ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — Forget fame and fortune.

Simple things like his pickup truck, time with his daughter Anna, puttering in the garden and playing with his dogs are what make Steve Shartzer happy these days.

Not the fact that Sports Illustrated published an article in its June issue about his 13-member high school baseball team “The Ironmen” from tiny Macon, Ill., population 1,200, and the way they made it to the 1971 State Finals at Bradley University in Peoria for the first time in school history.

Or that book and movie rights have been bought and he may have an A-lister playing him on the big screen.

Why, you may ask?

For one reason: They lost 4-2 in the final game to Waukegan, a powerhouse Chicago team boasting 27 big, beefy players, and Shartzer, self-appointed team leader, was devastated.

“I didn’t do my best and that bothers me. I believe I let the team and the community down and I messed up. It was all about making it happen and I didn’t make it happen,” Shartzer said.

Despite the fact Shartzer, one of two pitchers on the team, fractured the bone in the top of his left hand in the semifinal game the day before and had pitched a winning 6-4 game that morning against Lane Tech, a 5,200-student suburban Chicago school, with that same hand didn’t matter.

“I was brought up to win and believe failure is not an option. I am ultra competitive and my philosophy is you play hard and give everything to the game. I felt I controlled the destiny of the ball as a pitcher and I expected to win. And when we didn’t, I felt it was my fault,” Shartzer explained.

With practically the whole town there to cheer them on, Shartzer felt the weight of the world on his shoulders. “ Our parents worked hard for us and I wanted to play hard for them and make them happy. There were so many people behind us.”

And even though it has been 39 years and Shartzer has moved on with his life, he still has that regret of not winning.

“I would like a rematch with Waukegan. Just to play them one more time. No time for socializing now, this would be serious business,” Shartzer said.

But the limelight is the last place Shartzer, a history teacher at Robertsdale High School, wants to be right now.

“I am overwhelmed and humbled by all of this and it is such an honor to be recognized, but I don’t need or want all the publicity. I was the last one to be interviewed because I didn’t want to talk to anyone. It was my daughter Anna who persuaded me to do the SI interview. I was very reluctant but I did it for her,” Shartzer said.

Looking back, Shartzer recalls his team to be a ight-knit group from Elwin, a town of 80, who grew up playing little league together, and they were anything but ordinary.

With only a $200 budget, they had 20-year-old mismatched uniforms, hats donated from a parent that said “CAT Diesel” and an English teacher for a coach that sported long hair, a Fu Manchu mustache and goatee. And their warm-up music came from the soundtrack of “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

“We didn’t care about any of that stuff. We just wanted to play ball. It kept us from having to work and we were happy to do it. We were country boys and played all the sports we could. I played football, basketball and ran track too. I remember wearing my track uniform under my baseball uniform and going back and forth between the two, “ Shartzer said.

They had played half the season with their “CAT” hats until they were told it was illegal to have that kind of sponsorship and had to change it. Shartzer said a parent had some peace symbols that could be used so the “CAT” symbol was replaced with peace or duct tape, whichever the player preferred.

Their coach, Lynn Sweet, was a free spirit and a bit unorthodox in his coaching strategy but he was the only one who volunteered for the position so they went with it, Shartzer said.

“He knew what it took to motivate a team and was very athletic. He pitched in some semi-pro teams but never did anything with it. He gave us time to be baseball players. He was a good coach and knew we were all good kids,” Shartzer said.

Retired from teaching after 34 years, Sweet , 68, lives on a 25 acre farm in Moweaqua, Ill., with his wife Jeanne, and recalls fondly the “magical” 1971 season.

“I was a little unorthodox but that was reflective of the times we were living in. These guys were really talented and didn’t need a lot of coaching. We were having fun. Shartzer was the team leader and lead hitter but the whole team was great,” Sweet said.

After his first season, the school didn’t want to renew his contract, even though he was 18-2, but the parents protested and took it to the school board. He was reinstated for the 1971 season.

“I really got to know the parents and we hung out together. It was a tight-knit community and we had a great support system,” Sweet recalled.

And even though Sweet projected a laid-back, hippie persona to the media leading up to the State finals, he knew what they were up against. “I wanted to get the pressure off the guys and let them just relax before the game and isolate them. I knew all about the teams we would be playing but I also knew we had the talent to pull off wins too.”

Sweet still keeps up with the players and even goes hunting with them on occasion.

“Five or six of them still live here and we see each other often. We had a reunion of sorts in 1991 but Shartzer didn’t come. He’s not one for too much attention. He’s happy with his life now and what he’s doing and I’m happy for him. I love that guy and have great respect for him,” Sweet explained.

Even though Sweet coached the “Ironmen” until 1976 and had many winning seasons, he never got back to the State Finals.

“I guess people thought we were hippies but those were the times we were living in. I have a great life here and am happy,” Sweet said.

As for Shartzer, his drive and ambition to be the best all the time paid off when he received a scholarship to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where they finished third place in the 1974 College World Series in Omaha, Neb.

And after his junior year, was a fifth-round draft pick for the St. Louis Cardinals.

After playing for the AA Minor league from 1975-77, Shartzer decided to call it quits.

“It wasn’t fun anymore and I was starting to consider it a job so I decided to quit while I could. Many of my teammates thought I was crazy and couldn’t believe I was doing it but I wanted to be a dad and couldn’t do that while playing.”

So Shartzer moved to Alabama and got his B.A. degree in physical education from Huntingdon College in Montgomery in 1982 and a M.A. from Troy State University in 1988 and began a coaching and teaching career at two different colleges.

From 1982-92, Shartzer was at Huntingdon, where he had a 314-152 record and from 1992-97 was head baseball coach and from 1996-98 was athletic director for Berry College in Rome, Ga., where his record was 161-72-1 and was NAIA National Champions.

But all Shartzer’s coaching and playing successes pales in comparison to the birth of his daughter Anna, who like her dad, acquired his athletic skills in all sports.

“By the time she was born, I was not playing anymore and she didn’t know about dad the athlete. But I can see so many similarities in her and me. She is just as competitive but much nicer than me. A really good kid,” Shartzer said, smiling.

In 2001, Shartzer began teaching history at Robertsdale High School and was able to coach Anna’s softball team, which was such a thrill for him.

“I was so blessed to be able to coach her and I told her you gain success through hard work and if you aren’t good, you quit or work harder to get better. My dad didn’t let me win at checkers when I played him so it would teach me to value hard work. I believe if you keep a kids busy, they will stay out of trouble,” Shartzer said.

Anna, 19, a sophomore at the University of West Alabama in Livingston, shares her dad’s talent and was a four-sport standout while at Robertsdale and made the All State Softball team from 2006-08 and was part of the Baldwin County softball, volleyball, basketball and golf All-County teams.

Not only is she athletically talented, she is academically talented too. She graduated with honors from RHS and won many academic awards and in her freshman year at UWA, she had the fourth highest G.P.A. among all student athletes.

Also at UWA, she led the team in batting (.368) and fielding (.983), and tied for second on-base percentage (.400) and runs scored (41).

As far as what she thinks about her dad’s recent SI article, she said “I learned a lot about my dad from it. He never really talks about his baseball career to me or anyone else really. I grew up listening to stories about them and trying to put the pieces together so I felt like I learned more about the ‘characters’ in my stories growing up.”

Anna also talked about memories of her dad bringing her little toys from his college tournament days and how special that was to her and how she loved spending time with her dad in the backyard under the “Tree of Knowledge” having long talks.

“One thing my dad has always pushed in my head was that I was a ‘Shartzer’ and it didn’t matter what others are doing or what may be the cool thing to do, I should always do what I think is best and work hard. I am now trying to do what my dad said and strive to be the best and go farther than others. Almost in the sense of being the person in the seventh inning, bases loaded and two outs. I want to be the one who grabs the bat and says I’ll do it when no one else really wants to,” Shartzer said.