[This is from my first Substack column published today: randy baran.substack.com]
Every kid in the 60s played baseball. We lived to go to the ballpark and watch our heroes play. Seeing an All-Star game in person was a dream.
My dad fulfilled that for me – and him. He was a teen in the 30s selling scorecards at Wrigley when Babe Ruth hit his ‘called shot’.
July 30, 1962 was a Monday so Dad was probably on vacation. He never missed a day of work but looked forward to his four weeks off every summer. This was a highlight to say the least. If it was modern times, he’d have made history.
I don’t want to get ahead of myself so here were the lineups for each team:
Dig this – we got to see Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente play in the same outfield in the same game! Let alone Orlando Cepeda started at first. Ernie Banks (hero) came in later as he was a reserve.
We sat in the bleachers; a little to the right of center field. Wrigley hosted a beautiful day – clear sky, warm, comfortable; perfect baseball weather. Btw, I want to point out that both Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were there. Maris started in CF, but Mickey, if I remember, had a minor injury and didn’t play.
But he did take batting practice. I trained my binoculars on the Mick as he took his cuts. On the third swing, he lined one toward center. I followed it – closer, closer.
“Hey Dad, it’s coming right at us!”
The ball bounced off a rail in front of us. My dad, strong and no slouch, scrambled for it. The ball was too fast and scuffed his forehead before a guy behind us got it. Dad was fine. Back then, nobody made a big deal out of anything. No lawyers, no cameras, no drama. He had a little mark, that was it. Two years later, we came home with a bat that Joe Torre cracked and propelled into the third base seats while trying to slug a fastball. Cameras were on me then, but yep, that’s another story.
The AL won massively – 9 to 4, breaking a long losing streak. Each team got 10 hits but the NL couldn’t move runners. And here’s a footnote: Hank Aaron, who was a reserve if you can believe that, also played.
