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BaseballLibrary.com
Copyright © 2002
by The Idea Logical
Company, Inc.
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All serious baseball fans know that at any given major league game, something will happen that he or she has not seen before. For example, one may be present for a “perfect game,” which has occurred less than twenty times in the history of the game. In a less glorious vein, one may be present to witness a runner passing another runner on the base paths, an oddity that results in an automatic out.

I have been a fan long enough to have witnessed numerous unusual events at baseball games. To me, at, least, the most unusual was one that I not only witnessed, but actually participated in. That it happened is unusual enough, but the setting was Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, a baseball venue for the ages that has been gone (but not forgotten) for decades.

It was the summer of 1953, and I was a Korean War Veteran attending college, and working part time as a “Playground Director” in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, which was a short walk from Ebbets Field. My brother and his wife were visiting from their home in Florida, and stopped by the park to say hello. We decided to see the ballgame, which was between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Chicago Cubs, went to the ball park, and sat in the left field bleachers, immediately behind the visiting team’s bullpen.

That day, the Brooklyn Dodgers destroyed the Chicago Cubs, and during the course of the game, it was abundantly clear that another pitching change was going to take place. Glancing at the scorecard by chance, I noticed that there was a Cub pitcher by the name of Simpson (Thomas Leo Simpson to be precise). Curiously, his last name was the same as that of a business that my brother was then associated with.

For no particular reason other than to have some fun, I suggested that we start a chant, calling for the entry of this young pitcher into the game. My brother and sister-in-law joined me in this nonsense, and the chant spread throughout the stands, much in the manner that the “wave” does these days. In short order, the stands literally were shaking with the cry, “we want Simpson,” and a rather high noise level was achieved. The game was already out of hand, and I assumed then, as I always have, that the Chicago manager heard the noise, believed this pitcher had relatives in New York, had him start warming up, and brought him into the game. You could look it up, as Casey Stengel would say. Simpson was substantially beat upon, and allowed several runs.

I do not know where Thomas Leo Simpson is today, but I hope that he is alive and well. While 1953 was the only year that he played major league baseball, merely reaching the “bigs” is an accomplishment achieved by very few.

» Sam Person is a retired CPA and university professor of accounting who has been a baseball fan for sixty years.