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My Greatest Day in Baseball
by Phil Terrana
One of the best baseball books ever
One of the first books I remember reading was My Greatest Day in Baseball by John P. Carmichael and others. Published in 1951 by Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, it told, as stated on the very first page, 47 dramatic stories by 47 famous stars. While others in line explained to their kids that Spahn pitched for the Braves and was in the Hall of Fame, I told my kids about the time in 1963, when at the age of 42 and on the way to a 23-7 record, he faced Juan Marichal in what was probably the greatest pitching match-up ever. Marichal at the time was 25 years old and himself in the early stages of his own Hall of Fame career. The two men were locked in a scoreless tie after nine innings, a situation that would be unheard of in today’s world. Marichal’s manager wanted to take him out but Juan protested that there was no way he was going to come out until the old man came out. And that wasn’t going to happen. Spahn eventually lost the game in the bottom of the 16th inning—that’s right, two innings shy of a double header—when he gave up a solo home run to Willie Mays. If there were 500 people in that line I’d guess you could count on one hand the number who knew that story. I told them about Spahn’s first no-hitter in 1960 at the age of 39 and his second one the next year at 40. I continued to tell them stories—about Spahn and about baseball back in the days when you could watch a guy like Mazeroski win the World Series with a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth in the seventh game and then talk about it over dinner. Before you could say, “Play ball” we were at the head of the line and I was face to face with the greatest left-handed pitcher of them all. He was very friendly, signed the girl’s caps and asked them about their team. And then I stepped up and put my copy of My Greatest Day in Baseball, opened up to page 205. He looked at the book, particularly at the sketch of a very young Warren Spahn, smiled and said, “That’s a pretty old book you have there.” I smiled back and said, “You’re a pretty old pitcher,” and we both shared a laugh. Spahn never knew what it was like to be an old pitcher. He was always just a pitcher—well not just a pitcher—he was the greatest pitcher. Rick commented: Phil, thank you for sharing your baseball story with myself and our readers. What a special moment that had to be for you. It is rare that we get that opportunity to interact with one of the baseball heroes from our youth. MLB in the 50's was indeed wonderful. Those of us that were fortunate enough to have that experience keep the memories in a special place in our hearts, so much of it lived through the collection of baseball cards and reading books like the one you describe. Yours in baseball, Rick
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