When I was 7 my dad got me my first baseball mitt, a nice lefty model, probably from Sears. We were all living at 3139 E. Calhoun Blvd. in Minneapolis, with a nice back yard and an alley. Seemingly every day in the spring and summer, dad would take me to play catch in that alley with a genuine baseball. He didn't take it easy on me, teaching me to take surprise pop ups and grounders, along with the regular tosses, which got harder and harder as I got better at catching them. I don't recall ever swinging a bat, but after two seasons of playing catch about a thousand times, I became a confident fielder.
In 4th grade we moved to 2301 Newton Av. S. in Mpls' most ritzy neighborhood, called Kenwood. Even though we still had an alley, we had a crappy back yard, and for whatever reason dad was too busy to continue playing catch every day. That was ok, as I found a friend named Scott Salkin. Scott lived across the alley and a couple of doors down, and he was rich. Huge house, massive yard, a gigantic Lincoln Continental in the garage, and the first color TV I had ever seen. Scott was my age but a grade behind, and he was a total nerd, and a baseball freak. Total freak. We would play games in his yard EVERY day, rain or shine, during the spring and summer, sometimes with a local kid or two, or usually just Scott and I pitching a whiffle ball to each other. I taught myself how to hit, and playing baseball was all I wanted to do.
Even more important, Scott taught me to be a fan. He taught me how to read the sports pages, and how to interpret the box scores. On Sundays, the sports section was a different color than the rest of the paper, so it could be identified more easily. The 'Sports Peach' (peach colored). This was the holy of holys, as all of the weeks statistics were printed there: homer run leaders, stolen base leaders etc. We memorized this info. Baseball stats were the first "practical" use of math that we had come across, and we learned to compute the batting and earned run averages in our heads.
Scott also introduced me to baseball cards. I earned a quarter allowance each week by doing chores around the house, usually taking out the trash. Before baseball I would take my earnings up to the neighborhood drugstore and buy two DC comics at 12 cents a piece. I had dropped by that store every day on my way home from school, browsing the various selections, Green Lantern, Detective, Brave and the Bold, Justice League of America etc, so I pretty much knew what I was going to buy when I turned up on Saturday with my quarter burning a hole in my pocket. But baseball cards! A nickel for a pack of five cards, and a piece of really nasty bubble gum besides! In 1964 Topps also included a "coin" in each pack, which had a photo of an all star player (AL on the gold coins, NL on the silver) with their previous year's stats on the back. My favorite coin, the one I ended up saving for almost 50 years, was that of the late, great Roberto Clemente. I ended up giving it to my friend John Donahue, who has a Clemente shrine in his office. Anyway, I spent the next decade or so collecting baseball cards, as well as comics. At some point my mother decided that my cards would be better displayed if she glued them onto a photo album. I have yet to recover from that nice surprise.
In 1964 I attended my first Twins game. It was done through the Minneapolis Public Schools. We beat the Cleveland Indians, and pitcher Jim Perry socked a homer. The Twins finished 7th that year, in a 10 team league, but they were beginning to show promise. Towards the end of the season we moved to 4600 Emerson, over by Lake Harriet. I clearly remember riding with Dad in the front seat of his white Chrysler 300. We had just left the house and were turning right onto 46th Street, and I remarked the I thought this rookie outfielder, Tony Oliva, looked like a pretty good player. Dad agreed.
My 5th grade teacher, Frances Flemming, was a baseball fan, and let us listen to all of the Yankee/Cardinal World Series games on the radio (all WS games were played during the day back then). I was a bit of a teacher's pet. When I graduated 5th grade, Mrs. Flemming gave me a coffee table book on the history of baseball. Inside she wrote, "Keep the Twins winning, Jesse!" I did my best, as the next season we went to the World Series.
I only attended one game during the 1965 pennant winning season, and that was with my dad. We beat the Detroit Tigers and Don Mincher started at 1st base, leaving Harmon Killebrew to cover 3rd. The old Metropolitan Stadium wasn't the best place to watch baseball (or football) but at least it was outside. Whereas at a Vikings game I could always count on dad getting me a brat and a hot chocolate, at a Twins game I would get a bag of peanuts and a frosty malt. Note: a couple of days ago there was an article in the paper about calorie counts in ball park food. A bag of peanuts has 3x (!) the calories of a bratwurst. Next time I go to a game, I'm having three brats.
So, the first two games of the World Series are on our home turf, but we have to face Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, two of the best pitchers in the history of the game. Lots of fuss as Yom Kipper fell on the day of the first game, and Koufax was Jewish and refused to pitch. All of the Jewish ladies in the greater Metro area invited handsome Sandy over to their house for the holiday. My non-Jewish mother did as well. Harriet adored Sandy Koufax. Anyway, we ended up losing in 7 games. My parents and I were gathered around a TV in their bedroom and watched Koufax wiff Bob Allison for the final out. Very sad, but very exciting.
My favorite Twin during those early years was right handed pitcher Camilo Pascual, a refuge from Castro. He won 20 games a couple of years and usually led the league in strikeouts. One time I was watching the Twins play Cleveland on TV. The Indian's top pitcher, Sudden Sam McDowell, intentionally walked a player to load the bases so he could pitch to Pascual. Pascual, of course, hit a grand slam. He laughed so hard rounding the bases that I thought he was going to fall over. Camilo was on the downside of his career during the 1965 Series, and missed many games due to injury. He started and lost the 3rd game for the Twins. Still, he was my guy and always would be.
I only played one half season of organized baseball, which was in 8th grade with our Park Board league. I could hit with some power but the coach didn't seem to like me much. One day during practice I was out in left, jawing with the center fielder and not paying attention. Seeing this, the coach hit a screaming liner in my direction. I saw it out of the corner of my eye and just reached up and snagged it. I can still picture the coach doubled up and laughing on the ground. I became the starting left fielder, batting 6th. About the 3rd game of the season we faced a pitcher who was about 6 foot 2 and had clearly gone through puberty about three years before. None of my team had. This guy was uber-fast (he ended up playing in the minors) and totally wild. He hit me in the back, leaving a ball-sized mark, complete with laces. Half the team (me too) quit after that game. Way too dangerous.
Tried out for the sophomore baseball team at Washburn, but was cut the last day. I think it was more of a reflection of the length of my hair, rather than of my ability. I was a fiend for playing softball, playing all day, every day whenever I could, and I was the best fielder I knew, and the second best power hitter next to my buddy Jon Horsford. When we were 19 we attended open tryouts for the Twins. We didn't suck, but nobody offered us any contracts. That was my last of many marvelous days playing ball. I broke my back just days later (fell through the open trap door on the Guthrie stage ... another story) and when I healed I just didn't have it anymore. I can remember playing with a team while in Grad school, and a team when I first started working at the County. I was the worst player on both teams. All I could do is ground out to second base. I couldn't move quickly any longer so they made me play catcher. Broke my heart.
When Zeke was about 3 and started swinging a bat, I took him out back and pitched to him for hours. Made him a switch hitter and boy could he hit! Played with Jake quite a bit as well. Jake was a lefty (like his old man) and could knock the crap out of the ball. When Zeke was about 6 I took him to play T-Ball with a park league. Those games were a total cluster but the kids seemed to have fun. It all ended one day when the coach announced that if certain kids were ready, they could hit live pitching rather than hitting off the T. He threw Zeke about 30 underhand pitches, Zeke swang mightily at each pitch, and didn't hit a thing. The lightbulb then went off in Zeke's head. He decided that he "couldn't hit" and that was it for him as far as baseball was concerned. With Zeke no longer interested, neither was Jake. Ezra decided that he would like to learn to play some ball, and we played some catch a few times in the front yard. Ez had a pretty good arm. Sadly, my health got pretty crappy and playing catch became way too hard for me. Just yesterday I noticed a new 50 dollar righty mitt in my man cave, with all the tags still on it. I have no idea who it belongs to, but will try to get Ezra and Zeke to play catch with it this summer.
Zeke inherited my dad's first baseman's mitt, which I had bought for my dad when Zeke was about six. I surprised my elderly father with it, and he was happy to come outside and play catch with his son and grandson. Brought back lots of memories for both of us. My dad was such a wonderful father to me in teaching me sports. However, he totally ignored my two younger brothers when it came to that stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if he never played catch with Joe or Matt, or even threw a football to them. I used to think that was pretty weird, until I went through it all myself. You put so much work into the elder kid, and then slack off with the others. It's a combination of getting too old, and too busy with work, and too tired, and hoping that the kid that you did teach will pass on those lessons to his siblings. Of course, it isn't the skills that are important, it's the time spent teaching them. I spent tons of time with Laura and Zeke, just doing stuff. With Jake, we did spend quite a bit of time doing computer stuff together. Roxie and Ezra got screwed as they came along when my career was at its most demanding and my health started to really suck. I am really, really sorry about that. They both deserved better than I gave them.
47 years later I still agonize over the Twins. Today they will win everything! Tomorrow they suck! They lost today, so I won't even read the sports pages tomorrow, or watch Baseball Tonight on ESPN. My favorite of the current crop of Twins is Joe Mauer. It was Carlos Gomez, and I will never forgive the Twins for trading him to the frigging Brewers. He is three times the center fielder than Denard Span is. I still haven't been to the new stadium (too sick) but my family has gone to a couple of games. Don't know if I will ever have the pleasure, but if I go I will be getting a Tony Oliva cuban sandwich. From what I understand, it's a pretty good sandwich.
*** If anybody ever tries to tell you that Barry Bonds, or anybody else, is better than Babe Ruth, look them square in the eye and ask them how many games Barry won as a pitcher. If that doesn't shut them up, punch them.
All-Time Twins Team (not the 25 best players, but which 25 players that would make the best team).
Starting Pitchers: Bert Blyleven, Jim Kaat, Camilo Pascual,
Johann Santana, Frankie Viola
Long Reliever: Jim Perry
Righty Relievers: Juan Berenger, Al Worthington
Lefty Relievers: Ron Perronoski, Eddie Guardado
Closer: Jeff Reardon
Catchers: Joe Mauer
Earl Battey
Butch Wynegar
First Base: Kent Hrbek
Bob Allison
Second Base: Rod Carew
Short Stop: Leo Cardenas
Third Base: Gary Gaetti
Outfield: Tony Oliva
Kirby Puckett
Dan Gladden
Desig. Hitter: Harmon Killebrew
Utility: Cesar Tovar
Denny Hocking
BEST PLAYERS I HAVE EVER SEEN:
1B: Willie McCovey
2B: Rod Carew
SS: Luis Aparicio
3B: Brooks Robinson
C: Johnny Bench
OF: Hank Aaron
OF: Willie Mays
OF: Roberto Clemente
DH: Mickey Mantle
SP-L: Sandy Koufax
SP-R: Bob Gibson
Closer: Mariano Rivera
BEST PLAYERS EVER:
1B: Lou Gehrig
2B: Jackie Robinson
SS: Honus Wagner
3B: Brooks Robinson
C: Yogi Berra
OF: Ted Williams
OF: Willie Mays
OF: Babe Ruth
DH: Jimmie Foxx
SP-L: Sandy Koufax
SP-R: Walter Johnson
Closer: Satchel Page (yeah, yeah, I know)
Main thing I learned from baseball: Every team should have three catchers, because you never know...
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