A day in the Arizona sun with the Major League Alumni
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by user Kelsdad
This past weekend, the Arizona Chapter of the Major League Alumni Association (AZMLA) held their 21st annual fundraising event. The AZMLA, headed by former Kansas City Athletics, Cleveland Indians, New York Mets and Milwaukee Braves infielder Lou Klimchock, provides financial assistance to local and national baseball related organizations throughout the year. This particular Alumni weekend is their largest fundraising event of the year, and among the organizations who receive financial contributions are Arizona Youth Baseball, The Baseball Assistance Team, and the Association of Professional Baseball Players of America. This event is large enough in scale to attract such nationally known companies as corporate sponsors as Budweiser, Merrill Lynch, Coca-Cola and American Airlines. The Arizona Diamondbacks, along with Major League Baseball, help off-set some of the baseball related expenses incurred with putting this weekend together, and the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers donate the use of their main Spring Training Stadium for the event. The weekend’s festivities began on Saturday, with a free of charge “Welcome back” reception featuring the two local teams who share the facility. Each team has a full-scale practice with players from the other team making appearances through out the park for autograph and photo opportunities and to otherwise be made available to the public. And I know what you’re thinking, I’m not talking about some Double A infielder with #94 on his back, I’m talking Mark Teixeira and Michael Young and Sammy Sosa, even Royals VP and Hall of Famer George Brett made and appearance.
On Sunday, also free of charge, were the card and memorabilia show, kids clinic with the Alumni, the DBacks sponsored Home Run Derby, and finally the Alumni game. The Home Run Derby features active players from the Rangers and Royals, (some wearing #94), and members of the Alumni. The respective winners were Royals outfielder Billy Butler and for the Alumni former Rangers and Royals outfielder Russ McGinnis. Ending the day’s events is the Alumni game, with the old-timers in their full throwback uniforms. Starting pitcher for the National League was none other than Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins himself. I’m old enough to have seen him pitch on TV, but I’d never seen him in person in full Cubs uniform, and I've got to say, pretty damn impressive. A highlight of the game is the comedic talents of former Tigers pitcher Jon Warden, who acts as the PA announcer or MC. He’s so good in fact he just signed a contract with CBS to host a golf show this summer called “The Weekenders Golf Tour.” Speaking of Warden, he wears his 1968 World Series ring from the Tigers, and my college ring is bigger, I guess money in baseball today is everywhere, not just in the player's salaries.
The highlight of the weekend for most of us is the Golf Tournament which was held this past Monday. I’ve been attending the Alumni games since 1992 but my first golf outing was last year. I felt like a rookie in his first Spring Training, I spent so much time running around trying to meet everyone and still play golf by the time the day was over I was pretty much spent. Now that I’m a vet, this year was much more relaxed as I knew what the schedules were and accordingly had a much more easy going day.
I arrived early enough to have sufficient time to properly warm up and to have a cup of Joe, first on my list was obviously to register. As I left the car and began walking to the clubhouse, an older gentleman was approaching the main entrance from the opposite side of the parking lot. I was a few feet in front of him and as I reached the door I heard his phone ring, I turned to hold the door for him, and found myself face to face with Hall of Famer Phil Niekro. The registration table was on the back patio, and with a long line in the pro shop I decided to short cut through the restaurant next door, the only table occupied was by Bob Uecker and Robin Yount! I was so flustered I forgot to pick up a couple bottles of water so I U-turned and went right back in, and in the meantime Niekro had joined them so right off the bat the first three people I see are Hall of Famers.
I guess I should preference this before I go on by saying I’m old. The guys I was interested in meeting and talking to most of you have never heard of. So it was pretty cool to find myself a few minutes later hitting balls on the range and to find myself next to former Kansas City Royals ace Larry Gura. There was an article posted on this site not long ago about the best sports rivalries, and take it from someone who had first hand experience, the Royals/Yankees rivalry from the late ‘70’s into the early ‘80’s was one of the best ever, albeit short-lived. Moving from the range to the putting green I found a corner spot and starting rolling a few putts and soon found myself in the company of, and eventually having a putting contest with, former Mets outfielder Leon Brown. Yeah, I won.
At this point we were getting close to starting so I went to find my cart and introduce myself to my playing partners but first I stopped at the registration table to check on which former player was leading our group. With a few people in line ahead of me still in the registration process, I tried to peek over the shoulder of the guy in front of me, and after a few minutes I found my name…right below Robin Yount’s!! Holy crap!! Not only will I get to actually meet him, I’m in the same group with him!! Then I found out I was looking at the confirmation list, my group was going to be led by former Tigers, Yankees and Angels infielder Jim Walewander. He wasn’t a star, he didn’t even have a very good career, but he had one, so that's good enough for me. In our group also, as a paying fan just like me was former Denver Broncos linebacker Rich Dodson. Big dude.
After the golf and after dinner but before the raffle and auction was the social hour they called it. What happens is Lou Klimchock introduced each player and had them stand up so they could be pointed out, saves us the embarrassment of asking the wrong guy to sign something I guess . My first point of action was to get the Hall of Famers out of the way. I have a set of Hall of Fame postcards which is a picture of the actual plaque, so I went to Jenkins and Niekro first. Not knowing Yount would be there, I had him sign the program issued at the game the day before. I have a copy of a Shea Stadium issued 1969 World Series program which I had Jim McAndrew sign. Following the 1973 season, Yankee Stadium was closed for two years for the remodeling project, the last game that season was an 8-5 loss to Detroit, a game I attended. The last homer hit in the Stadium was by Yankees catcher Duke Sims. I told him the story and that’s how he signed, “Duke Sims, hit the last homer in the Stadium that Ruth built, 9/73.” At an adjacent table were former White Sox teammates, 1971 American League homer champ, third baseman Bill Melton, and 1967 American League ERA champ and author of a September 10, 1967 no-hitter, Joel Horlen. From there I moved over to four time Gold Glove second baseman with the [[California Angels Bobby Knoop, who before Ryne Sandberg came along owned the season record for fielding percentage. Other players I had a chance to meet were former Rangers pitcher Jim Umbarger, Phillies, Rangers and Senators leadoff man extraordinaire Del Unser, White Sox catcher Mike Colbern, Astros outfielder JD Schleuter, 1960 National League Cy Young winner from the Pittsburgh Pirates, Vern Law, and former Indians and Brewers shortstop Jack Heidemann.
And finally, I had the opportunity to renew an old acquaintance, someone I first met in 1979. At that time I worked with the Eastern League as and marketing and sales rep. The league would randomly assign us to various cities in which we would work with the teams procuring advertising revenue (program ad sales and season tickets). In February I found out my first assignment would be in Reading, PA, home of the Phillies Double-A team. (Still is, actually, going on fifty years I think). In those days, employees did everything, from driving players around town, working the concessions at the park, once I drove a player to Philadelphia after he had been called up. The two players I got to know the best were outfielder Elijah Bonaparte, who never got past Triple-A. He lived in the same apartment building, we would take turns driving to and from the park every day. The second player was catcher Ozzie Virgil Jr. In 1980 Ozzie was Eastern League MVP, but in 1979 he wasn’t even the starting catcher to begin the season. I did bump into him once in Atlantic City, the Phillies caravan was there on a pre-season stop, I think about 1985, but until 2005 I had seen him just that one time in 24 years. In 2005 he signed a three year contract to manage in the Golden League, an independent league who at the time had teams in Arizona and California. His team, the Surprise Fighting Falcons, (named after the F-16 squad at nearby Luke Air Force base), was pretty competitive on the field but didn’t draw, so they up and moved to California. Ozzie chose not to go, but with a contract had to do something so he was made league wide hitting and catching instructor. We sat down, cracked a couple brews, and talked for maybe seven, eight minutes about a few former teammates I had known, George Vuckovich, Rob Dernier, that Sandberg guy, I mentioned his dad, whom I’ve also met, he just signed on as a coach in the Mets organization. Ozzie stilll is very popular in Philadelphia, he gets back to Philadelphia a few times a year for Phillies or Alumni events but hasn’t gone back to Atlanta. Ozzie would like to get back to the majors again someday as either a coach or manager, and I wished him well.
Last weekend in February, every year. Clear your calendars for 2008, we can make it an Armchair weekend. Seriously.
