There were some amazing doings on New Scotland field Sunday, July 26 in a game where the shuffled and reshuffled Reds and Blues exchanged leads for three frames until the Reds finally pulled away. Or I think they did. Limping, I left early, but as I walked out, I looked over my shoulder and heard someone say, or I think they did, 14-9 Reds. It was that thereabouts unless surprise occurred in the seventh.
What was amazing about that? What? What? It's just a Sunday afternoon game of baseball, far away from most places. Right?
It's this. Seven ex-Major Leaguers, some alive, some quite dead, trekked to New Scotland, and joined us in the dugout.
Imagine? That's something you don't see every game.
But there they were. On the bench with us. I saw more than one ex-big leaguer.
Amazing. And at least one former big leaguer helped us, gave us advice. Imagine that?
Take my limp, for example. I was having problems at first base.
Still nursing a pulled butt muscle, but wanting to see if I was coming around, and just be on the field, I asked our manager, Amber Ring, if I could play only two innings at first. See how it goes? She said fine.
I figured first was manageable. The spot doesn't require much movement, does it?
I was talking to myself about that, thinking, I won't have to run at first. After all, you just hang around the bag, right?
"Sorry to mess you up, Mike" I heard a voice said, "But no. You'd be surprised how much first sackers have to move."
That was the first time I'd ever spoken to the ghost of Double-X, or Jimmie Foxx. (What a player: 1st baseman & catcher; 534 dingers; 3 time mvp; led '29-'31 Philadelphia Athletics to title beating Ruth's Yankees)
Jimmy didn't speak in a hard way. He grew up on a Maryland farm; his arms were so big from genes and farm work that he had to cut the sleeves off his uniform to play. He hit the ball hard. Jimmie was also reputed to be one the nicest fellows ever to play the game. He was nice to me. Set me straight about being loose at first.
Next thing I know, Dave Plew hit a roller up the line, coming right at me. The ball had a kind of pool-hall spin to it and slowed down as it came toward me. A regular butt-enabled first baseman would have trotted to the ball, maybe three steps down and three back, for the out. But I took two steps, felt a mountain lion bite me from behind, and stopped. Dave hustled and his hit was a scored a single.
Meanwhile, I heard the ghost of Casey Stengel in my ear: "Can't anybody here play this game?" To which I replied, quietly, "Not when they have a Mountain Lion attached to their backside, Case."
(Fun facts: In 1913, Casey Stengel, playing left field for the Brooklyn Superbas, later the Dodgers, hit the first homer in the first game ever played at Ebbets Field. He hit it in the fifth inning, but it turned out to be the game-winning run. In 1923, the year that Yankee Stadium opened, Casey, playing for the Giants, hit the first post-season homer ever hit at the new park. That too was the game-winning hit, in the 9th inning, breaking 4-4 tie.
(Now, here's the thing: Both blasts were inside-the-park home runs. The Yanks would win the series, four games to two, and the Babe, who hit .393 that season, his highest in his career, wouldn't homer until the second game, when he hit two. He added one more to go with the 41 he hit that season, the only one in which he won an AL MVP. Meanwhile,Casey, a 5-11 outfielder, finished his playing career, 14 years from 1925 to 1939, with 60 dingers. Then he did OK managing the Yankees in the 1940s and '50s.)
OK. All of this is prelude to a question I asked several players on the Reds' bench. It's a question that most everyone in baseball likes to hear and then to hear the answers, see what players are thinking.
It's a simple one: So who's your favorite big league player, and why? So:
Sean Overbaugh, from Voorheesville, who pitches and plays third, said he had two guys he liked. "First, C.C. Sabathia. I loved watching him pitch. I grew up watching him. I studied him. He was good." And "Ichiro Suzuki, because, man, the guy wasn't very big but he could do everything on the field."
Patrick Dambra, 29, a centerfielder, originally from Beacon, and lived for a spell in Farmingdale, Long Island. His favorite player was and is David Wright. Why'd he like him?
"He was good, very good," Pat said, "He worked at it. He was really competent. I admire competence."
Then there's Luke Burns, who's 22, a lean pitcher with a very fine fastball - one of the best I've seen in a long time. His favorite player? It's not one you'd likely hear often: Former Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedis. Luke said he liked the way that when Cespedis came to the plate, there was always the sense in the park that the guy could hit one out. He often did.
But what struck Luke about Cespedis was the random nature of his life and of making a career out of baseball.
"He owned a ranch in Texas," Luke said, "where there were wild boars. One day he was out chasing a boar and he stepped in a boar hole (a boar hole!?) and broke his ankle. Imagine? That's how his career ended. Chasing a boar and falling into a hole. You wouldn't think that's how his career would end. How random it all is."
Moving from the bench to the stands, I ran into a former Peppers teammate, Tony Mogaverdo. Tony still plays left for the team and he and a friend, George Gaffney, were taking in the Cap Division game. For Tony, his favorite player remains Reggie Jackson. "He was Mr. October," Tony said, "for a reason. The man came through." For George, it was Bobby Mercer, the former Yankees centerfielder whom he said, "had three really good seasons," and then the team's talent went south" and Bobby had to carry the team. Almost alone, George said, and "he was still good."
So, there you have it, readers and fellow players. On a pleasant sunny Sunday afternoon, and on a nice diamond in the distant village of New Scotland, New York, on two wholly amateur teams, look who showed up?
Big leaguers Jimmy Foxx, Casey Stengel,, C. C. Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki, Yoenis Cespedis, Reggie Jackson and Bobby Mercer.
Imagine? All these former big league stars, and there they were, on our bench, in our stands.
Amazing.
-Mike
-- Edited by mikehart on Friday 31st of July 2026 04:27:59 AM
-- Edited by mikehart on Friday 31st of July 2026 04:28:22 AM
-- Edited by mikehart on Friday 31st of July 2026 04:34:52 AM
