I grew up in Richmond, CA – a rather rough
town. Sports were the big deal to every
young person. The SF Chronicle Green
Sheet listed a full page of baseball games on the weekends. Every company sponsored a team. Baseball was everywhere – the Yankees and
Oakland Acorns were the ones to follow on the radio. Bud Foster was an outstanding announcer.
Younger men played in the street. Two on Two football or we went to an open
field and played 15 on 15. It was tough
to be gang tackled by ten or so guys.
Baseball on open lots – everyone played – old guys and little ones. The
field had ruts and holes. Who
cared? We were playing baseball. Boxing in the back lots of the homes. Put the gloves on and become Sugar Ray
Robinson. We danced, we were pummeled,
but the moves were there.
Study and work.
Every young person had chores. No
t.v. in the beginning. Work in the
morning, come home, work in the evening.
No cars until you were 18 or 20.
Rules were strict and were not to be questioned. Organized sports at high school levels was
very competitive. Many hours of
practice. One had to wait until they
were seniors to play varsity.
I had nowhere to go at the end of my senior
year. But two weeks before graduation,
the baseball coach at UC Berkeley invited me to tour the campus. The tour was led by Matt Hazeltine and Les
Richter – two seniors and they were really big.
Richter kept smiling at us- he didn’t have any front teeth. Wow – go to Berkeley.
All incoming sports players had to play freshman
ball. No jumping to varsity in those
days. There was a lot of difference
between an 18 year old kid and a bulked up 22 year old senior. No weight rooms,
no trainers. Either you had the talent
or not. You worked at a manual labor job
to harden the body. No personal
training. We learned by watching
players.
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