Did you ever meet one of the T206 players ?

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Posted By: Peck

Frank "Homerun" Baker was the first pro ballplayer that I ever met. He rode at the head of our opening day little league parades in 1956 thru 1958. At the end of the parade at the ball field some of us boys would sit on the bleachers and talk with him about his life baseball. After that first year as the opening day little league parade was assembling we would always watch for Mr. Baker to show up. It was so exciting. Every time I watch "Field of Dreams" I think of those early talks with Frank Baker and the questions I would have for him now, if we only had 15 more minutes.

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Posted By: Jeff Mohler

Having just finished a biography of Home Run Baker a day or two ago, can I assume that you are from Maryland's Eastern Shore? It sure seemed from the biography that he was a nice, unassuming gentleman.

Jeff

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Posted By: T206Collector

...the best I can do is listen to the Glory of Their Times CDs and imagine I'm in the room during the interviews with Marquard, Snodgrass and Meyers.

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Posted By: Peck

Jeff

I am from the Eastern Shore. I live about 8 miles from Frank Baker's old home in Trappe and ride by it often, stopping to sit once in a while. I remember Mr Baker as being a really nice person. Jimmie Foxx's home town was about 45 miles away, but I don't remember seeing him as a boy.

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Posted By: John H.

"...the best I can do is listen to the Glory of Their Times CDs and imagine I'm in the room during the interviews with Marquard, Snodgrass and Meyers."

Same here, in fact I'm on disc 3 right now. I just finished meeting Smoky Joe Wood for the umpteenth time. His stories are getting quite familiar to me but, hey, he's 117 years old now.

John

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Posted By: Doug Moore

Cd's? I didn't know there were cd's of Glory of Their Times. There actually was a vinyl album of those recordings for the book. It has a great picture of Matty warming up on the cover. The voice recordings of these players is priceless.

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Posted By: T206Collector

....I've got them all on my iPod!

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Posted By: jay wolt

Peck - Pretty impressive to have Home Run Baker talk with you.

I have a few photos of Baker as well as an official copy of
the letter that the Maryland govenor wrote to Mr Spinks of the
Sporting News to have Baker inducted in the Hall Of Fame.
It must have worked as he was inducted the following year.
I picked up all the photos & letter here on N54 several months ago.

The picture below is probably from the mid - late 1950's when you
saw him.

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Posted By: Peck

Jay

That's a great photo and the letter content is super! Thanks so much for posting it. Frank Baker's entrance into the Hall in the summer of 1955 is what made our little parade so special in the spring of 1956.

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Posted By: Jim Harkins

Something that has haunted me for years. As a young boy in the 50's living in North Philadelphia, two blocks from Connie Mack Stadium, a regular visitor to my Moms real estate office was an old man named Ira. Ira was short, unimpressive, not interested in me or I in him. He was always dressed in a sport coat and tie with a hat. he would come onto our front porch and sit and ask if my mon was in. If she wasn't busy, she would come out and talk to him. Many years later after I was married and mom was over for dinner, I showed her some of my baseball cards. Suddenly she says: " There's Ira"! Who? Ira Thomas. Its been bugging me my whole adult life that I missed this opportunity to have had conversations with Ira Thomas about the great Philadelphia teams and the great players that Ira played with. I can't forget this. If there is one thing that I would change in my life, it would be to spend some time talking baseball with Ira Thomas.

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Posted By: John H.

"Cd's? I didn't know there were cd's of Glory of Their Times."

Doug, I own the CD and cassette versions. They're the same but I wanted to have the bases covered...no pun intended. Every vintage baseball fan should have the audio version of the book in their collection. It includes a lot of material that didn't make it into the book.

John

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Posted By: Rich Klein

One of the very first books I ever owned was this one and I somehow convinced mom that it was a good deal to shell out the $2 extra (like I actually remember) for the album to go with the book.

Wish I still had both

Rich

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Posted By: Sean Coe

I talked to Rube Marquard on the phone once. I wanted to interview him for a project I was doing in high school. He didn't want to meet, was a little grumpy at first(I don't blame him) but eventually answered a few of my questions.

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Posted By: MVSNYC

cool...

what did he have to say?

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Posted By: Jim Dale

Still lives near Modesto, CA where I'm from. He joined my dads hunting club when I was younger - the guys at the club almost black balled him due to some "attitude" issues. But he seemed like a nice guy to me when I met him as a teenager.

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Posted By: John H.

Cy Young still lives in Modesto??? Maybe his great grandson, Cy IV, or am I missing something?

The grumpy Rube Marquard story reminded me of Larry Ritter's introduction to the taped interview with Rube on the Glory of Their Times CD's. Apparently Rube wanted to know where the book royalties were going to go before talking to Ritter. Marquard's wife stepped in and told him to smarten up.

John

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Posted By: MVSNYC

I believe Jay Wolt owns several player's royalty checks from "Glory of Their Times"...

Jay?

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Posted By: Jim Dale

sorry it was his eldest son not "him"

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Posted By: John H.

Even his eldest son must be 100, no?

John

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Posted By: Jim Dale

...was 70 + when I met him

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Posted By: Tom Hufford

I made my first trip to Cooperstown in 1971, for the induction ceremony and for the Founding Meeting of SABR. Someone told me the place to go was the Otesago Hotel, where the players stayed. So I went over there and found a chair in the lobby - there is absolutely no way you could do that now! An old fellow walked by, and someway I figured out it was Rube Marquard, there for his HOF induction. I asked him if he would sign my copy of "Glory of Their Times," and he said he would be glad to, if he could sit down first. So, he sat down, signed my book, and then we chatted for a while. Then he said "Do you mind sitting here for a few minutes? I'll go up to my room and get something to show you." Of course, I said yes.

After a few minutes, Marquard came back with a large scrapbook that he (or someone in the family?) had kept during his career. He sat down and went through every page of that scrapbook with me, it must have taken a couple of hours. I sure wish now that I had had a tape recorder! When I got home, I wrote Marquard and thanked him, and we exchanged Holiday cards for several years after that.

So, while some others on this board may have run into a grumpy Marquard, I sure didn't!

On that same trip, I also met T206er Zach Wheat, and Harry Hooper and Larry Gardner, who weren't in T206 but made it into the T207 set.

Tom Hufford