‘Digger’ Miller has Hall of Fame career

Dan “Digger” Miller always believed in giving his best every time he stepped out onto the baseball field. That mentality was a huge factor in Miller’s success as a baseball player.

Miller, a 1982 Plymouth High School graduate, was inducted into the Wisconsin State Baseball League Hall of Fame Saturday night at the league’s Awards and Hall of Fame Dinner. The event was held in the Heritage House at the Bull at Pinehurst Farms in Sheboygan Falls.

“I’m honored to be in this. I took a lot of pride in playing in that league,” said Miller. “It was a great night [at the awards dinner] and my parents were pretty proud.”

His parents are Don and Judy Miller of Cascade.

Digger, an infielder, played in the league for 12 seasons between 1985 and 1999, and was the WSBL’s co-Most Valuable Player twice. He was named to the all-league first team six times and second team twice, and batted over .400 four times.

He played 10 years with the Green Bay Ribbons and was on four league championship teams. Miller played one season each for the Sheboygan A’s and Oshkosh Giants.

“Once I started playing with the Ribbons, I wanted to be the best player in that league,” Miller recalled.

“I wanted to be the toughest out in that three chute [in the batting order].

“I always wanted to do my best and be the best player. I have been blessed with a lot of talent and I worked very hard. I got more out of myself than others who had more talent,” he said.

Miller’s strong work ethic goes back to a piece of advice his dad gave him which is if you are going to do something, don’t do it halfway.

“It’s not going to happen by accident. You’re going to have to earn it,” he stressed. “You have to have the desire.”

He finished with a .364 career batting average and a .571 career slugging percentage in 305 league games. Despite the fact that he has been out of the league for 10 years, he still ranks in the top five all-time in plate appearances, at- bats, runs scored, hits, runs batted in, doubles, triples, home runs and total bases.

He leads all State League players who have 1,200 plate appearances or more with his .364 average and is one of only four players to accumulate 400 hits.

“When you get hot hitting the ball and get on a roll, it’s almost magical. A lot of it is confidence,” Miller said.

“I’m a little bit wowed that I’m still in the top five in a lot of the categories. I’m proud of it [WSBL career] but humbled. I stayed healthy and had good teammates.”

Digger gave his coaches going all the way back to Pee Wee Baseball in Plymouth a lot of credit for his achievements as a player. Miller’s dad and Gene Meyer organized and coached his Pee Wee team that consisted of rural Plymouth kids who otherwise wouldn’t have had an opportunity to play because they lived outside the city limits.

“It was a huge opportunity for us. They [coaches] had a positive influence on us,” Miller said.

Among the players on that team were Rick Meyer and Butch Cain who were Miller’s teammates on the PHS squad that won the 1982 summer baseball state championship.

“I played with guys on the state championship team that I had played with for a long time,” Digger noted.

“I took Tom Richards under my wing. He was a freshman on that team. I began seeing the value of leadership. One of the best ways to influence players was through my play on the field which motivated me.”

Miller was all-state honorable mention as a senior on the 1982 Panther team.

He also had an impressive college baseball career. He played at Lakeland College in his freshman year in 1983 and then transferred to UW-Oshkosh where he was a starter for three years (1984-86), including the Titans’ 1985 NCAA Division III national championship season.

The Titans were in the Division III World Series all three years that Miller played for the team. In his senior season of 1986, he earned All-America first-team honors and was selected to the all-conference first team as a shortstop – batting .455 that year.

As a junior, he was named the Rawlings National Player of the Week for hitting two home runs in the same inning from opposite sides of the plate, including a grand slam.

“I broke my left wrist playing basketball before my senior year [at UW-Oshkosh]. It was one of those tough challenges. Overcoming that obstacle helped me for baseball and life,” he recalled.

Digger said he was “kind of depressed” when he wasn’t drafted by a Major League team after playing in college. However, he wanted to continue playing baseball and be a top-caliber player in the WSBL.

Miller also played baseball for Howards Grove in the Shoreland League in 1982 and ’83. In the ’83 season, he won the league batting crown with a .558 average and was named the Most Valuable Player.

Digger’s most memorable baseball moments were being on the state championship team at PHS and the national title team at UW-Oshkosh, and being honored at the college All-American baseball banquet. He said the banquet was probably his proudest moment because his father was there.

He said his family, and uncle, Gene Boll (from Plymouth), were very supportive of him during his baseball career. Miller said Frank Schade, who was his high school basketball coach, had a big influence on him.

“Frank Schade really instilled mental toughness in us. He made me a good competitor and that helped me in baseball,” Miller said.

He was called “Little Digger” when he was young because his oldest brother, Mike, was nicknamed “Mill Digger.”

Miller resides in rural Kaukauna and is a teacher at Little Chute High School. He and his wife, Lynn, have two daughters, Sidney and Paige, and a son, Joe. He no longer plays baseball but enjoys coaching his children in various sports.