Oldest Living Major League Ballplayer?

[batsballsbases]

I wanted to post about a great day that I had with Mike Sandlock. Im very good friends with his son so I asked him if I could come over and have a nice talk with his Father. Well let me tell you what a time I had! There couldnt be a nicer man to speak to and at coming to 97 let me tell you he had some of the best stories to tell. He talked about Jackie Robinson and how he came up and became a friend of Jackies and golfed with him for many years after baseball. And at 97 he still tries to golf at least 5-6 holes a week! I asked him who was his best influence upon him as he came up and he said Bill Dickey. I asked him which pitchers he thought were some of the best that he caught he said Spahn, (told me he caught him when he was young in the 3 I league they both came up in 42) Don Newcombe,Allie Reynolds, and Carl Furillo. He made a joke about when he came up in 1942 and had 1 at bat and singled he said I batted 1000 that year! Said he loved his time playing in the Pacific Coast League for the Hollywoood Stars best time of his life, I was able to see alot of the country and his oldest son was the bat boy for them and the Boston Braves. I asked him if he had ever been hurt and he told me all about how his career ending injury and if it wasnt for the Pirates doctor puting him in the hospital and draining his knee (he said it looked like custard) when they needled it out that the infection was so bad that he might have lost his leg. I could go on and on as we talked for about 2 hours. I asked him to sign a few things for me and I think he was quite thrilled that I asked him ,he signed me a pile of 3 by 5 cards. Sorry Richard no COAs but I think the picture tells the story! We took some pictures at what he calls his memory wall! That catchers glove on the wall is one that he invented and used to catch some of the pitchers knuckle balls or Flutter balls as he called them. He still has some of his items as you can see on the wall and some nice signed photos and scrap books you can see piled up in the picture. I asked him if he still had his Uniforms from any of the teams and he said no that he had sold them years ago! By the way he is a man of modest means. I can tell you I hated to end the conversation but I think he got a great thrill out of someone younger being able to talk to him about 40-50s ball players. I held my own fairly well! But what a gentleman and great guy I met today. I do plan on going back and doing a tape recording of him because some of the stories would be ashame to lose! Also some photos of Mike and his wall! All in All Mr Sandlock is truely a great guy to talk to.