When I was about five years old (old enough to be cognizant of what was important), the significant male adults in my life talked baseball and what could have been.
Gene Patton was the only player from my hometown, Coatesville, PA, to make the majors. He came to bat one time for the Boston Braves and walked.
Paul Chenger was a great pitcher in the Braves minor leagues for Austin. Chenger blew his arm out playing winter ball in the Mexican League. He told me once that going into the 1961 season he was to be the #1 selection of the expansion team Los Angeles Angels. Fred Haney, the ex-manager of the Braves, was hired as GM of the Angels at the time. Haney undoubtedly had seen Chenger in spring training.
Both Patton and Chenger would eventually be my coaches at the local level in Legion and High School.
Howie Bedell, from Pottstown, showed great promise in the minors. Ironically, another local, Don Wert from Quarryville, PA, would edge him out for a batting title in the American Association in 1961. I remember hearing from those significant adults that what hurt Bedell was too much education. He got his degreee from West Chester University in West Chester, PA before turning pro.
As for me, I still love those old Braves but those significant adults' opinions of education weren't as impressionable on me. Like Bedell, I went to West Chester University, got my MA, and became a teacher.
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Copyright © 2001 by Rich Beck. Posted July 16, 2001.
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