THE TENTH INNING

THE TENTH INNING.
I had anticipated seeing Ken Burn’s documentary on baseball for quite a while. This week I finally got to see the two episodes. I never thought that I would get tired of seeing the “home run swing”. But, during the two showings, I got “homered” out. The fact that HGS provided the “oomph” for a lot of them, didn’t help. I think the traditional- role model athlete is a thing of the past. The millionaire prima donnas, of today’s sport world, are a poor substitute for my old heroes!
Pete Rose has been denied entrance into the Baseball Hall of Fame, because of a character flaw. The same reasoning should be used to exclude the baseball players who are guilty of using performance -enhancing drugs.
This documentary wasn’t a total loss, for it had many redeeming features. It covered many stadiums and players that I had either seen in the ball parks, or on many of the old TV shots that were used in this documentary. Having lived near three American League cities (Detroit, Cleveland and Oakland), I was naturally an American League fan - for as long as I can remember. My memory is still clear, even though it covers about 82 years since I saw my first major league baseball game. We were living in Hillsdale Michigan during the 1920’s. When I was about 8, my Dad took me to Detroit( 100 miles), to see the Tigers play, at Navin Field on Michigan Avenue. This was an all- day outing - on a Sunday. I said that my memory is good, yet, I can’t remember who the Tigers played on that day. (strange!).
We started out early in the morning. My Grandpa Flood, my Mom’s dad, was also along. I don’t even remember having a flat tire, to or from the game. My grandpa owned the 1927 Chevrolet touring car, but he didn’t drive. My Dad drove, but he didn’t own a car. So it was a great reciprocal combination. I do remember one harrowing experience on our way to Detroit. We were “speeding” (probably at 35 mph) in the Irish Hills (on highway 112), when a strap - holding the fabric top to the header of the windshield - broke. The top went swooshing back. Thinking back, it is a wonder that my Dad controlled the car. I don’t remember how he fixed it, but soon we were off again to Detroit. An aside. The touring car had curtains, with eisen glass little windows. In nice weather, the curtains were stored under the rear seat - with the air pump and tube repair kit. So, if it started to rain, my Dad would stop the car, and my Mom and grandmother would have to get out, so that my Dad could remove the curtains. The gas tank was beneath the front seat. So, before a trip my Dad would take a flat -wooden stick, which was calibrated to read out in “gallons”. He would dip the stick into the tank to see how much gas remained. When we got gas, everyone had to leave the front seat, in order to access the neck of the tank.
Back to Detroit and baseball. While I don’t remember much about the game that Sunday, so long ago, I do remember my Dad keeping score as the game progressed. He showed me his technique, including all of the symbols for “strikeouts”, “base on balls”, “errors” etc. I tried his system, for a few games, after I started going to the games alone. It certainly forces you to pay attention to what is going on down on the field. My problem was that I would lose my concentration, and start watching the fans and vendors instead of scoring. So, finally I had to forget keeping track of every play, and let my attention wander as it pleased.
Viewing the documentary was quite interesting and fascinating, because I had seen so many of the players mentioned, actually playing. I go back to having actually seen the following players play - Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Lefty Grove, and Bob Feller, who was the best right-handed pitcher that I ever saw. Feller was born 8 days before I was. I saw him pitch as a rookie in 1936, in League Park in Cleveland. He was only 17! (In his first big league game before this, he struck out 17 batters - at 17 years of age!). I saw many other old-time stars, also.
Of course, I have seen many of the modern baseball stars. I enjoyed having a Week-day Season Ticket to the Oakland Athletics games in Oakland, for about 15 years. I saw the following players (may of whom were mentioned in the documentary) at the Oakland Coliseum, or at Candlestick/Pac Bell Parks - Reggie Jackson, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Billy Martin, Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Vida Blue, Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriquez, Derek Jeter, Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemons. While I never saw Ty Cobb run the bases, I have seen Rickey Henderson steal many bases. He was by far the best base stealer that I ever saw.
A couple of baseball highlights of mine were that I got to see two World Series games. The first was the Detroit Tigers playing the Cincinnati Reds, in the fall of 1940, at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. I was living in Ypsilanti, and “sweating out” being drafted, prior to World war II. The next - and last World Series game that I saw - was in 1972, 1973 or 1974, when Oakland was the American League Champion all three years. I was working for California and Hawaiian Sugar Company at their corporate office in San Francisco. While I remember my boss, Ken Black, inviting me to accompany him, I don’t remember which National League team Oakland played.
An aside: While living in Berea, in 1936, my Dad took me to an exhibition football game in the new Cleveland Municipal Stadium on the waterfront. What an ideal and pretty setting - right on the shore of Lake Erie. I was really impressed with the huge size of the facility. It held 78,000 people for baseball games and 81,000 for football! Today, that would seem small compared to the University of Michigan stadium in Ann Arbor, which seats 110,000. The Chicago Bears were playing the Cleveland Browns. Red Grange was the star of the Bears. He was a great runner - the best that I have ever seen - even at the tail end of his pro career. I only wish that I had seen him play when he was a student at the University of Illinois, where he ran wild against other teams in the Big Ten.

After viewing the Ken Burn’s Special on TV, I had a bad taste in my mouth. I was really disappointed that professional athletes would abuse their bodies with performance enhancing drugs, to promote their fame and fortune. To make matters worse, some denied using steroids - even under oath! Reinforcing my view was the disgraceful acceptance of such an ugly culture by the Commissioner of Baseball, and the powerful players’ Union. Our Society, in general, and Sports in particular, took one in the gut - motivated by vanity and greed - by thoughtless egomaniacs. A black day for America indeed!
RCL - 10/1/10
10/2/10
10/3/10.