Your best "baseball talk"?

[btcarfagno]

I wish I knew his name. He was our mailman when I was growing up. He used to come up onto our porch and sit with me every once in a while and tell me the stories of playing in the negro leagues against Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson and some others I had never heard of at the time and have since forgotten. But I can vividly remember sitting there on the porch, my mom or dad would get him a glass of lemonade. Usually I was probably playing stickball or wiffle ball or catch in the front yard...so he just took a break and would talk to me about playing back in the day. I wish I could remember more of the particulars of what he said, but I was maybe 6 or 7 at the time. I just remember how fascinated I was about what he was telling me. And what a good, kind man he was.

Tom

[Bob Lemke]

Working for SCD all those years I had many conversations with contemporary and former ballplayers.

The most memorable was two hours spent with the Cardinals' first black player, Tom Alston. It was in his room at the Holiday Inn in Bridgeton (sp?) where the old St. Louis shows were held. Must have been late '80s. He was, quite literally, mad. I never wrote up the interview, but I have my notes somewhere . . . maybe some day.