From Bill Wartenweiler
Monroe
To the editor:
Monday was a slow night for sports viewing. The option I chose was baseball's Home Run Derby. It was part of the hoopla preceding Major League Baseball's All Star game. Supposedly, this was the biggest and best of today's home run hitters. They hit balls out of the park left and right as friendly pitchers lobbed easy pitches to the hitter.
Modern technology made it possible to instantly record the distance of each homer. The range was 350 to 450 feet.
All this reminded me of a summer night long ago when Skip Brennan and I were part of a gang of kids who chased foul balls at Huber Brewer Games at Rec Park.
The late Eddie Jordan was up to bat so we all moved down the right field line. As a left-handed hitter with power, he often pulled a ball foul and deep. At the crack of the bat, we all started running out. You knew he tagged one. As we crossed the road beyond the home run fence, we heard a loud thud. The ball hit the backside of the shelter house roof and two hops later the ball ended up in Hyde's Pond.
Now home plate at Rec Park has never changed and the shelter house has been there forever. So a few years back, Skip and I measured the distance from home plate to the middle of the backside of the shelter with a 100-foot tape. Eddie's blast traveled 485 feet on the fly.
Considering Eddie used a wooden bat, an old-style baseball, before steroids were invented, you would have to rank him among the best of the best of home run hitters.
Monroe
To the editor:
Monday was a slow night for sports viewing. The option I chose was baseball's Home Run Derby. It was part of the hoopla preceding Major League Baseball's All Star game. Supposedly, this was the biggest and best of today's home run hitters. They hit balls out of the park left and right as friendly pitchers lobbed easy pitches to the hitter.
Modern technology made it possible to instantly record the distance of each homer. The range was 350 to 450 feet.
All this reminded me of a summer night long ago when Skip Brennan and I were part of a gang of kids who chased foul balls at Huber Brewer Games at Rec Park.
The late Eddie Jordan was up to bat so we all moved down the right field line. As a left-handed hitter with power, he often pulled a ball foul and deep. At the crack of the bat, we all started running out. You knew he tagged one. As we crossed the road beyond the home run fence, we heard a loud thud. The ball hit the backside of the shelter house roof and two hops later the ball ended up in Hyde's Pond.
Now home plate at Rec Park has never changed and the shelter house has been there forever. So a few years back, Skip and I measured the distance from home plate to the middle of the backside of the shelter with a 100-foot tape. Eddie's blast traveled 485 feet on the fly.
Considering Eddie used a wooden bat, an old-style baseball, before steroids were invented, you would have to rank him among the best of the best of home run hitters.
