Living in the Town of Watson in 1964 was a slice of Americana now gone forever. With no laptops, video games, and the ability to receive only one channel on our TV, there was not a lot to keep one indoors during the summer.
Thank God there was baseball.
If my brother and I weren't on the side of the house playing imaginary games by fielding ground balls and popups, or playing pitcher and catcher, we were practicing our hitting skills along side the house. Although we tried desperately not to go to right field, the number of windows replaced in my parents bedroom will attest to our inability to pull the ball all the time.
We were actually ahead of the curve on women's rights. Not because we were noble or anything like that, we were pragmatic. Very seldom could you field even 7 players on a side, so the girls were always welcome to play, albeit the last ones picked. Except for Mousey - she could play!
We'd show up at the open field at Petrie's Corners around 9:30 am for the morning session, home for lunch, back around 1:00 pm for the afternoon session, then dinner and a final game of the day until it got too dark to see the ball. Peter & Eleanor Biche owned the bar on the corner where you could get Mallo cups and a soda for less than a quarter, so our concession stand was close at hand if we had the need for refreshment.
Then it was home to listen to the game on the radio.
Some of my earliest recollections are listening to Yankee baseball on the radio. The voice of Mel Allen is a voice that my children will never hear, much to their detriment. There's something about listening to a baseball game on the radio that was magical, and I still love to listen to games when I'm traveling.
By this time you've probably come to the realization that baseball was pretty much all I lived for up until I was 14. If the summer of '64 was baseball, the summer of '65 was girls and life has never been the same since.
My brother Joe and I played on a team called "Young's Yankees", named after Judge Fred Youngs of Lowville. We had one of those seasons where everything just fell into place. We had great pitching and batting averages so gaudy that I still have to look at the newspaper clippings to confirm that we did so well (Thanks Mom!)
We won the regular season title and the Lowville Little League Championship, and then we went on to the Lewis County Fair for the County Championship. There are two things about that game that have stayed with me over the years. First, I can still remember Mr. Kibling (baseball coach at LACS) being the umpire that day. After a swing my first time at bat, he told me I really should hold my bat higher in my stance. I hit the next pitch over the centerfielders head for a home run - so you know why I remember that incident.
The other incident was memorable only because I wasn't killed.
I tried to steal home without the batter being aware that I was coming. Luckily, I was still far enough away as he swung the bat that neither the bat nor the ball caught me in the noggin, much to the dismay of future liberals and my ex-wife.
We won the Lewis County Championship that year. The patch that you see above was one given to every person who participated in the county tournament that year. The item directly below that was something that only the guys on Young's Yankees got - a trip to the fourth game of the 1964 World Series between the Yankees and the Cardinals.
To a young man who had grown up idolizing Mickey Mantle (who didn't - except the Red Sox nation), this was the ultimate. I barely slept the night before and I couldn't wait to get going. I again have only two memories of that day that stick out:
1.) Mickey Mantle won the game in the bottom of the 9th inning with a home run. Although they eventually lost the series, this will forever be my greatest sports moment.
2.) On the way back, I can remember Dave Markham's father and one of the other father's who was driving having a race on the thruway. I'm sure they were drinking sodas at the game and thus were completely sober when they were entertaining us boys with a good old game of "Catch Us If You Can". Forty years after the fact I think it's safe to reveal this now.
So why a recollection of sandlot baseball in 1964?
To get the taste of disgust out of my mouth.
Give Roger Maris back his record, same thing with Hank Aaron and anyone else who owns a "Roid-Record". It is unfortunate that the majority of the evidence is circumstantial and based on the word of an ex-club house worker who's credulity is questionable. In any instance where there is definitive proof of steroid use, penalties need to be imposed.
Baseball needs to make a decision - do you want to play the game as it was intended to be played, or do you let everyone become a chemically enhanced ballplayer.
Actually, they could have two leagues - one for the normal human beings and MLFB - Major League Freak Baseball. Nah - bad idea.
It's a bad idea only because of what it is doing to our children. When my son played football in Amsterdam, there were players on the high school football team who were doing steroids. When he was offered a "whole series" for $40, he turned them down. Since that time there have been numerous arrests in Amsterdam of people he played with who were continuing to supply steroids to high school athletes.
There is the danger, and there is the reason these baseball players need to be severely disciplined. If we fail to do so, what kind of message are we sending to our children?
As a basic rule of thumb, the acronym K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) should apply. If you test positive once for steroids, you're suspended for a year. A second infraction is a life time ban from the sport. There are those who would suggest that the life time ban should apply after the first incident, but think everyone deserves at least one shot to prove that they've changed.
There are massive amounts of money at stake here, that's why the players union has continued to stonewall and drag their feet. In lieu of an essay on how unions are ruining education, sports and manufacturing, suffice it to say that this is one time Congress should stick it's nose in where it belongs. If Bud Selig and the union reps can't put together a program to stop this problem, then Congress must.
You will recall that I opposed the effort by Massachusetts lawmakers to ban spanking. In my opinion, that's a direct interference with the parents right to raise their child as they see fit, barring any physical abuse. In this case, kids have died - many by suicide - because of the effects of steroids.
Therein lies the difference, and the reason Congress needs to keep an eye on what happens in the coming weeks. If Selig and the players can't get it done, we need to get it done for them and make it painfully obvious to every teenage athlete in this country that performance enhancement drugs of any type will never be acceptable!
