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‘Play ball!’ is music to some ears

Play ball are two words that get fans excited and the players gung ho for getting out on the field and making exciting plays or hitting the ball over the fence. The season is just around the corner.

There have been world baseball championship games with the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico on television for the past two weeks, and the United States came away the winner in an 8-0 championship against Puerto Rico. Lamont had been watching, but to me the real thing starts with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

In earlier years, I went to see the Pirates play at Forbes Field (I’m showing my age), and it was exciting to be close to the playing field. I attended with my father-in-law, Leland McCoy, and Jim Cibulka.

I remember, too, the last game of the 1960 World Series when the Pirates played the Yankees, and Bill Mazeroski showed everyone what a player from Rush Run could do. He was the one who in his youth used a broom stick and a bucket of stones, announcing he was hitting a home run to win the World Series each time there was a connection. His announcement came true in later years.

Lamont and I graduated in 1954 and Bill in 1955 from Warren Township Consolidated High School. I remember going to the Smithfield basketball games and seeing Maz as the opponent. None of us realized he would go on to become a Hall of Famer after making his baseball debut on July 7, 1956.

He played in World Series games in 1960 and 1971, and his No. 9 uniform was retired when he did.

Through Google, I learned that Forbes Field was named after Gen. John Forbes, a French and Indian War hero. The first game there was June 30, 1909, with the Chicago Cubs. Left field was 360 feet away; center was 462; and right field was 376. It was one of the hardest fields to connect for a home run, it was noted. Series wins were celebrated in 1925, 1927 and 1960. Forbes Field also was known for having two Hall of Fame players — Honus Wagner and Ralph Kiner.

Coincidentally, the last game played at Forbes was with the Chicago Cubs on June 28, 1970, the same team they started their season with in the new stadium in 1909.

Maz was my “close-to-home hero.” Roberto Clemente was another of my heroes, and I cried when I heard of his plane crash when delivering food and baseball equipment to earthquake victims in Nicaragua on Dec. 31, 1972.

My two other baseball heroes were Al Kaline and Mickey Mantle. Al was actually my first, and I was a Detroit Tigers fan for several years. Then Mickey was added to the pack, although I never was a fan of the Yankees. I have a book on Mantle called “The Hero, Mickey Mantle,” and I have read it five times. He played hurt many times, and I recall a game where it showed blood on the upper leg of his uniform where a wound had opened up through strenuous playing.

Getting more local, the Smithfield Indians Baseball League was coached by my Uncle Bill McHugh and Buck McCain. They were winners during the 1952 season, playing their games at the baseball field at the Smithfield Fairgrounds. You could be seated in the bleacher seats of the grandstand and were shaded from the sun to watch the games. This is where I first got to know Lamont. Someone might say that I was a baseball groupie.

When we first got married, he played softball with the Steubenville Falcons team, and we did plenty of running on weekends to play ball games. You might say it gave us plenty of practice for when our sons started Little League.

Lamont went on to coach the Tri-County Little League Spartans baseball for Larry, Jay and Darin, 20 years in all. His brother Larry, Darrell Tipton, Ron Kontra and Randy and Tom McCain also were coaches over the years.

Darin was chosen when he was 10 years old to play on the Tri-County Little All Star team, operating out of Harrisville. We did lots of running with sports events from 1969 through 1990, the span of years our boys played sports. I didn’t know what a movie theater was like during those summers and fall months, but I think it was one of busiest and most enjoyable time of my years as a mother.

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Back in 2011, the AARP newsletter had a page called the “Power of 50,” and there were 50 sayings by baseball players, umpires and announcers. I’m going to run through some of them. I’ll write the quip and then who said it, so I don’t have a long list at the end that I might mess up.

“It ain’t nothin’ til I call it.” BILL KLEM, UMPIRE.

“I never threw an illegal pitch. The trouble is, once in a while, I’d toss one that ain’t never been seen by this generation.” SACHEL PAIGE.

“Ninety percent of this game is half mental,” YOGI BERRA.

“I watch a lot of baseball on radio.” GERALD FORD, when president of the United States.

“Bob Gibson is the luckiest pitcher I ever saw. He always pitches when the other team doesn’t score any runs.” TIM MCCARVER.

“The other teams could make trouble for us if they win.” YOGI BERRA.

“Beethoven can’t really be great because his picture isn’t on a bubble gum card.” CHARLES SCHULTZ, creator of Peanuts.

“I think I throw the ball as hard as anyone. The ball just doesn’t get there as fast.” EDDIE BANE

“Third ain’t so bad if nothin’ is hit to you.” YOGI BERRA.

“There’s no crying in baseball.” TOM HANKS in the movie “A League of Their Own.”

“I never took the game home with me. I always left it in some bar.” BOB LEMON .

“We know we’re better than this, but we can’t prove it.” TONY GWYNN.

“It ain’t like football. You can’t make up no trick plays.” YOGI BERRA.

“All I remember about my wedding day in 1967 is that the Cubs lost a double header.” GEORGE F. WILL.

“Never root for a team whose uniforms have elastic stretch waistbands.” SUSAN SARANADON, movie star in “Bull Durham.”

“There ain’t much to being a ball player, if you’re a ball player,” HONUS WAGNER.

“The funny thing about these uniforms is that you hang them in the closet, and they get smaller and smaller.” CURT FLOOD.

“Sure I played. Did you think I was born at age 70 sitting in a dugout trying to manage guys like you?” CASEY STENGEL to Mickey Mantle.

“When you start the game they don’t say ‘Work ball!’ They say ‘Play ball!'” WILLIE STARGELL.

“The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until the ball stops rolling and then pick it up.” BOB UECKER

“A hot dog at the baseball game beats roast beef at the Ritz anytime.” HUMPHREY BOGART.

“He’s the strangest hitter in baseball. Figure him out one way, and he’ll kill you another.” SANDY KOUFAX on Roberto Clemente.

“Slump? I ain’t in no slump. I just ain’t hitting.” YOGI BERRA.

“A man once told me to walk with the Lord. I’d rather walk with the bases loaded.” KEN SINGLETON.

“I’d be willing to bet you, if I was a betting man, that I have never bet on baseball.” PETE ROSE.

“If you don’t succeed at first, try pitching.” JACK HARSHMAN.

“The Hall of Fame is for baseball people. Heaven is for good people.” JIM DWYER.

“He looks like a greyhound, but he runs like a bus.” GEORGE BRETT on third baseman, Jamie Quirk.

“If a horse won’t eat it, I don’t want to play on it.” DICK ALLEN about artificial turf.

“Think! How the hell are you gonna’ think and hit at the same time?” YOGI BERRA.

“Trying to sneak a pitch past Hank Aaron is like trying to sneak the sunrise past a rooster.” JOE ADCOCK.

That’s all for the baseball quips. Whatever your team, enjoy it for the game that it is. That is something my dad would tell me when I was upset over not coming out on top in something that I tried.

(McCoy, a resident of Smithfield, is food editor and a staff columnist for the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times. She can be contacted at emccoy@heraldstaronline.com.)

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