By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JULY 30, 2019 | Yes, I enjoy baseball, but I may love baseball lore even more. The game itself is beautiful, the pace easy, the unexpected can explode at any time, and always there seems to be a comparison of records of baseball immortals.
But the stories! They take you back to extraordinary moments.
There’s Babe Ruth, the first with 60 homers in a single season (now broken), standing as a landmark. Mentioning Ruth, you must mention Hank Aaron, and breaking the total home record at Atlanta Stadium with No. 715 (and even more later).
Stories abound: While the poem Casey at the Bat tells one story, Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance is baseball poetry at its best. The last player to hit .400 (Ted Williams, .406 in 1941), and the great DiMaggio and his 56 game hitting streak (also in 1941)! And Johnny Vander Meer pitching two consecutive no-hitters in 1938, and Jackie Robinson integrating baseball. Then the Braves winning 11 straight National League division titles, and that great pitching staff of Maddox, Glavine, Avery and Smoltz? We may never see such a complete staff again.
- Let me raise a question here: how many batters can you strike out in a nine-inning game? The answer may surprise you. See below.
Baseball plays by the same rules everywhere, yet has such a rhythm about it. All you need is two competing teams, then sit back and enjoy. One weekend, my son and I were in a small community in North Carolina for a herring festival. The afternoon feature was a doubleheader between two high school teams. We sat through both baseball games, didn’t know any of the players, yet by the end of the day, we recognized certain characteristics of players on the two teams. It was a great time, thoroughly enjoyable games.
While in baseball the pace can seem slow, yet something distinctive can erupt any minute. It might be a rousing hit, or strike-out, or even an infield fly with runners on base. Or a passed ball, or grand slam, or a relief pitcher that changes the completion of the game. You never know. You sit in anticipation.
Baseball brings its own music with it. Can’t you see Harry Carey hanging out of his Chicago broadcast booth leading with “Take Me Out to the Ball Game?” And what’s a game without peanuts or Cracker Jacks?
Stadiums have their own appeal. There’s the Green Monster left field wall in Boston, home runs in San Francisco dropping into the Bay; and at Chicago Cubs’ Wrigley Field, home runs hit by the opposing teams get thrown back onto the playing field. Have you noticed how many coats of paint are on the stadium seats at Wrigley Field? My estimate is 37 coats. It has its own charm.
Back to strikeouts. It was in 1948, in Thomaston, Ga. When R.E. Lee Institute was playing my own Lanier Poets in a high school game. On the mound for R.E. Lee was Hugh Radcliff. He struck out the side in the first inning…..and in every inning in the ball game. One player who struck out reached first base when the catcher couldn’t handle the third strike. So what did Radcliff do? He struck out four batters that inning, ending the game with 28 K’s, a record not seen since.
Radcliff is still living in Comer, Ga. He’s the uncle of Tommy Carraway of Lawrenceville, who reminded me of the story the other day. I remember reading about it in 1948, and the record still holds today. It’s another story that makes baseball so enjoyable.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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