra Jean Frake and the father of three sons, Joshua, Jared and Jacon, he makes his home in the Chicago suburb of Naperville and works for VanKampen Merritt, a financial services division of Xerox, training brokers and bankers through the Midwest on the company's financial products.
