Just Another Day in the Park

I developed my love for baseball as a kid in the early 50's.  The closest Major League  team, geographically speaking,  was the St. Louis Cardinals.  What I knew about the teams was what I read in the papers or an occasional sports magazine.  Everyone had a favorite team.  Some were Cardinal fans, a lot of Yankee fans, but for me, it was the Brooklyn Dodgers.  I would read the box scores everyday.  In the Sunday paper there was always a listing of all of the statistics.  There was usually a game on TV on Saturday, but I would rather be playing than watching.  Therefore, my connection to the Big Leagues was through the daily newspapers. 

Beaumont had a minor league team and some of those players made it to the "Show". Other than that, my only contact with the Big League teams came sometime in the 50's when the Ralph Kiner led Pirates played some other team at Stuart Stadium, the home of the Beaumont Exporters.  My Dad got me out of school early to go to the game.  I remember Kiner hitting a double off the green fence.

Other than that one occurrence, I had to settle to my daily routine of a bowl of Wheaties and reading the sports page every morning.  At the end of my senior year in high school, in 1962, Houston got a major league franchise and they become known as the Houston Colt .45s.  Major League baseball was only an hour and half away.

It was an impromptu decision that led to my first major league game.  One afternoon Bobby Katz, Gene Coleman, Jimmy Rutledge and myself decided to go to a game. By then we were all in college and had a little more freedom.  Sandy Koufax was scheduled to pitch for the Dodgers.  Jimmy had a new Chevy Corvair so we piled into his car and started the drive to Houston.  Country boys didn't go to the big city very often and there was no IH 10 at that time.  When we got to Houston the traffic was horrendous.  Not to fear, Jimmy had a CB radio and requested shortcuts to any "Good Buddy" that would listen. Nonetheless, we go to the park and bought our tickets.  Since it was "Koufax" and we were late we got SRO seats and sat in the aisle behind home plate. We had missed the first three innings.
The Colt .45s knocked Sandy out of the box in the fifth inning.  But we did get to see him pitch. 

After the game we couldn't remember where we parked and wandered around the park for an hour trying to find that Corvair.  But, we had finally seen a major league game. 

I lost contact with Jimmy over the years.  Bobby recently retired and moved back to Texas after working all over the US.  I moved back to Beaumont in 1980.  Gene, after marrying my next door neighbor and getting his doctorate in kinesiology, has been the Houston Astros Strength and Conditioning Coach for over 30 years.  We never lost our love of the game.

Another longtime friend, Buster Coats, who shared the same passion, but wasn't around to make that first game has worked overseas most of his career.  While planning a trip back to Texas, he suggested that Bobby and me meet up with him for an Astro game.  Gene's wife, Barbara, got wind of our trip and she suggested that we meet Gene and tour the Astro clubhouse and facilities.  We jumped on that offer like a "duck on a June bug" 

This past Saturday Buster, Bobby and myself met Gene and had one of the most enjoyable days I can remember.  We got to walk on the field, tour the dressing rooms, training room, weight room, video room, etc.  Gene was a gracious host and his stories about his years in the Big Leagues was most entertaining.  He reminisced about Yogi Berra, Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, Presidents Bush and  told many other anecdotes from his many years there. 

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After the tour we got to our seats in the Crawford boxes early enough to watch batting practice.  Bobby's wife, Linda, got hit by a ball and the paramedics showed up with ice bags.  The nice young man that caught the ball gave it to Linda. 

In the eighth inning, Barbara, had arranged for the us to be the "Fans of the Game".  We were interviewed by the Fox roving reporter on TV. 

Since that first Colt .45 game, I have seen playoff games, two world series games,  an 18 inning game, games at Oakland, Chaviz Ravine, Fenway, Yankee Stadium, Baltimore, NY Mets, Texas Rangers, Philadelphia and spring training at Phoenix.  I still read the box scores, watch TV games and 100s of college and minor league games.  But, this past weekend with old friends tops them all.