Mick's Baseball Stories

How many of you remember the old Brooklyn Dodgers National League baseball team? How many of you were Brooklyn Dodger baseball fans? How many of you remember Carl Erskine, pitcher for the Dodgers back in the 50s? How many of you were allowed to listen to or watch New York Yankee and Brooklyn Dodger world series day games while still at school? I do, I was, I do and "we" were and did. I remember a particular Dodger - Yankee afternoon world series game that we listened to in a basement class room (which is now buried under a couple of trees just outside the Tee-ball diamond right field fence) of the old Parker School. That particular game, Carl Erskine beat the Yankees and broke the old strike out record for a world series game. Back in my jr. high and high school days when baseball players were super heroes, I was always impressed that Carl Erskine was from Anderson, Indiana. (It was on his baseball card, and I do wish I still had all my old Brooklyn Dodger baseball cards, Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Carl Furillo, Roy Campanella, Carl Erskine.) Anyway, a super hero of the Brooklyn Dodgers was from a city so near to little Parker City. Way back in time, Parker had a baseball team that played in the East-Central Indiana, summer, independant baseball league. The team was known as the Parker Booster Club. Games were mostly played on Sunday afternoons at the various diamonds of the participating cities and towns. The Parker games were played on the high school diamond which was located in left field of the present-day "south" little league diamond. In fact, home plate was located very near the present-day left field fence foul pole. A hard hitting left handed batter back then would hit homers that would land in the present-day "north" diamond. A hard hitting right handed batter would hit homers into the top of the trees across the county road on the west side of the little league ball field. Before I was born (or even thought of) my dad played with this Parker team for a while, he told me later. He also told me that he had played ball with Carl Erskine as Carl Erskine had also played with that Parker team. Wow! Dad was a pitcher and so was Carl. But when Carl came to pitch, dad played center field. (Maybe that's why I always loved to play center field.) In all those years since high school, I often wondered - was that really true? Was dad kidding me? Of course not, my dad wouldn't kid me about something like that...but, well, I want to know...for sure. I kept thinking if I were to attempt to make contact with the Erskines at Anderson as Carl had long retired from baseball and was back in Anderson, he may remember those days and re-affirm those stories of old. Well I never did try. Instead, I "recently" thought "why not ask some of the "old timers" here in town." (Listen to ME calling folks Old Timers.) So I did and did I hit the jackpot right away! "Oh yes" was the result of my first quiry. Carl would come pitch when Parker was up against a particularly good team, Longtown, Ohio for instance. Parker usually won easily as the opponents would usually get only a run or two off Carl. Carl's name was included on the team roster for the games he would be called on to pitch. One Parker player by the nickname "Pants" Hunt knew the Erskines and would go to Anderson to bring Carl back for those "important" games. I got my affirmation right here in town from the old-timers. So Yes! It seems Carl Erskine, pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, did indeed play baseball with my dad and Carl Erskine did indeed play baseball on the grounds of our present-day little league baseball and softball diamonds.
And it also seems that Carl was still in HIGH SCHOOL at the time.
I still miss my dad and his baseball stories.
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After high school, I even played on the Parker Booster Club team for a few years until the baseball league dissolved as softball leagues began to form and gain popularity. A picture of one of the last of the old Parker teams can be found on my web site Sports Pages. Many faces in the picture can still be found around town.
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My senior year of high school I continued to play center field and even pitched a little for the first time. Unfortunitly I threw my arm away with a tennis ball some years earlier as we would play pitcher/batter against the back side of our old garage/barn behind the house on Fulton St. The barn is still there and I bet the broken and split boards that had a strike zone marked on them and had been pounded by thousands of pitches are still there too. Anyway, I didn't have a fast ball anymore but that tennis ball sure taught me how to throw a curve. Trouble was, the curve ball was harder to get over the plate than my "slow" fast ball. If I threw the fast ball they would kill us. If I threw the curve ball, I would walk a lot. I would always judge how well I pitched each game not by strike outs or how few runs I had allowed, but by how FEW batters I had walked.
And I remember my best game ever. I walked only ONE batter - but the big left hander batting after him knocked my "slow" fast ball halfway to Fairview, and I got beat 2 to 1.
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I also remember, I believe as a junior in high school, our high school team winning the summer baseball championship. I think I have a picture of that team on the Sports Page too. I didn't pitch as a junior. They sure didn't need me with Bud Murphy on the mound. We were in the championship game with Winchester at the Winchester diamond at the park. (The wooden, enclosed bleachers and all. Are they still there?) The game was close but we were leading. Winchester rallied at the end and after a long fly ball over my center field head sent several Winchester runners heading for home and a win, well.. Remember I had thrown my arm away earlier with the tennis ball. Our left fielder was senior Bob "Red" Vining. Bob was a freckled, red-headed, left hander who could stand in deep center field in nearly any ball park and throw the ball over the back stop. Whenever a deep ball was hit my way he would always come over to center where I could flip it to him and he would whing it into the infield. That particular day at Winchester he came over to center after I had chased down the ball and I flipped it to him. He fired a perfect throw to home plate from deep center to nail a runner and save the game. The next day in the Winchester paper, the article told how the "rifle arm" throw from center fielder Mick Deckman had saved the game.