MLB players who played an active role in your youth....tell us your story

[tedzan]

I grew up in Hillside, NJ and went to the Elizabeth (NJ) school system. In my freshman year (1954), I was the Rightfielder for our High School BB team.
I was mainly a defensive player with a strong and very accurate throwing arm.

From 1952-1985, Frank O'Rourke was a scout for the NY Yankees. Also, he was a very active member of the Union County Baseball Association (based
in Elizabeth).

When in town, Frank visited our H.S. and provided us some great insight on how to play the game. He took the time to give each one of us the benefit
of his experience on how to play our positions. Frank usually attended our games.

As a result, we had winning seasons and were the top H.S. baseball team in Union County back then.



.


Furthermore, you can check out Frank's bio......
http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/017d97b0



TED Z
.

[RaidonCollects]

Great story ted!

I am 14, so I've still got some youth time to go. The player who has played an active role in my youth is a player named Steve Kraly.

He has increased my interest in 50's baseball a lot. He tells me about how you must always sign your signature neatly (not just a scribble *cough* every modern player ever *cough*), I've watched him sign and he takes around 20 seconds signing, making sure every letter is perfect.

His Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Kraly

I'm looking forward to hearing other's stories on this thread

Owen

[Bruinsfan94]

I'm pretty young myself ,(21) but I was a batboy for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League. I had a private lesson with Willie Upshaw once. He was a nice guy but, when my sister (whose husband got me the job) asked how I did I'm pretty sure he just kinda laughed. I always thought that was great because I'm definitely no athlete. I met a lot of great guys when I did it. Most of the players in the league at very least were, in affiliated ball, with a lot getting to triple A and the big leagues. Juan Rincon was awesome. Adam Greenberg might have been the nicest guy I've met. The managers were always pretty cool. Sparky Lyle would always talk to me. The best story I think, was from Andy Etchebarren. This one umpire was being a real piece of work one night and kept yelling at me of all people. He wanted me to be faster which I've never heard an umpire tell a batboy before or after that in my life. I was the away batboy and Etchebarren and some of his guys were getting real mad at the ump. He was really cool to stand up for a batboy and tell me not to worry about and he said other things I cant really type here! A ton of great guys in that league. Without naming any names I will say it seemed like the guys who were the bigger jerks were the ones who had less MLB and upper minor league experience.

[ramram]

Great post.

For me, I'd have to say it was George Brett. Well, it was kinda George Brett. He was the bait anyway. I was at a game with my grandparents when I was about 15 years old. Morganna, aka the Kissing Bandit, hopped out of the stands and ran, well she sorta ran...if you could call it that...with body parts flying in many untethered directions, as she eventually made it to Brett to plant a kiss on his cheek. I was mesmerized for that short bit of time until my grandmother tried to cover my eyes. Thank you George Brett.

Rob M.

Screenink_201511101702.jpg

[tedzan]

Phil Rizzuto

As I've already said, I grew up in Hillside, NJ (1945-1960). Two streets from our home was Phil Rizzuto's home. On the street between our homes
is St. Catherine's Church and School. This School was the meeting-place every Monday night for the CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) meetings.

When Phil was in town, he would join us at the CYO meetings for hours; and, we would be "mesmerized" listening to all his interesting BB stories.
Furthermore, Phil would take a personal interest in everyone of us, advising us, and answering our questions regarding how we could improve our
playing BB.
Folks, I cannot say enough good things about Phil....he was a great inspiration to many of us young kids.












TED Z
.

[Jayjones82]

When I was a kid (probably 10) my dad taught at a high school near Niekro's home. He came by the school one day and my dad struck up a conversation with him. I was fairly new to the card scene (this was around '92) and my dad mentioned something about it to Phil and told him I played. He invited my dad to bring me by his house one day, so my dad took him up on the offer (though I don't know that they'd set a specific date).

We drove up to his house (nice place on a lake) and my dad knocked on the door. No one answered immediately, so we just kinda stood around for a few min. My dad and sister walked down to the lake just to kill a few more min before we left and I started to walk back the car to put away the baseball and cards I'd brought to be signed. On my way back, Phil walks out, calls my dad by name, and proceeds to spend the next 20-30 minutes showing me how to throw a knuckleball, signing some stuff, and just talking. I've see him a few times since and, suprisingly, he's always remembered my name. He does a lot of great stuff for his local community (I can't say enough) and he left me with a great childhood memory.