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Batboy for Jackie Robinson and
The Brooklyn Dodgers! By Max Nichols |
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Daring, guts and lightning
speed. |
Jackie Robinson steals home in
one of the most dazzling feats of World Series history – Game One, the 1955
World Series. The Dodgers triumphed
over the Yankees to become World champs and Brooklyn exploded! |
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Batboy for Jackie Robinson and
The Brooklyn Dodgers By Max Nichols Back in 1947, I was just
another kid playing baseball in the Oklahoma City YMCA leagues and dreaming
of playing in the major leagues some day. I had seen the Oklahoma
City Indians play a few games in the Texas League, and I had seen the Chicago
Cubs and the Detroit Tigers play a 1945 spring exhibition game in Oklahoma
City. I still have autographs from Henry Lee “Peanuts” Lowrey (who signed his
name as “P-Nuts” Lowrey) and Hank Borowy of the Cubs. I was playing shortstop
in 1947, when I hurt my arm throwing sidearm, and it soon became clear I
could never play professional baseball. However, I knew from school that I
could write, and I had read my first Sport magazine that year, so I started
thinking about becoming a sports writer. I read about Jackie Robinson and how
badly he often was treated as major leagues’ first black player for the
Brooklyn Dodgers. Two years later, when I
was 15, I won an essay contest to become the batboy for visiting clubs of the
Oklahoma City Indians, describing Robinson as my hero and my sports writing
dream. On my first day, the Dodgers came to town for an exhibition, and I was
honored to kneel in the on-deck circle with Robinson five times. I was
thrilled. That day and my batboy
experience led directly to my 25-year career as a sports writer, primarily
covering the Minnesota Twins during the 1960s and 1970s for The Minneapolis
Star. My biggest day came in 1972, when I served as president of the Baseball
Writers Association of America and master of ceremonies at the Baseball Hall
of Fame induction in Cooperstown. N.Y. This story goes back to
April 1947 and my first Sport magazine, which I still have. It featured a
“Sport Special” by Tom Meany on “Leo Durocher – Always on the Spot.” I
started learning about Hall of Fame stars Paul Waner, Lloyd Waner and Carl
Hubbell, who had grown up within 45 miles of my home in Oklahoma. The September issue of
Sport that year included a piece by Roscoe McGowen entitled “If You Were Jackie Robinson.” McGowen
described what it was like for Robinson to be the first black player in the
majors, staying in separate hotels in some cities, and how players were
divided on accepting him. I knew about segregation
in Oklahoma at that time, but I never really thought about it until I started
to read more about Jackie. I started noticing signs for separate drinking
fountains and rest rooms, and I started asking why blacks lived in segregated
areas. I rooted for Jackie while
listening to radio broadcasts of the 1947 World Series. The more I read Sport
and The Daily Oklahoman and Times sports pages, the more I wanted to become a
sports writer. I read articles by Grantland Rice, Red Smith, Oscar Fraley,
Frank Graham, Ed Fitzgerald, Fried Lieb, Milton Gross and Stanley Woodward,
among others. Then came my job at Texas League Park. On April 5, 1949, I
served as batboy for the Brooklyn Dodgers before 6,832 fans. Before the game,
my picture was taken with Pee Wee Reese, and it appeared the next day in The
Daily Oklahoman, but that was just the start. Also before the game, I shagged
balls for Brooklyn Coach Jake Pitler during infield practice. Pitler hit pop
flies for catcher Roy Campanella, who caught each one and shouted “I’m the
champ!” I believed him. During the game, I was
thrilled to watch from a few feet away as Jackie stole home on the front end
of a double steal. I can still see the
determination on his face. The Cleveland Indians,
who owned the Oklahoma City Indians, came to town the next day. The great
Satchel Paige placed a match cover on home plate before the game and asked me
to stand behind the catcher. Paige threw five fastballs over that match
cover. I will never forget it, though I have read he did that other times. During the season, I
served as batboy for numerous future and former major league stars, but the
most unforgettable was Pete Gray, who had only one arm. He had batted .218
for the St. Louis Browns in 1945 and was playing for the Dallas Eagles in
1949. He took me to the outfield and showed me how he would catch a ball,
toss it up, shove his glove under his shortened arm, catch the ball and throw
it – all in one motion. Bob Reynolds, the
Oklahoma City Indians general manager, hired me to work in the press box
during the next four seasons, so I could get to the writers. Bob Murphy, the sportscaster
later with the New York Mets, broadcast Oklahoma City Indians games during
that time. His brother, Jack Murphy, wrote a column for the Oklahoma City
Times before moving to San Diego. I started working part time for The Daily
Oklahoman as a University of Oklahoma freshman and became a full time sports
writer as a junior. Larry Friedman, now a
long time member of The Society of the Silurians, was working for the
Associated Press in Oklahoma City during my senior year in 1956. He was a
graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and he
recommended me to Columbia. I was admitted, and that was a tremendous step
for me. After graduating from
Columbia in 1957, I worked that summer for the New York Associated Press
sports staff, where I met Joe Reichler and Murray Chass. Reichler recommended
that I take an offer from The Minneapolis Star, because Minnesota would
become a major league area in the future. He was right. I served two years in
the Army and joined The Star sports staff in 1959. The Washington Senators
moved to Minnesota in 1961 and became the Twins. The Star baseball writer
retired in August of that year, and I started covering the Twins. Reichler’s
plan had worked perfectly. Obviously, I had
numerous big moments, including the Twins-Los Angeles Dodgers World Series of
1965. I saw Harmon Killebrew slug numerous big home runs, including the first one ever hit over the left field roof
at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. I saw the last game ever played at Griffith
Stadium in Washington and the first game at Yankee Stadium after it was
rebuilt in 1976. I also saw Henry Aaron hit home run No. 715. There also were some fun
times off the field. I once hunted ducks on a Minnesota game farm with Billy
Martin, who coached third base for the Twins in 1967, and Mickey Mantle, his
best friend and a former Oklahoman, It was so cold the ducks flew only a few
feet over our heads, but Mantle put blanks in Martin’s gun. Martin would
blast away and then curse as the ducks kept flying. Mantle rolled over in the
snow, laughing. Late in the 1967 season,
I did not cover the final Twins games in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski led the Red
Sox to the American League pennant in those final games. I knew Yastrzemski
was a great player, but I had seen Cesar Tovar play four positions for the
Twins in the pennant race that year and voted for him as my top choice for
Most Valuable Player. It turned out I was the only BBWAA writer who did not
make Yaztrzemski my first choice, and I was criticized by writers from coast
to coast. I understood the criticism and did not fight back. In 1969, I became sports
editor and started writing a column. I was elected president of the BBWAA in
1972, and that led to one of my biggest days in baseball I served as master
of ceremonies for the 1972 induction ceremonies at the Baseball Hall of Fame
in Cooperstown. I had the honor of
introducing Mrs. Babe Ruth and eight new members of the Hall Fame, including
Yogi Berra, Josh Gibson, Lefty Gomez, William Harridge, Sandy Koufax, Walter
(Buck) Leonard, Early (Gus) Wynn and
Ross Youngs. Baseball Commissioner
Howie Kuhn asked me to become publicity director for his office in 1973. I
tried to move to Connecticut, but the commute was so difficult that I moved
back to Minnesota within a few weeks and returned to The Star. I continued my column
until 1980, when I moved to Oklahoma as managing editor of The Journal
Record, a daily business newspaper. In 1990, I became the public relations
director for the Oklahoma Historical Society. My wife, Mickey, died of
Alzheimer’s in 2002. I wrote a book (“Every Single Good Day”) about caring
for her. I moved to New York in
2003 to join my partner, Carol Rosenwald. We have connections going back to
high school, though she is from New Haven and has lived in Manhattan for more
than 50 years. I have had a wonderful life with great memories, and it all
started with serving as a batboy for Jackie Robinson and the Dodgers. |
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