I found this to be a nice, nostalgic story for someone like me, a kid who grew up in the 60s and 70s watching and idolizing some of the best baseball players ever. We’d only get to see them once in a while on The Game of the Week, or later in the 70s if they happened to be playing the Braves on TBS, and then only National League guys. It was different. I used to tell my boys, and now my grandsons, if you want to see how to really pitch, you need to watch video of Tom Seaver. I still marvel at a throw I remember seeing Al Kaline make a perfect strike to home from 250 ft away to get the runner. How did Dick Allen manage to get that 38 oz bat around so fast and hard?
I think the Pete Rose quote in here about having faced 19 HOF pitchers in his career says a lot. Really, those were the days of fun to watch and follow baseball. Now, with it all being home runs or strikeouts, it’s just not the same.
For some reason, I have a vivid memory of Willie Mays going a long way to track down a fly ball in right center in Candlestick and climbing the fence to make the catch over Bobby Bonds. Probably 65 or so.
If it’s the same play I’m thinking of, here’s some weird trivia I remember about it. It was the same day as the launch of Apollo 13 in 1970 and I remember the news breaking in right after to say they’d just done the burn to leave Earth orbit and head to the moon. At least in my mind I am almost certain that’s how it played out, because I vividly remember the news guy saying, “At about the time as Willie Mays made that catch . . .”
