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Originally Posted by MacDice
Over the past few years, I have become friends with one of Earl Averill's sons. Really fun to listen to him tell stories about his dad as well as looking through old photo albums and boxes of newspaper articles. In particular, I have always been interested in the All-American baseball tour to Japan (with Moe Berg, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, etc…) and he had a lot to share with me about it. A connection with the past that is slowly disappearing.
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I'm glad I learned a bit about the tour from Joe Cascarella. After the Mechanical Man's death in early '93, Croonin' Joe was, as he put it, "The Last of the Mohicans". He seemed such an odd selection for the TOJ team, being a rookie that same year. Following his baseball days, Joe trained thoroughbred horses and ended up in a financially comfortable position. He had a personal secretary up until the day he died. She would type/write all of his correspondence, but he would sign anything that was requested of him. Joe was a very erudite fellow--I think he was an autodidact more than anything else.