Here you go - for serious bidders only

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by Brent G.

I hadn't thought about that dude in decades, so pulled up his Wiki page. This is insane:

The son of a steelworker, Kittle planned to work with his dad after high school, complete with being given his own ironworkers apprentice union card after graduating. However, he was enticed to seek out a tryout camp that was being held in La Porte, Indiana by the Los Angeles Dodgers. An ideal showing from the 18-year-old eventually led to scouts from the team signing him to a contract in 1976, and he would go to play with baseball in Clinton, Iowa. On his first baserunning play trying to score a run, he broke his neck when the catcher landed on him. For the rest of the year, he tried to play on what later diagnosed as a broken neck, complete with three crushed vertebrae and a cracked spinal cord. He had his discs fused while having his spine stabilized. For the next couple of years, he served as an ironworker while trying to build his body back up, trying to defy the expectations of his doctors that said he would never play baseball again (due to his injury, he could no longer hit from both sides of the plate).

A few years later, he took a suggestion to play summer ball, doing so with the American Hellinic Educational Progressive Association. One of his towering home runs went far enough from the park to land on Interstate 294, "500-plus feet away". Bill Veeck, then owner of the White Sox, heard about the home run and gave him a tryout. He signed with the White Sox in September 1978.

Huh, I never knew all of that back story - I started collecting as a kid in 1986, after his flash in the pan had ended but he was still playing.

Surprised that wasn’t turned into a very hastily made TV movie in ‘83-‘84.

[Eric72]

I'm literally laughing out loud.

A thread about a T206 Honus Wagner quickly shifted to a discussion about Ron Kittle.

I certainly did not have that on my bingo card.

[Brent G.]

Originally Posted by Eric72

I'm literally laughing out loud.

A thread about a T206 Honus Wagner quickly shifted to a discussion about Ron Kittle.

I certainly did not have that on my bingo card.

Agreed! But the Kittle talk could go on another 75 posts and still make more sense than where that B/S/T Etiquette thread ended up (and started, for that matter).

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Eric72

I'm literally laughing out loud.

A thread about a T206 Honus Wagner quickly shifted to a discussion about Ron Kittle.

I certainly did not have that on my bingo card.

Hey, if you can't afford to be in the original conversation, make it so you can.

[D. Bergin]

Ron Kittle's 1981-82 stat line between AA and AAA. Pretty crazy. Not just the power numbers, but check out the batting average. Sadly, it didn't quite translate to the major league level past his Rookie year.

You wonder what he could have done if he hadn't had that horrific injury in his early years. He was obviously not a very mobile player. He WAS 2nd in the league in Outfield Assists in 1984...but his Range Factor was pretty non-existent.

I do like that he had 10 triples at AAA though, LOL.

[Brent G.]

This is from Ron's website. The part about who was in the car he hit CAN'T be true ... RIGHT???

I Hated The World. But, because I was the son of a no-excuses ironworker, my dad told me I could either sit on my mommy's lap and cry the rest of my life or I could go back to work and be something in life (that's the cleaned up version). So, I went back to ironworking. Because I was so angry about losing a baseball career, I worked even harder. Looking back on it, it was like I was punishing myself for being hurt. But before I realized it, I got strong, real strong. So you know what I had to do... once again, I had to do what people said I couldn't do. I started playing for a local semipro baseball team.


I was already doing the impossible by just walking up to the plate. I should have been satisfied with that alone. I was hitting balls further than anyone had seen at all of the fields we played. On one particular day in Midlothian, Illinois, at the field off I-294, I hit a towering home run out of the park on to I-294. I'm told it took a shot hitting the ball about 550 feet to do that. As it turned out, the car that the ball hit got off at the next exit and came to the field looking for the guy who hit the ball. Of course, I wanted to hide, because I thought it was someone looking for me to pay for a new windshield or something. But who would have imagined, it was Billy Pierce and Bill Veeck on their way to some baseball banquet. Before I knew it, I was being invited to a tryout for the White Sox organization. That was on a Tuesday.

[commishbob]

Kittle is a friend of a friend who sent along some cards and other things he had signed. The bobblehead is one of only three non-Orioles in my collection.

IMG_5245.jpg

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by Brent G.

This is from Ron's website. The part about who was in the car he hit CAN'T be true ... RIGHT???

I Hated The World. But, because I was the son of a no-excuses ironworker, my dad told me I could either sit on my mommy's lap and cry the rest of my life or I could go back to work and be something in life (that's the cleaned up version). So, I went back to ironworking. Because I was so angry about losing a baseball career, I worked even harder. Looking back on it, it was like I was punishing myself for being hurt. But before I realized it, I got strong, real strong. So you know what I had to do... once again, I had to do what people said I couldn't do. I started playing for a local semipro baseball team.


I was already doing the impossible by just walking up to the plate. I should have been satisfied with that alone. I was hitting balls further than anyone had seen at all of the fields we played. On one particular day in Midlothian, Illinois, at the field off I-294, I hit a towering home run out of the park on to I-294. I'm told it took a shot hitting the ball about 550 feet to do that. As it turned out, the car that the ball hit got off at the next exit and came to the field looking for the guy who hit the ball. Of course, I wanted to hide, because I thought it was someone looking for me to pay for a new windshield or something. But who would have imagined, it was Billy Pierce and Bill Veeck on their way to some baseball banquet. Before I knew it, I was being invited to a tryout for the White Sox organization. That was on a Tuesday.

Yeah, that absolutely didn’t happen that way. That’s some Grade A, Glory of Their Times-level BS lol.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by ASF123

Yeah, that absolutely didn’t happen that way. That’s some Grade A, Glory of Their Times-level BS lol.

……but you WANT it to be true…..don’t you?

Ron Kittle is only a bat carved from a lightning struck tree and a girl in a white dress rooting him on, away from being Roy Hobbs.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by Brent G.

This is from Ron's website. The part about who was in the car he hit CAN'T be true ... RIGHT???

I Hated The World. But, because I was the son of a no-excuses ironworker, my dad told me I could either sit on my mommy's lap and cry the rest of my life or I could go back to work and be something in life (that's the cleaned up version). So, I went back to ironworking. Because I was so angry about losing a baseball career, I worked even harder. Looking back on it, it was like I was punishing myself for being hurt. But before I realized it, I got strong, real strong. So you know what I had to do... once again, I had to do what people said I couldn't do. I started playing for a local semipro baseball team.


I was already doing the impossible by just walking up to the plate. I should have been satisfied with that alone. I was hitting balls further than anyone had seen at all of the fields we played. On one particular day in Midlothian, Illinois, at the field off I-294, I hit a towering home run out of the park on to I-294. I'm told it took a shot hitting the ball about 550 feet to do that. As it turned out, the car that the ball hit got off at the next exit and came to the field looking for the guy who hit the ball. Of course, I wanted to hide, because I thought it was someone looking for me to pay for a new windshield or something. But who would have imagined, it was Billy Pierce and Bill Veeck on their way to some baseball banquet. Before I knew it, I was being invited to a tryout for the White Sox organization. That was on a Tuesday.

That last bit reminds me of something out of Forrest Gump.

[timn1]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Hey, if you can't afford to be in the original conversation, make it so you can.

Nice!, I saw Ron Kittle give a talk on his baseball experiences at Indiana state university about fifteen years ago. He was very knowledgeable and articulate- obviously a bright guy, and he had a great attitude about his career, feeling like whatever he accomplished was worth the struggle.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by timn1

Nice!, I saw Ron Kittle give a talk on his baseball experiences at Indiana state university about fifteen years ago. He was very knowledgeable and articulate- obviously a bright guy, and he had a great attitude about his career, feeling like whatever he accomplished was worth the struggle.

That's awesome. That HR ball I chased down that I mentioned earlier. Turns out that would have been 1981, and I would have been 10 years old.

I was at Muzzy Field with my Cub Scout Pack to watch that game between the Bristol Red Sox and the Glens Falls White Sox. I remember racing my whole Pack to get to that ball. It landed in what was essentially a grove of trees.

After the game my Mom took that ball and burst into the Glen Falls dressing room to get it signed by Kittle. If you knew my mother, that would not have been unusual behavior for her, LOL. She said he couldn't have been nicer...even back then at 22-23 years old or so. I saved it for a little while, and then I ended up smacking that ball around in my backyard, after I had lost all my other extra baseballs in the woods behind the house I grew up in.

Wouldn't have been worth anything now, but I still always kind of regretted that.

Part of the reason I love that Rookie card with Kittle, is the glasses. I played Little League ball at the time, and I wore wrap-around prescription glasses when I played ball, so I kind of related to him in a way.

[Brent G.]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

That's awesome. That HR ball I chased down that I mentioned earlier. Turns out that would have been 1981, and I would have been 10 years old.

I was at Muzzy Field with my Cub Scout Pack to watch that game between the Bristol Red Sox and the Glens Falls White Sox. I remember racing my whole Pack to get to that ball. It landed in what was essentially a grove of trees.

After the game my Mom took that ball and burst into the Glen Falls dressing room to get it signed by Kittle. If you knew my mother, that would not have been unusual behavior for her, LOL. She said he couldn't have been nicer...even back then at 22-23 years old or so. I saved it for a little while, and then I ended up smacking that ball around in my backyard, after I had lost all my other extra baseballs in the woods behind the house I grew up in.

Wouldn't have been worth anything now, but I still always kind of regretted that.

Part of the reason I love that Rookie card with Kittle, is the glasses. I played Little League ball at the time, and I wore wrap-around prescription glasses when I played ball, so I kind of related to him in a way.

AWESOME, Dave, and yeah, that card is ALL about the gold wire-rimmed glasses. It's one of the best cards of the decade.

I just reached out to Ron through his website to see if he'd sign through the mail. I'd like to find a '77 Clinton Dodgers for him to sign.

[ASF123]

Hipster kids wear that type of glasses ironically now.