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Posted By: Peter Thomas

In 1960 the day before my birthday I attended a tryout with about 50 greater Boston locals at Fenway. Back then teams had territorial draft rights and I think they tried out most anyone who had finished high school and had held a bat. After some preliminary batting practice about 15 of us got to hit against Red Sox pitchers. I got Bill Monboquette, the first five pitches were groved fastballs and I hit them all well including on into the net and one twothirds of the way up the wall. After that Mombo looked at the guy running the tryouts and he nodded to him. The next pitch was headed for my left ear and was over the plate while I was sitting on my .ss. I had never seen anything like that and it scared me to death. I spent the rest of that summer digging cellars by hand for our next door neighbor instead of playing the Cape Cod League. Several people at that tryout did make it to the "show" Butch Reniack, Pete Smith and Wilbur Wood. Mombo was a very good pitcher for some really bad Sox teams - struck out 17 twice and pitched a no hitter. Three months later as a freshman @ MIT I walked to the park after my last class and saw Williams hit his last HR. Bonds has been amazing, but Williams was the best hitter I ever saw and yes major league pitching is scary as hell even as thin as it now is.

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