Baseball - August 9, 2012

BREAKING NEWS!!  Calico Joe, the movie, will soon be a reality.  A major production

company in Hollywood has purchased the motion picture rights.  Of course, it will take a

couple of years or longer to write the screenplay and assemble the cast.  I am hoping that

part of the filming will be made in Calico Rock which is Joe’s home town (in the book).

I am making myself available to portray Joe in the film version of this exciting story.  I

have all the credentials.  I’m a native of Calico Rock.  I was a baseball star in my youth.

And, I know how to use a riding lawn mower.  What more could you ask for?  Perhaps

 my son, Steve, might fill in for the close-ups of the younger Joe.  I’m already excited.

Maybe now would be a good time to make good my promise to tell about my athletic

accomplishments when I was just a teenager here in the Queen City.  Somewhere in this

issue is a photo of the Calico Rock Polecats baseball team.  This was a team of local kids

that was put together by Sherman and Vivene who were former residents that had moved

back home from Albuquerque.  I don’t know how to better put it than to say the Polecats

really stunk, pun intended.  They were in desperate need for a power hitter.  Sherman

came to me on bended knee, begging me to help turn this ragtag group into a baseball

team.  I agreed to help out and in no time we were ready to play.  I don’t remember the

exact number of home runs I hit that summer but I’m pretty sure it was less than 25.

I do know that I didn’t reach my goal of batting .400, but it was a good summer and

I had fun playing with those youngsters.  The high point of the season was when we beat

the tar out of the men’s team.  Sherman and Vivene took us all out to a local café for a

celebration.  But that’s not the high point of my baseball career.  That came with another

team altogether.  Harold Louis was the coach of this team which was comprised of high

school boys that just liked to play the sport.  Our transportation was a flatbed truck that

belonged to Harold Louis’ dad.  We would just pile onto the back of the truck and off

we would go (remember this phrase).  The most memorable game we played was against

Mountain View.  I was discussing this with Harold Ray the other night.  He was our

catcher and the pitcher was a fireballer, Henderson, Jr.  I played first base, the position

I played most of the time.  I don’t recall all the team members, but I remember Thednal

played either shortstop or third base.  Don was the centerfielder and he almost always

misjudged a fly ball, recovering just in time to make a spectacular catch reaching high

above his head.  The stage was set and since we were on their home field, we batted

first.  Their pitcher was their ace lefthander, one of the Wallace boys.  He was a little

wild and walked the first two batters he faced.  I was batting third and I immediately

hit a screaming liner to right center for a double, scoring the runner from second base

with what proved to be the winning run.  The other runner went to third.  We ended the

inning making five runs before Wallace settled down and that was the last runs we made.

Now it was their turn.  Their first batter was their star, Billy Joe.  He hit a long fly to deep

center, but Don caught it in his usual fashion.  Billy Joe sent another long one to Don in

the fourth inning.  In the seventh, Billy Joe tried a new tactic.  He tried to punch one into

right field but I leaped high and caught it in the web of my glove to save the game which we

won 5-0, a perfect game, three up and three down for nine innings.  Two weeks later on a

trip to play Mt. Pleasant, Harold Lewis got too close to a culvert which caught the right dual

wheel and pitched Don, Jimmy and myself  off with career-ending injuries.  Remembering

the fun times and expecting a phone call from Hollywood any time, this is Reed.  Bye!!