Eagle, punches landed in 1969

I graduated from North Central in 1970 and played four years of baseball for North Central and two years of Legion ball with Barstone Fuel Company, a company owned by Jim Gillogly, who loved baseball.

We drove to Lewiston for a doubleheader on a Sunday in 1969. Back then we drove in parents’ cars without air conditioning. The temperature in Lewiston was 101 and it stunk like crazy entering the town.

We started the first game probably around noon and it was extremely hot!

I was playing third base and we all noticed the Lewiston team had shorts on for pants! They looked just like you’d see slowpitch teams wear, today.

Anyway, early in the game, the assistant coach for Lewiston (about 6-foot-5, 250 pounds – not kidding!) starts jawing with the base umpire (about 6-0, 250 – still not kidding).

After a couple of innings they really got mad at each other and the assistant coach ran onto the field and the ump ran toward him and both started fist fighting right next to me at third base. After the fight the assistant coach was kicked out of the game.

We continued playing and an inning later one of the Lewiston players actually tried stealing third base on the pitch. I don’t think I’d ever seen this happen. The catcher caught the pitch and threw to me at third. I was facing the catcher, caught the ball and swiped the base to get my glove in front of the bag to tag the guy. The problem was, since he was wearing shorts, he didn’t slide. His metal cleat went into my forearm and cut halfway around my arm, about an inch wide. I had to pull the guy’s foot out of my arm. I could see all the tendons, arteries, etc. – it was completely gashed wide open.

I needed to go to the emergency room and it was the Lewiston assistant coach and his wife who drove me to the hospital. They stayed with me the whole time I was getting stitched up and were very nice people.

I asked him why he got into a fight with the ump and he said it didn’t have anything to do about the game. They had been neighbors for past 10 years and their backyard fence separated them. They never liked each other and it culminated on that hot Sunday.

So that was a big day in Legion baseball for me that my friends still talk about.

By the way, the day was July 20, 1969, the day Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. We watched the moon landing after the game. It was weird driving home that night and staring at the moon.