Baseball has been in my blood since I was six years old.
Back in 1960, my father took my brother and me to our first game at the Los Angeles Coliseum where we watched the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Dodgers 5-2. I can still see the right fielders for both teams: Frank Howard for the Dodgers, Roberto Clemente for the Pirates.
I’ve had so many thrills as a fan. I have been privileged to:
*run the bases at a public open house at Dodger Stadium shortly before it opened.
*attend the groundbreaking of Anaheim Stadium on July 31, 1964 … and I kept dirt from the home plate area for years.
*go to the All-Star Game in Anaheim in 1967 … a game that went 15 innings until Tony Perez hit a home run off Catfish Hunter.
*attend various playoff games and two World Series games.
*see games at Wrigley Field (Chicago), the old Comiskey Park (great park!), Fenway Park, Camden Yards, and Yankee Stadium, among many ballparks.
When I was 13, I discovered that every player in the American League was staying at the Grand Hotel in Anaheim – only 3 miles from my house – for 3 road trips every year.
All my friends in our neighborhood discovered this, too.
Including exhibition games, Old Timer games, and that All-Star game, I met players like Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Willie McCovey, Tom Seaver, Al Kaline, Pete Rose, and Rod Carew.
Some were pleasant … others were businesslike … and a few were downright mean (like Early Wynn and Elston Howard), but wow, what a great time my friends and I had growing up!
Years ago, I made a list of my favorite players, and recently condensed it to just 10. I’ll share favorites 10 through 6 today and 5 through 1 next time.
Favorite Player #10: Roberto Clemente
Besides the fact that Clemente played in the first game I ever attended, I admired his flair. He won 4 batting titles … dominated the Orioles in the 1971 World Series … and ended up with exactly 3,000 hits.
I watched him play at Dodger Stadium in 1966 … and what an arm he had! An absolute cannon.
On the Sunday before the All-Star game in 1967, I was at the Grand Hotel waiting for players to check in, and Clemente was spotted walking along the road He looked regal in his blue suit and signed for everybody … maybe 30 people.
Sometime after that, I learned that if you wrote Clemente during the season, he would sign everything you sent him … so my brother and I did just that.
Several years ago, I read most of the book Clemente by David Maraniss, but I can’t finish it because I don’t want to read about Clemente’s tragic airplane death on January 1, 1973 while taking relief supplies to Nicaragua.
Favorite Player #9: Stan Musial
Stan the Man played his entire career for the St. Louis Cardinals, amassing 3,630 hits: 1,815 on the road, 1,815 at home. How’s that for consistency?
I read a biography on his life as a kid and was amazed at his greatness. He won 7 National League batting titles and 3 MVP awards.
Musial’s last year was 1963, and when the Cardinals came to Dodger Stadium that September, the Dodgers announced they were going to hold a Stan Musial Night on Thursday evening.
I was determined to go, even though I was only 9 years old. I asked my dad if we could go, and he said no. But I wouldn’t give up.
Call me stubborn … manipulative … or spoiled … but I WANTED TO GO TO THAT GAME!
So I went to my room and cried … and screamed … and yelled bloody murder. The neighbors must have felt that my parents were engaged in some radical form of abuse.
They finally relented and our entire family went to the game … but we sat so high up that we couldn’t see much.
I only had two encounters with Musial … and was thrilled to get his autograph at the All-Star Game in 1967 after a meeting of general managers.
He was a classy man … and the greatest Cardinal of them all.
That’s why this statue of Stan the Man is in front of Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
Favorite Player #8: Steve Garvey
One Saturday in 1972 – when I was 18 – I drove to San Diego with 2 friends. We visited the Town and Country Hotel because the Dodgers were staying there.
Sometime during the afternoon, Steve and Cyndy Garvey started talking to the three of us. They were SUPER nice. This was long before Steve was an All-Star and Cyndy co-hosted a TV show in LA.
We must have talked to them for 20 minutes. I’ve never forgotten how pleasant they were.
Two years later, Steve Garvey was the regular first baseman for the Dodgers and the Most Valuable Player in the National League … long before he received any bad press.
I admired Garvey’s ability to hit to all fields … dig errant throws out of the dirt … and hit in the clutch. He was always a winner.
In addition, Garvey was always great to his fans … signing autographs … posing for pictures … and acting like he enjoyed it … like in this photo with my son Ryan.
A few years ago, I saw him at a benefit softball game, and told him that I believed he was Hall of Fame worthy. He sincerely thanked me.
Steve Garvey remains a great ambassador for baseball.
Favorite Player #7: Brooks Robinson
To this day, if I ask my friends, “Who were the two nicest players in the American League when we collected autographs?”, they always answer: Harmon Killebrew and Brooks Robinson. And both were superstars.
Brooks was the third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles. He won the American League MVP award in 1964 and the World Series MVP in 1970. He was such a great fielder that he was nicknamed “The Human Vacuum Cleaner.”
I liked Brooks because he was always kind and personable with his fans.
In The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, James rates Brooks the 7th greatest third baseman of all-time … and then goes on to write about nice and not-so-nice players … crowing Brooks The King of Nice Ballplayers.
Here’s one that wasn’t so nice:
Favorite Player #6: Ted Williams
Several years ago, my wife and I visited the San Diego Sports Hall of Fame in Balboa Park. The baseball exhibits focused on two Hall of Fame ballplayers: Ted Williams and Tony Gwynn.
I cried my way through the whole thing.
Ted is a legend in San Diego. There’s even a parkway named after him off Interstate 15.
But Ted Williams … whose mother devoted her life to the Salvation Army in San Diego … was a brutally honest but moody man.
In my view, Ted was the greatest hitter who ever lived. He won 7 American League batting titles … hit 521 home runs (including one in his last at-bat) … and hit .342 lifetime. He also hit .406 in 1941, the last player ever to hit .400 in a single season. (Tony Gwynn hit .394 in 1994 but fell short.) Since he retired in 1960 – the year I became interested in baseball – I never saw Ted play.
On those few occasions I saw him in-person, he had a presence about him. He was movie-star handsome and plugged all kinds of products. But he loathed pitchers … as well as sportswriters.
But when kids were around, The Kid changed completely.
In 1969, Ted became the manager of the expansion Washington Senators. When the team came to the Grand Hotel late in the season, only my brother and I showed up for autographs.
Ted came out late in the afternoon and sat on a shoeshine chair by the pool and starting reading a newspaper. He scared me to death.
But my brother John … who was 13 at the time … went up to Ted and they started conversing. Ted looked through John’s baseball cards … many of which were of Ted himself! Ted probably talked to John for 15 minutes and seemed genuinely interested in him.
I wish I had just one photo of that meeting.
There’s a statue of Ted Williams outside Fenway Park in Boston. It’s hard to see at night, but it shows Ted’s interest in a boy … just like my brother.
I’m fascinated by deeply flawed people who do great things, and Ted certainly falls into that category.
Who are my Top 5 ballplayers of all time? I’ll share that post on Opening Day.
Who are some of your favorite baseball players – and why?
Restoring Kingdom Builders 
My Ten Favorite Ballplayers, Finale
Posted in Personal Stories, Please Comment!, tagged Encounters with Duke Snider, Encounters with Nolan Ryan, Encounters with Sandy Koufax, Encounters with Ty Cobb, Encounters with Willie Mays on March 31, 2014| 2 Comments »
Today is Opening Day in baseball, and hope springs eternal for every fan.
Will the Red Sox repeat as World Champs? Will the Dodgers go all the way instead? And how far will the A’s and Mariners and Pirates and Reds go?
I’m not very good at predicting the future. I’m better at looking back at the past.
So when I think back to 1960 – when my interest in baseball began – I think of players in whom I had a special interest.
Last time, I mentioned 5 of those players: Roberto Clemente, Stan Musial, Steve Garvey, Brooks Robinson, and Ted Williams.
This time, I’ll complete that list. Here are my Top 5 Favorite Players:
Favorite Player #5: Duke Snider
Songwriter Terry Cashman put out a song in 1981 called Talkin’ Baseball in which he mentioned the names of many ballplayers. Having grown up in New York City, he and his friends were enamored with the center fielders for the New York Giants, New York Yankees, and Brooklyn Dodgers: Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and Duke Snider.
During his song, Cashman kept singing about “Willie, Mickey, and the Duke.”
Duke Snider was a left-handed, power-hitting center fielder for the Dodgers. As a kid, I read an article where he noted that he had hit 4 home runs in the World Series against the Yankees on 2 occasions. That impressed me!
When the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, the Duke came along. For years, he lived in nearby Fallbrook.
He hit 407 lifetime home runs – 40 or more 5 years in a row – and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1980.
In 1988, I met Snider at a baseball card convention. The Duke was dutifully signing whatever people put in front of him until I mentioned something I had just read in his autobiography The Duke of Flatbush.
Snider mentioned that he had invited Christ into his life in 1979 and that he and his wife regularly attended worship services and Bible study at their church in Fallbrook.
When I brought this up, Duke stopped signing, brightened up, and talked to me for a few minutes about his faith in Christ. He and his wife had become involved with The Torchbearers ministry and he told me they had flown to England to receive teaching from Major Ian Thomas.
I can’t remember much else of that conversation, but I’ll always treasure that time … and I look forward to resuming that conversation someday!
Favorite Player #4: Ty Cobb
Ty Cobb hit .367 over his 25-year career, winning 12 batting titles, stealing 892 bases, and amassing 4, 191 hits.
He also made a truckload of enemies. Some people believe that Cobb was the meanest player who ever lived.
Normally I don’t like players who are rude and inconsiderate. I knew someone who used to sell newspapers in downtown Menlo Park, California, and he said that Cobb regularly bought a paper from him – and was nasty. (Cobb lived in nearby Atherton for many years.)
But I have 3 reasons for still making Cobb one of my favorites:
*As a kid, I read his autobiography My Turn at Bat, and learned a lot about base running which I incorporated into my game.
*His mother accidentally shot his father (she thought he was an intruder), and Cobb worshiped his father. That wound stayed with him the rest of his life and affected his personality.
*Cobb mellowed somewhat after his playing days and became good friends with Babe Ruth – whom he formerly hated – by playing golf together as documented in the book Ty and the Babe.
I admired Cobb because he used his brains as much as his talent, and because I was never a big kid, Cobb helped me learn how to win by thinking, not just by slugging.
Seven years ago, my son Ryan and I took a trip through the South, and we stopped in Royston, Georgia, where Cobb grew up. We visited the Ty Cobb Museum and his tomb just outside town.
When I was ten years old, I found a gospel tract at my grandfather’s church in Chicago. The tract stated that Ty Cobb had received Christ at the end of his life. While I’ve never seen this bit of information verified, I hope it’s true. (Mickey Mantle received Christ a few days before his death as well.) If so, maybe heaven will truly be a “Field of Dreams.”
Favorite Player #3: Willie Mays
There are many people who believe that Willie Mays was the greatest all-around ballplayer who ever lived. (Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Bonds are also in the conversation.)
He won 2 Most Valuable Player Awards … hit 660 home runs … and could beat you with his bat, glove, or legs.
As a kid, my brother John and I played fast-pitch with a tennis ball in our backyard. He was the Dodgers … I was the Giants … which meant that I got to be Willie Mays.
Even though I was a Dodger fan, I’d check the box scores every day to see how the Say Hey Kid had done the previous day.
In early 1968, I took a picture of Willie and John inside the lobby of the Grand Hotel in Anaheim. We have it … somewhere. I’ll post it if I can ever find it.
I saw Willie in various venues over the next several years, but he became increasingly grouchy.
It’s got to be a burden to be so visible … and to be considered by many to be the greatest player who ever lived. (I’m posing with his plaque at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.)
I got to see him play in person on several occasions … and plan to tell my grandsons all about it!
Favorite Player #2: Sandy Koufax
Growing up in Southern California, I became a Dodgers’ fan, cheering for Maury Wills, Don Drysdale, Tommy and Willie Davis, and anyone wearing Dodger Blue.
But the greatest Dodger of them all was Sanford Koufax.
He won 5 Earned Run Average titles in a row along with 3 Cy Young Awards.
I saw him pitch in-person twice: a 3-hit shutout against the Houston Colt 45s (now the Astros) in 1963, and a 4-2 pennant-clinching victory against the Milwaukee (now Atlanta) Braves in 1965.
In that 1965 game, Koufax set the all-time record for strikeouts in a season: 382.
Koufax won 25 games in 1963 … 19 in 1964 … 26 in 1965 … and 27 in 1966. Here is his plaque at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown:
Every time Koufax pitched, you wondered if he was going to throw a no-hitter. He did throw 4 no-hitters … the last one a perfect game. (My brother John and I listened to it on the radio.)
I can still recall sitting in English Class during the Seventh Game of the 1965 World Series. Koufax had shut out the Minnesota Twins 7-0 in Game 5, and was asked by Manager Walter Alston to pitch Game 7 on only two days’ rest!
In our day, this would never happen with a starting pitcher.
What did Koufax do? He shut out the Twins 2-0 … striking out 10 … and the Dodgers were again World Champs. I bought that game on iTunes. Best $1.99 I’ve ever spent!
Koufax was a magnetic pitcher but came off as a humble and considerate person. He was easy to root for because he seemed surprised by all his success.
When my parents gave me a signed copy of his autobiography one year, it became one of my most prized possessions.
As great as Koufax was, there’s someone I came to love even more:
Favorite Player #1: Nolan Ryan
The first time I saw Nolan Ryan pitch in person, he hit 3 San Francisco Giants in an exhibition game in Palm Springs in 1972.
Like many pitchers, Ryan threw hard but couldn’t control where the ball was going.
He played several seasons for the New York Mets, and then was traded to the California Angels after the 1971 season.
Somehow, Ryan started putting things together in 1972. Every time I opened the Santa Ana Register, Ryan had pitched another shutout … and struck out a bunch of guys.
In 1973, Ryan threw 2 no-hitters. He threw 7 in all … the all-time record, surpassing Sandy Koufax’ record of 4.
After we got married, Kim and I lived in Santa Ana and later in Anaheim. When Ryan pitched, I listened to every game. He often had a no-hitter through six innings.
I’d ask Kim, “Can I go to the ballpark?” (She always said yes.) Back in the mid-1970s, I could drive to the stadium … park my car in the lot for free … and then walk right in when the ushers opened the gates after the seventh inning.
I always hoped to see Ryan throw a no-hitter in person, but I never did.
However, I did get a game ball from one of his victories.
On May 2, 1979, Ryan defeated the Yankees in Anaheim. Rod Carew made the final putout for the Angels, and as he approached the dugout, my friend John asked Carew for the ball.
Carew tossed it to John, who ran up the aisle and gave it to me.
In September 1973, Ryan pitched on a Thursday night against the Minnesota Twins. Many of my friends went to the game that night.
Ryan need 15 strikeouts to tie Sandy Koufax for the all-time record … and 16 to beat the record.
After 9 innings, Ryan had 15 strikeouts … and nothing left in his gas tank … but he got that 16th strikeout on a high fastball thrown past Rich Reese … and he ended up with 383 strikeouts in a single season, the all-time record.
Ryan went on to become a legend. When he was eligible for the Hall of Fame, he received the second highest percentage of votes in history.
Whenever I encountered Ryan, he was cordial. Kim and I once drove to Anaheim Stadium and asked Ryan to sign two posters before a game. They hung on my wall for years.
Back in 1979, I drove down to Palm Springs and caught an Angels’ exhibition game. Ryan was just walking around the stands and then exited the ballpark.
Nobody knew who he was.
I followed him and asked him to pose for a picture for me, which he did. If you see photos of him today, he’s aged a lot.
My father was a pastor, but he was also a big baseball fan. He used to bring my brother and me packs of baseball cards. And when Dodgers like Roger Craig, Don Drysdale, and Maury Wills made personal appearances in our area, he drove us to meet them and get their autographs.
When I was at Cooperstown a few years ago, I took a picture of this painting of a small baseball fan asking for the autograph of the great Pirate shortstop Honus Wagner. If you click on the picture and read the text, you’ll understand why I’ve enjoyed having a connection to these players for so many years. Thanks for reading!
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