By Woodrow Carroll
The recent passing of baseball legend Hank Aaron certainly stirred the memory. As a youngster who grew up a fan of the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Braves, it was Hank Aaron, along with Warren Spahn and Eddie Mathews, who largely imprinted the Milwaukee Braves on my memory banks.
With all due respect to Major League Baseball teams such as the Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers, it was the Braves in Milwaukee who recorded my firmest memory. The Milwaukee Braves, in spite of a winning record all 13 seasons of their existence in Wisconsin, 1953-1965, and a World Series conquest in 1957, pulled up stakes after the 1965 season and went to Atlanta.
Reading about the passing of Aaron and a host of baseball legends in recent months engaged memories. The end result was a mix of the fond and unusual.
The first Major League Baseball game I attended was in 1951 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
A callow youth of nine years at the time, the game was a fond memory, although one’s recall can be tricky.
It would have been easier for my father to take me to Wrigley Field, however, the Cubs had no lights and a night game was really the only option in Summer 1951.
The White Sox were playing host to the New York Yankees who were clearly the premier team in baseball at the time, having won the World Series the previous two years and were to win it again in that season, and again in both 1952 and 1953.
Can’t prove it, but, I suspect it was a Friday night game and there was a large crowd for sure. Detective work makes it in June, July or August, given that school had to be out at the time.
The first Major League Baseball home run at a game I attended was hit by MLB’s 100-year old man Eddie Robinson. Today, Robinson is the major’s oldest living ex-player, having turned 100 December 15, 2020. If not a Hall-of-Fame candidate, Robinson was no slouch! A four-time All-Star, Game selection, Robinson played for seven of the eight American League teams while he was active. He missed only the Boston Red Sox. Robinson played for both the Philadelphia Athletics and Kansas City Athletics.
Robinson was playing for the White Sox in 1951 and his round-tripper gave Sox the early lead. That early White Sox advantage did not hold up. The Yankees did rally to win.
The best known player that evening on either team was Joe DiMaggio.
Having broken in with the 1936 Yankees playing with Lou Gehrig, DiMaggio was in what was to be his final season in Major League Baseball. Other than viewing a future Hall-of-Fame member, my DiMaggio memory was not memorable.
Minnie Minoso was a very good memory in 1951. The White Sox broke the color barrier with Minoso and the franchise was on an upward trajectory. From 1951 through 1967 Sox produced a team with a winning won-loss record each season. At bat or on the base, Minoso drew attention.
At the time fans could get a four-page fold-over scorecard that came with a pencil. Sadly, an item I did not keep. I know I kept line by line score in the game for a time. But, left in the later innings. Mickey Mantle was a rookie in 1951 with the Yankees, however, no memory of Mantle is there.
The White Sox roared out of the gate in 1951 and led the eight-team American League until the all-star game in July. Then, reality and Yankees’ talent struck! A fourth-place finish was the Sox’ fate,
One memory exists: Food! A customer did not get a hot dog back then, it was a red hot which most called the hot dog. The vendor might come around, or you grabbed a bite at a food stand. A red hot, a soft drink, and bag of salted-in-the-shell peanuts. It is something worth recalling.