Baseball

Baseball/7 April 2022/Lawrence S. DiCara

  I have spoken on many occasions, especially as the baseball season begins, about the important role baseball has played in my life and the lives of our family beginning when I was 8 years old and my grandfather took me to my first game. I still remember the outfield was Jimmy Pearsall who led off and played center, Ted Williams who played left and Jackie Jensen, who played right. Frank Malzone played third base; Sammy White was the catcher and batted 8th. The pitcher I recall was named Frank Sullivan, who was traded for Gene Conley. It was then considered the tallest trade in the history of baseball, since both of them were 6’6” or 6’7”. Gene Conley also found a way to play for the Celtics while he was in Boston. 

That baseball game with all the ice cream involved led me on a path to hundreds of games over the next 60+ years. I went to the All Star Game in 1961 with my brother. I went to the All Star Game with two friends in 1999 and saw the greatest players of the 20th Century gather around Ted Williams in his golfcart as if he were some god; perhaps he was.  He was the greatest hitter who ever lived.

Vinny and I would walk to Franklin Field to play Little League. I wasn’t very good, but then, I could not wear my glasses because back in those days glasses were made of glass and would break. Vinny was an extraordinary drag bunter, would lead off, put the ball in a place where neither the second baseman nor the first baseman nor the pitcher could get there. They knew it was coming and half the time he still made it to first base!

Grandpa loved baseball because it was part of the way he became an American. He would shut the barber shop on Wednesdays and often go to baseball games, initially with my mother and then with me and Vinny right before he got sick.

As I recall, he wore a straw hat to the game, which most men did, and dressed up much more than we did, but then we were 6 and 8 years old. 

Vinny and I would play baseball almost at the drop of a hat. I remember once we went during February school vacation in our winter coats and galoshes and my lord, did the bat hurt – and it was a wooden bat – when we hit the ball.

These are good thoughts that we should have as we begin the season, notwithstanding all the delay caused by greed and stubbornness. We should also focus on the very significant possibility that the Red Sox infield will hit over 100 home runs!