Mine is a little different...
One of my regular customers at my previous job (a bank) a few years ago was Don Thompson, who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers from '50-54. He came in once every week or two and met with me for about an hour or so. At the time, I wasn't really interested in baseball so even though a couple of times we talked about the WS ring he still wore, I never asked him about his playing days (I knew he was more of a "second stringer"). I just didn't realize at the time some of the stories he could've told me. Here's a story Don told that was printed in an online obituary for him when he died two years ago. This is from Game 4 of the '53 World Series:
"Clem Labine was pitching, he came in for relief. Billy Martin was on second base with two outs. Mantle hit a line drive over Pee Wee’s head. He was hitting left-handed, so I was playing him a little around towards right. He hit the line drive and of course Martin took off, there being two outs. Anyway, I saw Martin running, [3rd base coach] Frankie Crosetti was waving him home. I looked up and I turned it loose. Billy Cox let it go or it would have hit him right in the head. It was about that high. Campy had him by several feet. Martin bent over and tried to knock Campy down. Campy sidestepped him with the ball in his mitt, hit him under the neck and turned him a flip. That was the last out of the game. I replaced Jackie Robinson both games. He could handle the outfield pretty well, but he wasn’t used to it."
So I missed out on verbal memorabilia which, IMO, is priceless.
Last edited by scmavl; 10-05-2011 at 08:44 AM.
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10-05-2011, 08:41 AM
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