Spring Training - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Spring Training

Our son is visiting us in Florida for his birthday, which always coincides with the start of spring training. So a family tradition is to attend a Grapefruit League game. This year was no exception as we watched the Minnesota Twins play the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday. The weather was perfect, we had great seats in the shade and saw a good game that ended in a tie 5-5. Spring training games apparently don’t go into extra innings. Another thing we learned is if the players number is over 50, he’s a rookie trying to make the team. As a result, I or my son hardly knew any of the players on either line-up.

With the start of baseball, I receive an email every morning from MLB with the latest news around the league that ends with a baseball trivia question like shown at this link. As a kid, I would have known all the answers, but not anymore. Back then literally all the players were familiar to me, but recognize there were a lot fewer teams, 16 then versus 30 now. Plus I had all their baseball cards. What fun it was trading cards with my friends, learning about all the players and most of all, playing the game pretending to be this player or that. Ted Kluszewski, the Reds big first baseman during the 50’s was my favorite. Here’s my previous blogpost about Big Klu.

The other day, I did run into a baseball trivia question that intrigued me, especially being an engineer. The following photo was shown and the location of the sign was asked. So to work I went trying to figure out the location. It was a fun exercise that perhaps you’ll enjoy. The answer will be provided next week. If you figure out the location, enter it in the comment section at the bottom of this blog. Good luck! I’ll give you a hint - it’s east of the Mississippi, south of the Mason-Dixon Line and a famous baseball movie was filmed there.

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Roosevelt to Reagan - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Roosevelt to Reagan

Presidents Day was yesterday, so I “celebrated” by reading a book from the used book collection in the lobby of our Florida condo building. It was titled Roosevelt to Reagan, by Time Magazine Editor Hedley Donovan, who covered these 9 presidents over the course of his career. The book captured an era when the media was much more impartial than today, as he was able to build a personal relationship with each of the leaders whether Democrat or Republican. His insights and observations while covering the nine presidents were enlightening and interesting, providing a perspective way beyond what I personally knew about them after having lived through each presidency except Roosevelt’s.

Of the nine, Kennedy was my favorite. He was a Democrat and elected during my seventh grade in 1960. I vividly recall wearing the above campaign button, which I still have. Our civics teacher at the time was Mr. Hancock whom I had written about in this 2016 blogpost. That blog referenced another book titled A Thousand Days that I use as bedtime reading. Kennedy served as president exactly 1000 days, thus the title. Turns out there is a movie about the book and it can be accessed by clicking this link. It touches on and explains Kennedy’s New Frontier initiatives:

 Kennedy’s New Frontier Initiatives

Peace Corp - volunteer work in third world countries for young people

Civil rights - pass legislation to address racism

Space program - create NASA and put a man on the moon by the end of the decade

Peace - avoid nuclear war with Communist Russia

Freedom - expand freedom and democracy around the world

These were admirable goals that definitely got the attention of an impressionable 13 year old like me at the time.

But I got older and as the Reagan adage goes, "Anyone who is not a Democrat at age 20 has no heart, while anyone who is still a Democrat at age 40 has no brain”, so I converted. Jimmy Carter was the last Democrat I voted for in 1976 at the age 28. Winston Churchill said it better in light of current events, “Anyone who is not a socialist at 20 years of age has no heart, while anyone who is still a socialist at 40 has no brain”. Note that both Reagan and Churchill switched from liberal to conservative as they got older. Not so for good ole’ Bernie, age 78!

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Big Ten Basketball - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Big Ten Basketball

It’s always been tough to win on the road in Big 10 Basketball, and this year is even tougher than normal, with home teams holding a 142-33 advantage over the visiting teams. Maryland and Rutgers are undefeated at home. One the toughest place to play in the entire league has always been Assembly Hall in Bloomington, home of the Indiana Hoosiers, where they are 12-2 so far this season. 

The first and only game I’ve ever attended at Assembly Hall was on December 6, 1980 when #5 ranked Indiana played #2 Kentucky in an early season non-conference game. We were living in Richmond, Indiana at the time, so on a whim, I drove down to Bloomington by myself that Saturday without a ticket hoping to scalp one at the gate.

I had no luck scalping a ticket; however, just as game time was approaching, an older women approached the main entrance pushing her husband in a wheelchair. I offered to help her with the wheelchair and she gratefully obliged. The three of us rolled into the arena, never even having to show their two tickets! Handicap seating was at floor level next to the Indiana bench. The husband stayed in his wheelchair and his wife and I sat in their assigned ticketed seats right next to him. Perfect! She asked me to sit in the middle so I could talk basketball with her husband during the game, instead of her having to do so! Unfortunately, Indiana lost 66-68 but went on to later win the Big Ten and NCAA championships. And no, it was not the infamous game a few years later where IU coach Knight threw the chair onto the court! Coach Knight just returned to Assembly Hall on Saturday, 20 years after being fired. Click here for the video.

That game was my first exposure to Hoosier captain Isiah Thomas, who was so smooth running the floor, dishing out 5 assists, dribbling right through the Kentucky defense and leading the fast break for easy lay-ups to score a game high 20 points. After a 3 year stay in Richmond, we moved to Michigan where I was able to witness Isiah Thomas lead the Detroit Pistons to NBA championships in 1989 & 1990.

Current NBA star for the Washington Wizards, Isaiah Thomas is not related; however, he was named after the Piston star when lifelong Lakers fan, James Thomas made a bet with a friend that his beloved team would defeat the Pistons in the 1989 Finals or he would name his son after decorated Lakers nemesis Isiah Thomas!

Another IU connection surfaced recently when we had lunch with Evan, a college fraternity brother we hadn’t seen since our wedding in 1972. He happened to be in Florida so looked us. Catching up on the last 48 years, we discovered he attended Indiana University for graduate school and also played rugby for the club team on campus. One of his teammates was Mark Cuban, who was an undergraduate at IU. Cuban wanted to buy a bar in Bloomington, so asked Evan for a $15,000 loan since Evan was working for GM while going to school at night. Once Cuban graduated, he sold the bar for a nice profit. Because Evan was convinced Cuban would be very successful in life, he told Mark to “let it roll” regarding his share, which he has done every year since. Cuban is now a multi- billionaire, so what does that make Evan? He just smiled when asked!

Evan was surprised several years ago by Cuban when he donated money to IU for a new rugby field and named it after Evan as shown in the above photo at the dedication. In addition Evan and his wife attended Cuban’s 60th birthday party where Stevie Wonder performed. Cuban may be a good business man, but he sure got this prediction wrong!

Back to basketball, when the Hoosiers “stole” coach Archie Miller from the Flyers, I was really upset; however, after this year’s play by the Flyers, led by Coach Anthony Grant and center Obadiah Tobbin, all is forgiven! Go Flyers! They likely could beat any Big 10 team this year, even if they were the visiting team!

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Rumley - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Rumley

The Martin Luther King holiday brought to mind some memories about African-Americans during my youth. Pro athletes like Frank Robinson, Bill Russell, Jimmy Brown primarily come to mind. However, one athletic endeavor during my youth was unfortunately not in the spirit of Martin Luther King. During one summer, I played softball for a team out of McCartyville that was named the Rumley Raiders. Little did I know at the time that the team’s name was derived from the nearby town of Rumley, where African-America’s had settled during the early 1800’s but was abandoned after the Civil War and turned into a ghost town of sorts. Many of my teammates as kids had ridden their bikes to Rumley pretending to raid the places, thus our nickname. Over the course of the softball season, I came to learn about these pretend “raids”, but unfortunately didn’t understand the racial significance until years later. Click on this link for a fellow blogger’s research after visiting Rumley in 2011.

My insensitivity to racial matters growing up is inexcusable, however, our contacts with African-Americans were minimal at best, primarily only when visiting Sidney. I recall my mother taking us kids to bowl at the single alley in the Wagner Hotel where if I memory serves, she had worked for a while before getting married. Mom knew and introduced us to several African-American hotel employees. Also, there were African-American waitresses at the SPOT restaurant who my mother knew from her days working in Sidney. We would occasionally eat there during our many family jaunts.

It was during college at General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) when I had the opportunity to build friendships with African-American students, both in class and through athletics. Of course, later during my 27 year business career at Ford Motor Company, I worked with many African-American employees, including a couple who were my boss during my career. Ford had a long history of hiring African-Americans going back to the $5 a day wage era in the 1920’s that attracted many southerners of color to Dearborn for work in Ford’s huge Rouge plant that turned raw iron ore into running vehicles at the rate of 4000 per day while employing 100,000 people, many of whom were African-American.

My relationships with African-Americans have been and continue to be gratifying, in spite of the limited opportunities during my youth.

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