MINDEN, LA (1942) -- I was just a kid whose hero at that time was JoJo Vitter with the old Shreveport Sports in the old Texas League. I had not seen him play but listened to the games being broadcast from KWKH in Shreveport. I was thirteen years old and never played the game on an organized basis. Larry Hunter, owner of the Coca Cola Bottling Co. in Minden was sponsoring a baseball program for kids in Minden because he loved kids and baseball. Along with many other young boys in Minden, I went to the old baseball park by the bottling plant. To our surprise we found this former New York Yankee, The Kid himself, here at the ballpark. Mr. Hunter had brought him there for the summer to teach us the game.
I guess you might imagine how we felt. A real baseball player. A former Yankee. There he was. Not a big man but small in stature. Some of us did not have baseball shoes or much of a glove. It didn't matter to this man. He taught us how to hold the bat, how to field the balls in the infield, how to throw the ball, how to hit the ball, how to run the bases and how to slide. We listened to everything he said. He even taught us how to get on the pitcher from the dugout. We learned what "YOU HARD HEAD" meant when we screwed up. We learned the fundamentals of the game and how hard we should try to win the game. There was also storytelling time. Stories about Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and many others that he told us after practice and games were over.
This was well after his playing days were over and I can't help but wonder why someone like him would take the time to come to a small town like Minden and spend time with a bunch of Rock Heads like us teaching the game he loved when he could have stayed in Florida and lived the good life. Just the work of the Good Lord in putting two great men in touch who must have shared the same thoughts about young boys who needed some guidance during a hard time in our country. He may not be in Baseball's Hall of Fame but he is not forgotten by all of us old Rock Heads who are still around today.
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