Retiring Ken Schnacke reflects on 50 years with Columbus Clippers
March 31, 2026
Article originally published in the Columbus Dispatch by Rob Oller >
Ken Schnacke loved baseball. But the game did not love him back. Not initially, anyway.
“I wasn’t any good,” he said. “But baseball was my thing.”
Growing up in Brecksville, Ohio, Schnacke was much better at following the game than playing it. That’s often how it works when the “thing” we desire eludes our grasp: We find another avenue to pursue our passion.
Can’t play baseball? Fine. Schnacke would help run it. And the run became a marathon. Schnacke, 76, will retire in December after a 50-year career with the Columbus Clippers, his tenure as longtime general manager and president honored in bronze with a statue that will be unveiled March 29 on the Huntington Park concourse behind home plate.
“I found out baseball could be a career even if you’re not a player,” Schnacke said from his Huntington Park office that looks out on right field.
In 1977, Franklin County Commissioner Harold Cooper, who in 1955 had helped bring the minor league Columbus Jets to town, convinced his fellow commissioners to purchase and renovate 39-year-old Jets Stadium, which was renamed Franklin County Stadium and later Cooper Stadium.
Cooper helped negotiate a deal to bring the Jets back from Charleston, West Virginia, and the reborn Columbus franchise was christened the Clippers.
Schnacke, watching what was happening in Columbus, began writing Cooper letters several times a week.
“I wanted to come home and work for this new team in Columbus,” he said.
The mailing barrage worked. The Clippers hired Schnacke to work under general manager George Sisler as an administrative assistant at a renovated stadium that featured artificial turf and the first luxury suites in the minors.
