Wyandot Sports Hall of Fame

A 1949 graduate of McCutchenville High School, Merle Barth was a standout baseball player who later went on to become an accomplished driver and trainer of standard bred racehorses.

Barth pitched seven no-hitters, including two in a row and four in Wyandot County League play, batted cleanup and led the Big Red to a state runner-up finish in 1949. He helped McCutchenville go 6-1 in the WCL and led it to the county tournament championship. The Big Red had a 12-game winning streak but lost to Fort Recovery in the state title game despite Barth allowing only four hits.

After high school, Barth signed a contract with the Cleveland Indians and was assigned to the Zanesville Indians of the Ohio-Indiana League. He ended up playing two seasons in the minor leagues with three different teams, the Appleton Papermakers, the Pittsburg Browns and the Ada Herefords, finishing with a .236 batting average and 27 home runs in 880 at-bats.

In high school, Barth also participated in basketball and track and field. He scored a basketball career-high 22 points in the season opener as a junior.

Barth later drove in the early races on the day of the Little Brown Jug at the Delaware County Fair. He drove in over 700 races before he died of a heart attack at 46 years old in 1977. He was a member of the United States Trotting Association.

A die caster for Westinghouse Corp. in Upper Sandusky, Barth and his wife, Marilyn Hufford, had three children, Debra, Pamela and Douglas.