Page 68 - WhyAsInY

Why (as in yaverbaum)
me apart from my contemporaries, all of whom, naturally, rooted for the home team, the Dodgers. So there clearly was some identification there. One of his impressive tricks, performed until he was in his eighties, was to name the entire starting lineup of the 1921 Yankees, including Babe Ruth and Wally Pipp, who preceded Lou Gehrig at first base. They must have been the first major league team that he actually saw in action. He would also repeatedly tell his story of going to Prospect Park to see semi-pro games and having his mother prepare a lunch that he would take along. And what did she prepare for him? A duck sandwich! As I recall it, duck was his favorite main course. His favorite dessert was strawberry shortcake. I don’t know how often he would have duck, as I doubt that it was part of my mother’s repertoire, but my mom would frequently buy strawberry shortcake for him (and marzipan for her) at Ebinger’s, our local bakery.
Dad and Mom took me to my first baseball game on May 3, 1953, on the eve of my herniotomy. I was exactly eight and a half. The only thing that I recall about the actual game (which I have since Googled to learn that the Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Braves, 3–2) is that Billy Loes was pitching for the Dodgers and that I was intrigued when my father told me that Loes was their starting pitcher virtually every Sun- day. A normal pitching rotation would not have produced that result. What is really emblazoned in my memory had nothing to do with the game per se, however. It is the moment when we entered the stadium, exiting from the ramp leading to our seats near third base; I was spell- bound, as I saw for the first time that the floor of the field was a stunning and incredibly vast expanse of real grass, very, very green grass, greener grass than I had ever seen. Just amazing. Just beautiful. Before that day all of the baseball games that I had seen had been played on gray sur- faces, since all I had to go on was what I saw on our thirteen-inch black-and-white DuMont. (Just to try to keep up with my father, I record that the Dodgers’ starting lineup that day was Junior Gilliam, 2B, Pee Wee Reese, SS, Duke Snider, CF, Jackie Robinson, 3B, Roy Campanella, C, George Shuba, LF, Carl Furillo, RF, Gil Hodges, 1B, and, as I mentioned, Billy Loes, P. Of course, my father remembered his
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