Comments on: The Boys Of Summer

By: Hemmingsen

Hemmingsen — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 13:01:18 +0000

These old timers are, like the rest of the greatest generation, fading fast. My daughter and her husband were in a Tampa barbecue place. They were among the few to notice another patron, Dodger rival Yogi Berra. My daughter says he was just a little old man and didn’t stand out because there are a lot of little old men in Florida. Yogi seemed happy when a few people did greet him as he was leaving. She figures he was there for the opening of Yankees spring training at nearby Steinbrenner Field. I looked it up. The Yog is well into his 80s. “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.” I guess when he came to the fork in the road, he took it.

By: hardass555

hardass555 — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:30:28 +0000

still want to know what kind of bike it is…looks like about a 650 whatever

By: fsl

fsl — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:23:53 +0000

Has anyone read ‘The Last Boy’ ? The book is about Mickey Mantle, his biography ?
Such talent, but so sad he drank away his talent & his family relationships.
Baseball is such a unique sport, but ahh I guess its played by humans.
Remember the ball games @ Volga, (softball probably), and the tonwn mosquito fogger machine that got rid of the skeeters but probably exposed us to a few toxins too. ~fsl

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:21:29 +0000

We too had a baseball field right next to our house. Actually it was our yard so the field was rather narrow but very deep. Everyday in the summer neighbor kids would slide their gloves across the handlebars and ride as fast as they could to the field. Our bats were cracked bats the town team would give away to us kids. We would take them home and tape them up with electrical tape. I had a Jackie Robinson (with the fat handle) now that was a bat. Teams were divided up and the team that got to hit first was determined by placing you hand on the bat that the other guy would put his on top until you reached the top of the bat. Of cours “Eagle Claws” would always win out. The only way we would stop playing is if mom would yell at us saying there was some loose Bantee Rosters running around and we should round them up for dinner or if on a rare occasion someone would get hurt. Played for hours and hours. Remember when fall arrived and you played football, the end zones were the burning leave piles. I can still smell them now. Great times.

By: GMAX9

GMAX9 — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 22:17:35 +0000

At our house in the middle of Aberdeen it was whiffle ball in the back yard most every day. My dad took years after we left to get the “diamond” obliterated from his lawn. Of course hitting it over the fence was no big deal but if you could get it over the fence, across the alley and over the neighbors fence, well, that was something. As the only girl playing it was, of course, necessary to hit ‘em higher and harder than the brothers and sometimes I actually did. Girls weren’t allowed in Little League then but sure would have liked to have played.

Older brother Dave was a huge Dodgers fan and spent hours with his baseball cards – he knew all the stats for all the greats. Know he wonders where all those cards went but I don’t have the heart to tell him my son got them and they weren’t cared for so ended up in the trash.

Of course my first memory of baseball is of Dave’s friend showing me (at the age of 5) just where to stand so he could instruct me in the fine art of hitting the baseball. Next thing I knew I woke up in my bed with my first concussion! It was a great time to grow up – even if it did suck to be a girl. )

By: john mogen

john mogen — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:24:49 +0000

Baseball was a big deal to Waubay boys, too. We’d play most of the morning at the sand pit field while coaches Leon (Toot Toot) Tobin and Arnie Anderson encouraged us. After riding our bikes home, the Pischke, Evenson, and Mogen boys would gather at the neighborhood field following lunch. A long fly ball launched to deep rightfield would sometimes roust a sleeping Native from the abandoned car left in right! Sweat turned to shouts of joy when we piled in the Mogen stationwagon and headed for a swim in Blue Dog Lake.

By: Mike Howard

Mike Howard — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:02:13 +0000

When I scream ” you #@#@’n Pitcher puncher” at a Twins player, or more truthfully at the TV it always gets a smile from my wife, she dosen’t get it, but it makes her smile. I stole that from you Doug.

By: Per Pål P

Per Pål P — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:41:58 +0000

Growing up in a small farming town in Minnesota….summer baseball was fun. We played “work up”…or 500—A batter would bat the ball to the “outfielders” so many points for a caught fly ball…or so many for a grounder….if missed, the points were “deducted” as I recall…(a game that usually ended in a argument about who pushed who etc.) On hot summer afternoons….most stores had a radio going with a baseball game from somewhere. And Sunday’s always had area towns playing against each other…with plenty of “ice cold Hamms and Schmidts—pulled from a tank of ice. As “they say”…Another great memory…. Go Twins…. Per Pål…

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 16:45:03 +0000

Doug and Grouse, Dave Nelson here. Before you dis Yankee fans too much, I also hit one over the center field fence. I never hit the silo, but I was younger (minor leauger). The Yankees usually had the last laugh didn’t they. The gettogethers for baseball were quite intense @ Gruseth memorial stadium. I remember Mike and Steve Howard, Boyd and Paul Parker, Bob and Lawrence Gruseth,Doug and Tom Lund, myself and occasionally my sister Debbie would play. Sometimes some ringers from town would show up. One thing Doug mentioned, lost baseballs, put an end to the games. Most of the times there was only one decent baseball. Bad tempers between siblings also shortened games. We’d go in the house and watch I LOVE LUCY or listen to Boddy Holly records.
By the way, I’m no longer a Yankee fan. No more Mickey Mantle. Go Twins.

By: Jack Schmieder

Jack Schmieder — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:33:18 +0000

My older brother was a serious Dodger fan as well. We saw a game in LA (in the Coliseum) when they played the Cubs. Bums lost 4-0.