Daily Dose | Growing Up Then and Now | A father's stories for his sons

Kieran & Maxine’s Stag/Stagette Party

Posted on July 15, 2024 by AndyDawkins

Kieran & Max’s Stag/Stagette Party [Into Extra Innings]

Pres. Taft at the ballpark

At every nine inning baseball game (high schoolers and Little Leaguers and softballers only play seven innings), all the fans stand up and stretch and sing “Take Me Out to the Ballpark.” I’ve never been to a nine inning game where this didn’t happen – it’s a rock solid baseball tradition that goes back to President Taft days. Legend has it that our overweight President was in attendance and just after the conclusion of the top of the 7^th decided he needed to stretch. When he stood up all the fans in attendance stood too, and ever since there’s been a 7^th Inning stretch in the middle of the 7^th.

Believing that some of you baseball fans never want the game to end, let’s go to extra innings. Let me tell you about Kieran & Max’s Stag/Stagette Party……

…… Kieran & Maxine are a couple of the lifelong friends I’ve met through baseball. Kieran has been the shortstop on our Bluebirds team since 1980. 2023 will be his 43rd straight season – Minnie Minosoesque. For the first 25 years I played behind him in the outfield, but I’ve slowed down lately and no longer have the arm I once had, so now I play first base.

Maxine went to Southwest State with Jane (Minton) and Dave, who were already friends from growing up in Belle Plain. Shortly after college, Dave fell in with an Irish Dancing – Celli crowd and moved into a duplex in St. Paul known for its progressive politics and, in particular, its stance on the IRA. Soon Jane and Max moved into the other half. By the time I arrived on the scene (from law school out east) there were three single men living on Dave’s side and three single women living on Jane’s side, all with the kind of politics I was hoping to find upon returning to Minnesota – especially the ballplaying / “if I can’t dance, I won’t join your revolution” kind of politics. (For how I got in touch with this group, read the story “Riff Raff Freight Hopping.”)

At any rate, Maxine went to an Irish dance with Jane, met Kieran, and this led to Kieran (a ballplayer) meeting Dave (also a ballplayer) and the rest is history – except the party we had at the duplex in honor of Max’s saying yes to Kieran’s marriage proposal. From the get-go there was no way this would just be a stag party for men only. We loved having women around and we were all for equality. And on the women’s side they certainly believed they were the equal of us. So it was a Stag/Stagette Party (although that’s not what we called it then – it was only after the men acted a lot like it was a stag party that it’s been referred to as such).

Jane & Maxine invited all their friends and Dave & Kieran invited all their friends. When a poker game started up on Dave’s side (happened to be only men), the non-players began to drift to Jane’s side. A little later Jane came over and complained it was starting to look too much like “the women gathering in the kitchen” type of a party – “Come on you guys, let’s have some fun together.” This prompted one of the poker players (who shall remain anonymous) to suggest (after Jane left): “Hey Guys, let’s take all our clothes off and play naked for the next time they show up.”

When we did this, some of Kieran’s friends just plain cleared out – not just going over to Jane’s side, but leaving the party altogether. The poker game continued intact; all of us acting as if we were dressed normally. The next time Jane came over to check on us, she couldn’t believe her eyes! And dashed back to the other side to spread the word. Quite a few party-goers of both sexes came over to witness the scene for themselves. Soon we put our clothes back on and everybody started dancing.

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END OF GROWING UP – sorry folks, that’s it for daily doses – THANKS for being readers.

Nicky Mantle [The 9th Inning]

Posted on July 12, 2024 by AndyDawkins

Another reason to get married was to have kids. Jack was born with Ellen’s tiny wrists. Nick has his Grandpa Rinkema’s genes – Grandpa Rinkema wore size 16 shoes. When they were both just old enough to play baseball I had nicknames picked out already: Jack Ruth and Nicky Mantle. And I’ve enjoyed coaching them and their friends on how much fun baseball is.

When Jack was 8 and Nick 6, Nick was big enough and good enough to “play-up.” Playing-up is when a younger kid plays organized ball with an older cohort. I’ve always been a bit leery of “organized baseball” and its adult influence. All I really wanted for my kids was to play with their friends without any adults present, without any pressure to perform well in the eyes of a coach, without any umpires to make the calls – figure out for yourselves who’s safe, who’s out, what’s fair.

The very enlightened suburban Chicago town I grew up in banned Little League* for these very reasons. Instead we had the “Western Springs Recreation Program” where the kids got together and picked their own teams for the summer, played a full schedule of games in the mornings (sans official uniforms and adults), and paid high school kids to be the instructors and umpires, but not coaches. My age group was a particularly talented bunch and we did form a traveling all-star team to occasionally play Little League teams in other towns – I remember one game we won 51 – 3 in three innings. So there was some regret that we never had the chance to be an official team that might make it to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA. My belief that we were good enough was vindicated when my high school team won the state championship – but that was without me – see Broken Heart story between 1^st and 2^nd Innings.

40 years later, Jack& Nick, my kids, are eager to be ballplayers, but a group of kids playing unorganized ball has gone the way of playing pepper – it just isn’t much happening. No more neighborhood schools to walk to and play before the school bell rang. Moms not wanting kids to go to the ball field (six blocks away) unsupervised after school.

But I tried to fight all that. Me, Babe, Nicky and the neighbor kid playing in the front yard resulted in a broken window at the neighbor’s. We brought a home-made backstop and cardboard bases to the open field a block away but we couldn’t attract enough for a game. I did get the City to start a “Morning Little League” modeled on the Western Springs rec program, but that only lasted a year and wasn’t all that great because 6 year olds were lumped together with 10 year olds – skill sets too disparate.

It was about that time that Babe (Jack) did a very smart thing. He could see where his younger brother, already bigger than him, was going to be better than him in baseball – so he became a skateboarder. Someday, maybe already, I hope Jack knows that I think he’s a great skateboarder, just as great as being a great baseball player. In fact, skateboarding has a huge advantage over baseball for being a favorite of mine because skateboarders are unorganized and don’t need adults (or want adults) to be around. But Jack knows I love baseball so much and maybe – despite my assurances otherwise – thinks he’s let me down by not caring for the game. You haven’t Jack! I think you’re the smartest, best kid in the world – tied with Nick.

Meanwhile, Nick has truly developed into a ballplayer worthy of having a nickname associated with one of baseball’s all-time greats, the New York Yankees’ Mickey Mantle. Better than me, he’s the star pitcher on his high school team. This past fall he was recruited to be on a nation-wide traveling team. In St. Louis he pitched his “Jack Morris game.”

Jack Morris grew-up in the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul and went on to become a Hall of Fame pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. Coming back to Minnesota in his fifteenth season, he was the hero of the 1991 World Series when he pitched a decisive, seventh game, ten inning shut-out (no runs) to defeat the Atlanta Braves. The game was tied 0-0 going into the bottom of the 9^th, and after the Twins didn’t score in the bottom frame, Manager Tom Kelly was thinking Jack’s tank was empty – maybe time to bring in a relief pitcher for the extra innings. But one look at Jack and Manager Kelly changed his mind. Jack was fiercely determined to finish what he’d started. Jack got the side out in the top of the 10^th 1-2-3 and then Gene Larkin knocked in Dan Gladden from second in the bottom of the 10^thfor the title.

Nick’s gem unfolded this way:

Nick had a perfect game going into the top of the 7^th. (Remember 7 innings is a regulation game in high school.) A perfect game is when every batter up, every batter out. After 18 batters, no walks, no hits, no errors. Coming to bat in the top of the 7^th with his team leading 4-0, Nick got plunked in the arm by the opposing pitcher. Nick’s a righty pitcher, and it was his left arm so he could still throw – sort of. A pitcher uses his whole body to pitch. Being able to twirl upwards with both arms in delivering a pitch is critical to getting your whole body into the pitch and getting the ball up to the plate with any speed.

Going out to pitch in the bottom of the 7^th Nick could hardly raise his left arm without debilitating pain. The other team got two runs as Nick struggled to get two outs. Then they got a runner on second and the tying run came up to the plate. Much like Tom Kelly and Jack Morris, Nick’s manager called time and strode to the mound thinking it was time for a relief pitcher. But all of Nick’s teammates came to the mound too and said this was Nick’s game to win or lose – let him finish. Nick got the next batter out stranding the runner at second.

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*Founded as a Quaker Village, Western Springs also banned movie theatres, liquor stores, bars and anything else polluting.

An Unhappy Bus Driver

Posted on July 11, 2024 by AndyDawkins

An Unhappy Bus Driver [6^th Inning]

The Philadelphia Phillies vs. Houston Astros 1980 play-off series was some of the best played baseball ever. All five games were nail-biting affairs; the first four low-scoring. The last four were one run affairs; three games went to extra innings. The scores were 3-1 Philadelphia wins game one; second game 3-3 going into the tenth, but Astros win; third game 1-0 Astros win in nine; then again extra innings in the fourth game, Phillies win 4-3. The final game was in Houston with the Phillies winning 8-7 in the 10^th, after rallying for 5 runs in the 6^th, thus advancing to the World Series. Wow!

At the time my parents were living in Philadelphia and I just happened to be flying back the morning after the Phillies clinched the pennant. It was my habit to take the city bus leaving the airport and then catch the Broad Street Subway to the Reading Terminal. I was the only passenger on the bus and the driver was swearing a blue streak stuck in traffic because of all the fans who turned out to greet their returning triumphant heroes. His route took him by the terminal where the Phillies chartered plane had just landed.

Sitting in my bus seat I was higher than all the screaming fans crushed up against the fence outside trying to get a glimpse of the players, so I had the best view when Manny Trillo stepped off the plane holding his series MVP trophy aloft, and the fans went wild. I couldn’t be enjoying the moment more, but the bus driver had passengers down the road waiting for him, and, even if he was a Phillies fan, couldn’t allow himself even a smile, despite my account of what we were watching.

Almost as good as a World Series ticket – an invitation to Dave Winfield’s wedding

The bus driver dropped me at the corner of Broad and Patterson to transfer to the subway, also the corner for Veterans Stadium, home of the Phillies. As I walked to the subway entrance I passed by the Phillies ticket booths. For ordinary fans getting a ticket to a World Series game is almost unheard of* – my only experience was with the ’59 White Sox where the newspapers showed a photo of all the ticket requests being stuffed into big burlap sacks and only one out of the dozens of sacks got picked – so I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw there was actually a ticket seller inside the booth with a green visor on looking like he was actually selling tickets. “Any tickets left?” I ask. “Only for the seventh game,” he answers, as if expecting they’d go unsold. So I bought two. Turns out the Philly fans were so confident of their team that no one expected the Series would go all seven games (first to four wins) – and it turns out they were right, the Phillies beat Kansas City in six, and I had to send in for a refund.

*This was before the 1987 and 1991 Twins made it to the World Series and I, as a legislator, was no longer treated as just an ordinary fan.

Tossing Marshmallows [5th Inninng]

Posted on July 10, 2024 by AndyDawkins

Tossing Marshmallows [5^th Inning]

Just the opposite of Billy Martin, Ernie Banks (Mr. Cub) was one of baseball’s nicest guys. On the back he wrote “Lots of luck to Andy, a great baseball fan.”

Billy Martin, once the Twins manager, was now managing the Yankees. Billy was known for his temper. And for liking the ladies. During his time in Minnesota his favorite watering hole was Howard Wong’s restaurant on the Bloomington strip. After he left for the Yankees my girlfriend at the time, Mary Pat, had a sister turn 21 while working as a bank teller on the strip. After work a whole bunch of her girlfriends went to Howard Wong’s to celebrate, and Mary Pat and I showed up.

We didn’t stay long but the next morning the story was in the paper and Mary Pat filled in the details. After Mary Pat and I left, some unknown guy ordered an expensive bottle of champagne for all the young ladies celebrating. When he then approached the table they blew him off. Five minutes later the guy, who turned out to be Billy Martin, went to take a pee and – apparently upset being so unappreciated – punched out the guy at the next urinal, who happened to be a traveling marshmallow salesman.

That afternoon me and some friends went to the Twins – Yankees game and when Billy walked out of the dugout to pull the Yankee pitcher in the 5^th Inning, we tried pelting him with marshmallows. Fortunately marshmallows are hard to throw any distance, yet the crowd loved it.

One of BB’s All-Time Funny Men

Posted on July 9, 2024 by AndyDawkins

One of Baseball’s All-Time Funny Men [4^th Inning]

Watching baseball played on astro-turf inside a dome just isn’t the same as when it’s played on freshly mowed grass outdoors in the sunshine. There being so many outdoor baseball enthusiasts, my friend Julian was able to organize fans – of both sexes – by the bus load for weekend baseball treks to Milwaukee and Chicago. We’d leave from Midway Shopping Center at 10 a.m. on a Friday, stop at the Leinenkugel Brewery for the tour and free beer, tailgate and attend a minor league game in Madison on Friday night, be at Wrigley Field Saturday afternoon, Comiskey Park Saturday night and a Brewers game on Sunday, telling baseball stories all the way. That’s how I met Al Milstein, one of baseball’s all-time funny men, on the bus getting us to name the all-fish team: Rainbow Trout, Catfish Hunter, Mudcat Grant, etc.

The Twins would have a “Fan Appreciation Nite” the last home game of the season and give away a brand new car to one lucky ticket holder. Kent Hrbek, the Twins great first baseman, was making extra money doing radio commercials extolling the virtues of Kennedy Transmission. Turns out Hrbek was the one on the mound after the game to give away the keys and Milstein was the lucky fan whose ticket had just been drawn. The mic was on for the presentation. As Hrbek handed over the keys, Milstein said loud enough for everyone in the park to hear, “Guess I know where I’ll take it if the tranny goes.” Hrbek goes “Huhhh?”

Later, Mike Veeck, owner of the St. Paul Saints Baseball Club, the son of Bill Veeck, and just as much of a baseball maverick as his dad, hired Milstein to do the “color” at Saints games. Al would be up in the booth with the guy announcing the game to add a little color. This particular night Veeck had brought in a mime crew to mime the game of baseball between innings. About the middle of the 4^th inning it was clear the mimes were doing a poor job of being entertaining, the crowd seemed restless, and so Al brought the house down when he announced, “A mime is a terrible thing and a waste.”