Page 71 - REALLY What A time Book IX

REALLY SO WHAT
What A Time

SPORTS

This was the time of the baseball greats, Babe Ruth, Lou
Gehrig, Bill Dickey, Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller or Warren
Spahn and the man with the best eyes ever Ted Williams.
But, there were others that played the game.

In Washington, The Washington Nationals or ‘Nat’s’. Our
shortstop, Sam Dente, was known for his inability to stop a
grounder. Gil Coan was the outfield wizard batting .220.
They made claim to the famous stage musical ‘Damn Yankees’.
Enthusiasm for the game was high. So if you didn’t play
another sport like Tennis at least you could go for the baseball
rage.
There were no organized baseball teams until I was much
older, and had moved from Fairlington. There were
organizations, Kiwanis, that had 14 and under and 12 and
under teams and leagues, for boys only. But, usually sports
were all ‘Pick-up’ games where we would play ourselves,
without adult supervision.

Everyone played. It was called ‘Work-up’. We would gather
together throwing and catching the ball or shagging it to the
outfield. When we had enough kids we would start a game.
The term ‘Work-up’ came from the position you held. If there
were enough players 3 would be at bat. Next would be the
catcher, then the pitcher on around the field. If there were 2
shortstops they would precede the third basemen. The batters
would continue until one was put out, and everyone would

71