A Magical Day That Butch Will Always Remember

By: Butch Dale

On a hot afternoon in the summer of 1956, my Dad drove me to the Darlington baseball diamond to sign me up for Farm League baseball. At the age of seven, I knew very little about the game, and when long-time coach Marion “Runt” Maxwell asked me what position I played, I replied in no uncertain terms, “I bat!” Both of them got a pretty good laugh out of that, but I soon learned there was a lot more to the game than just batting.

During the next two years, I practiced at school and home, playing catch and practicing my batting with friends and neighbors. I also loved to pitch and often just threw at a circle drawn on the side of our barn. In the fall of 1957, the Milwaukee Braves won the World Series, with players such as Warren Spahn, Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, and Lew Burdette, and they subsequently became my favorite team. I also admired star players such as Ernie Banks, Mickey Mantle, and Willie Mays…just to name a few. It was about this time that I also started collecting Topps baseball cards, which cost 5 cents a pack.

In 1961 when I was 12 years old, one of Dad’s friends, Eugene “Beaner” Hampton, the Darlington postmaster, asked Dad if he would like to go see a Cubs baseball game at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Beaner was a fanatical Cubs fan, and his team was playing against the Milwaukee Braves. He was taking his son, Bill, and he told Dad that my brother Gary and me were welcome to come along if we wanted to. Did we ever…we couldn’t wait!

On that day, we all packed into Beaner’s car for the two and a half hour ride to Chicago. We three boys took our baseball mitts in the hope of catching a foul ball or home run as a souvenir. There was a large crowd on that sunny afternoon as we climbed the stairs to reach our seat on the second floor balcony. The Braves were practicing on the field, and the first player I spied was my hero…Eddie Mathews, taking grounders at third base. My heart was pounding as I watched Hank Aaron, Felix Mantilla, Joe Adcock, Joe Torre, and Roy McMillan practicing before my very eyes…and then out came the Cubs players…Ernie Banks, Richie Ashburn, Billy Williams, Don Zimmer, and the others. I honestly could not believe I was actually at a major league baseball game!

I was so mesmerized that afternoon that I didn’t pay much attention to the score. But I remember that Don Zimmer fouled off a pitch which came in my direction. We were sitting right at the edge of the balcony. I stuck out my baseball mitt to try to catch the ball, but the man sitting next to me caught it…DANG! I also remember that Warren Spahn, one of my favorite pitchers, won the game and also hit a line-drive home run! I wanted to be like him!

On the return trip back home, I couldn’t wait to tell all of my friends about my adventures at Wrigley Field. I tried to imitate Warren Spahn’s pitching style, and I practiced my batting to emulate Eddie Mathews, Ernie Banks, and Hank Aaron. I was going to be in the major leagues when I grew up!

But alas, it was not to be. I did play Pony League and high school baseball. I was never a consistent batter, but I did manage to hit a few home runs through the years. I became a fairly decent pitcher and actually threw a couple of no-hitters in high school. I believe I could possibly have played college ball; however, I was married and had to work when I was attending Purdue and never gave baseball a try.

After attending that Braves-Cubs game in 1961, I wanted desperately to see another major league game…perhaps the New York Yankees vs. Baltimore Orioles…two more of my favorite teams. But it was never to be. Farming in the early 1960s was not profitable. Dad took two other part-time jobs just to make ends meet, and tickets for a major league game were out of the question. I understood. Anyway…I had seen my heroes in person that summer. I loved it…and I have never forgotten that day. Two of my boys have taken me to see a couple of major league games in the past few years. I told them that if I make it to Heaven someday, I hope God has some major league baseball games up there for me to watch every now and then!

– John “Butch” Dale is a retired teacher and County Sheriff. He has also been the librarian at Darlington the past 32 years, and is a well-known artist and author of local history.