Since I’ve been talking about sports all week, I guess this is as good a time as any for a baseball confession…
I spent the summer of 1982 in Long Beach, California. I was living with the Loren Evans family. Loren was an insurance agent. He had season tickets to the Dodger games, using them for his business. They were wonderful seats, fifth row behind home plate.
On June 11, Loren invited me to go see the Dodgers play the Reds. Loren was teaching me to keep a scorecard. I think I got so focused on that, that I hardly realized what was going on in the game itself.
The Dodgers had a wonderful offensive night, exploding for 11 runs. They also did well defensively, holding the Reds to one run. So while it wasn’t a competitive game, it was definitely an enjoyable one, especially if you were rooting for the Dodgers.
Jerry Reuss was pitching that night for Los Angeles. He had a pretty good outing. The first batter for the Reds hit a double. Reuss proceeded to retire the next 27 batters. One batter away from a perfect game. Pretty amazing.
Did I appreciate that? Not particularly. I knew it was a good game, but I didn’t realize how good.
But wait, there’s more. At some point during the game, one of the batters fouled off a pitch. It cleared the safety net and hit the front of one of the sections above us. As it fell back, I reached up and snagged it out of the air. Yep, I caught a foul ball.
Who hit that foul ball? I don’t know. Don’t even know which team. People have asked me and have been amazed that I have no idea. It may be one of the balls Reuss threw on the way to his one-hit, almost perfect game. The world will never know.
I used to be more of a baseball fan than I am now, but even then, I couldn’t appreciate a very special happening. I enjoyed the game and thanked Mr. Evans for it. But I realize now, I should have been a bit more excited about what happened that evening.
There… it’s good to get that off my chest.
Oh, and here’s a link to the stats from that game, for you baseball fans:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN198206110.shtml
Not only do I love baseball, but I can read a page of baseball stats for an hour. GOOD stuff.
Enjoyed your story, it’s a good one.
And now the most amazing stat from that game–it lasted only 2 hours and 2 minutes.
I don’t know if Loren is even still alive. I spoke at his wife’s funeral many years ago and the last I heard he moved to northern California. Be that as it may, he was genuinely a good man. I didn’t spend a lot of time with him because he had left the Long Beach church by the time I came on the scene, but we had some lunches together and I have a lot of respect for him.
Exegeting baseball statsheets is a special kind of nerdy joy, Trey. We should start a club (or an 12-step group)!
Mark, PEDs helped lengthen the game in several ways. Obviously, steroids, et al, made players stronger and allowed both more runs to be scored and pitchers to throw more pitches. But what isn’t so widely discussed is how amphetamines helped batters focus at the plate, allowing them to “take” far more pitches. The growth of drawing walks as an offensive strategy has done as much to lengthen games as anything.
Tim, 5th row behind home plate for an MLB game is a beautiful thing! and at Chavez Ravine, no less! Lucky duck.