Three years ago, I lost my Dad. He was 101! During our 76 years together, he passed his love of country and interest in sports on to me, his only child.
One day in the fall of 1956, he said, “Jer, How’d you like to go to New York with me on a business trip?” Obviously, my response was, “Dad, that would be great!”
By way of background, I was born and raised in Indiana and at that time there was very little theater in Indianapolis and no professional sports teams in the state. We only had summer stock featuring Broadway plays from the thirty’s and forty’s and no professional sports franchises. The Hoosier State with Indiana and Purdue and, of course, Notre Dame football, was a hub of college—not professional—sports.
As a result. I had never personally seen a Broadway play or a professional game in person.
As the day of our departure neared, dad said “Son I have tickets to some events in New York that I think we’ll enjoy.”
We saw “My Fair Lady” and a dramatic play called “Raisin in the Sun,” starring a young unknown African American actor named Sidney Poitier, (who eight years later would be the first of his race to win the Best Actor Academy Award) AND… tickets to three World Series games featuring the Yankees versus the Dodgers. (It was to be the last Subway Series as the Dodgers moved to L. A. the next year.)
The plays left a lasting impression on me. My wife and I currently usher in three Montgomery County theaters to this day. But the event that imprints the trip in my mind revolves around the World Series.
We saw the two Series games played in the week we arrived and had tickets for Monday’s game in Yankee Stadium.
My dad was aware that I had a major event scheduled in high school and gave me the choice of going home on Sunday or staying and seeing the game on Monday.
I was one of the two finalists running for Junior Class President and the one and only campaign speeches were to be given by me and my opponent at 10:00 Monday morning!
Shortridge High School was one of the oldest in Indiana with 3,000 students and had some very conservative traditional rules–one of which was that there were only two sets of class officers—Junior and Senior. So this was a big deal for me. I said, “Dad, I don’t think they will vote for me if I am not even there!” He agreed and we sold our tickets to the game and headed back to Indianapolis.
On Monday morning, the speeches took place as scheduled. They were predictably mundane and forgettable. At 3:30 that afternoon my locker mate Elliott Nelson came up to me and said 14 of the most memorable words anyone has said to me in my life. “Have you heard what Don Larsen’s (the Yankees starting pitcher) got going in the bottom of the 7th?”
October 8, 1956, Don Larson, a mediocre pitcher—as confirmed by his 81 win-91 lost-lifetime record– pitched the only no–hit-no-run game in World Series history—without the Udells in attendance!
Thirty years later, I was in Cooperstown, New York on a business trip.
I was walking past a baseball souvenir shop when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a picture of Don Larson and an autographed ball for sale! I decided on the spot I’d pay up to $200 for it. I walked in the shop with my hand on my wallet and nervously asked the clerk, “How much for the Larsen ball?” He replied, “$35.00.” You never saw $35.00 come out of a wallet any faster!
Two months later, on Christmas morning, I gave my dad two presents—one was a plastic baseball stand—the other a baseball signed “Don Larson, October 8, 1956.”
And, oh, by the way, YES, I was elected Junior Class President!