Wise Up!
Baseball/Softball
By David Bruce
Athens NEWS Contributor
March 17, 2008
• As a child, Donna Lopiano wanted to play Little League baseball. However, when she showed up at the beginning of the season, someone else’s father showed her a rulebook, which stated that girls could not play in the Little League. She attended all the games, convinced that she was a better player than any kid on the field, and she kept playing sandlot baseball. She also bugged her parents about finding a team that she could play on.
Sal Caginello, an old Army buddy of her father, scouted for the Pittsburgh Pirates and was friends with the coach of the World Champion Raybestos Brakettes Softball Team, located in Stanford, Connecticut. Her father got his old Army buddy drunk, and without ever seeing Donna play, he agreed to drive her to Stanford for a tryout with the World Champions.
Sober, he kept his word, but he stayed in the car for the first part of her tryout, afraid that it was going to be a complete disaster. But he watched her play, and he got out of the car and watched. Then he walked closer, by third base, and watched. At the end of the tryout, he was in the dugout, sitting by the coach, who told him that he was the Raybestos Brakettes’ best scout ever. (Donna Lopiano played for the Raybestos Brakettes for three years, from age 16 to 19. She also became a nine-time Amateur Softball Association All-American player as a pitcher, shortstop, first baseman, and second baseman.)
• Bill Corum wrote a human-interest story about Babe Ruth in the June 23, 1927, edition of the New York Evening Journal. A boy named Billy Kennedy had been very ill, and so his father had written to Babe, enclosing a check and asking him to send Billy a baseball autographed, “From Babe to Bill.” Babe immediately sent the autographed baseball — and this telegram: “Tell Billy for me that he must get well and strong and come to Boston to see me play.” Billy did get well, and he did go to Boston, where he hoped to see Babe hit a home run. Babe failed to hit a homer that day, but he promised Billy, “Come back tomorrow and I’ll hit two to make up for it.” The following day, Babe kept his promise.”
• Humphrey Doulens, the publicity manager of coloratura soprano Lily Pons, once had what he thought was a great idea for a story. He told a newspaper in Greensboro, N.C., where Ms. Pons was singing, that she was a great fan of baseball and would be watching the World Series on TV. At first, the newspaper interview went well, with Ms. Pons telling the reporter how greatly she loved baseball. Unfortunately, during a lull in the interview, Ms. Pons asked the reporter about the World Series, “By the way, who is playing?” Nevertheless, Ms. Pons got a favorable front-page story.
• Nat King Cole was an avid baseball fan, and his son, Kelly, was a little jealous of the attention that Mr. King gave to baseball. After a tour that had kept Mr. King away from his family, he returned home, but left almost immediately with his wife to attend a Los Angeles Dodger baseball game. In the ninth inning, the game was tied, and L.A. fans were hoping for a Dodger hit to win the game, but Kelly simply wanted to see his father. Listening to the game on the radio, Kelly said, “Come on, anybody, and get a hit so my mommy and daddy can come home.”
• During World War II, many women did the work that men had formerly done. These Rosie the Riveters worked in factories and did heavy labor. Bill Veeck, owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, took notice when some of these women complained that they couldn’t attend baseball games because they worked the night shift. Therefore, Mr. Veeck scheduled a game for 9 a.m. All women who wore a welding mask or a hard hat got in free, and the ushers served free coffee and doughnuts and dressed in nightcaps and nightgowns.
• A doubleheader in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League of the 1940s and 1950s consisted of a regular game of nine innings followed by a shorter game of seven innings. For one doubleheader, Doris “Sammy” Sams was assigned the short game, and she had thought that she had been given the easy game. However, that game turned into a mammoth struggle that she did not win until the 22nd inning. After the game, Sammy told her manager, “I don’t want to pitch any more seven-inning games—they’re too long!”
• In 1931, Casey Stengel managed the Toledo Mudhens, a minor-league team that was stuck in last place. Because of their losing season, the players had little interest in baseball, so they dozed in the dugout during games. During one game, Casey asked an umpire if he had an alarm clock. Surprised, the umpire asked why he needed one. Casey pointed to his dozing players in the dugout and said, “The boys left a 5 o’clock wake-up call. I want to be sure they get woke up.”
• Just how strong a batter was Oakland Athletics player Jose Canseco? While taking batting practice before a game against the New York Yankees, Mr. Canseco checked his swing, stopping in the middle, but still managed to hit the baseball with such force that it soared over the right-field fence. Mike Pagliarulo, the Yankee third baseman, was amazed, saying, “He checked his swing and hit one of the longest shots I’ve seen.”
• Probably the first woman ever to play regularly for a men’s professional baseball team is Toni Stone, who played in the Negro leagues for the Indianapolis Clowns and the Kansas City Monarchs in 1953 and 1954. Ms. Stone was elected to the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.
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