Posted By:
JulieCongrats of the hit, Ben!
Every year, Mark Macrae gathers together old time PCL players (I Mean OLD--like from the 40s and 50s) at the Oakland Museum for a reunion. Part of the program consists of three of four old guys sitting behind a table, on a stage, and just talking, and then fielding question from the audience. I'm never heard anything so funny in my life. Everyone in the audience has tears streming down their faces...not the least of our enjoyment is the willinglness of these old guys to share their experiences.
Roger Kahn reports that travelling the with Brooklyn Dodgers in '52 and '53, there was nothing like listening to players talk to each other--it was like magic.
"...but it was magic among the ballplayers. In the aisles. outaside their roomettes, you could hear ballplayer talk that was alive and rich and angry and grim ansd funny.
"If that son of a bitch Maglie throws at my head again, I break my bat across his ****ing dago head." (Carl Furillo)
" So I says to Augie Guglielmo, the little ump, "Augie, I ain't spoke to ya in two months, but I just want ya to know I still think you're horse****." (Preacher Rowe)
"Couple years ago he's in a jam and got Kiner up and he throws three of the wettest spitters you ever saw. And do you know what Kiner said after he fanned? He says, good and loud, "Your curve gets better every year." Ol' Ralph never even winked." (Carl Erskine)
"Get me some money, gonna fix up my house. You know what I'm gonna put up? A goddamn fence. ****it." (Billy Cox)
"When I was in Oakland, THERE was some ballplayers..."
Someone started to sing. The voice was twanged but warm. In the car you heard it resound:
...From the fields there comes the breath of new-mown hay; Through the sycamores the candle lights
are gleaming,
On the banks of the
Waa-bash
Far
A
Waaaay.
"The Boys od Summer," Roger Kahn.