In 1954, when The Sporting Information polled writers concerning the gamers they coated, Carl Erskine stood out. Amongst his fellow Brooklyn Dodgers, Erskine was cited for a number of attributes, together with “Greatest Marriage,” “Greatest Mother or father,” “Most Mental” and “Greatest Conversationalist.”
Erskine, 96, has outlived all of his teammates from that 1954 group. But after I visited him final month at his residence in Anderson, Ind., he nonetheless confirmed the identical traits these writers cited practically seven a long time in the past. He and his spouse, Betty, have been married for 75 years. The youngest of their 4 kids, Jimmy, was born with Down syndrome in 1961, and Carl’s work with the Particular Olympics and different organizations helped earn him the Corridor of Fame’s Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award this 12 months.
Erskine now not travels, so household and buddies will symbolize him on the ceremony on Saturday in Cooperstown, N.Y. However he stays an mental conversationalist, and his insights prolong nicely past the column I wrote from my go to. Listed below are a number of of these tidbits:
Going through Stan Musial
“He virtually by no means missed a swing. He all the time hit the ball someplace. Generally they’re a line shot, generally they’re a bloop. However he all the time made contact. You didn’t actually have an out pitch for him; he simply hit the ball someplace. However he acquired much less good contact with off-speed pitches.” Erskine added that he as soon as performed a harmonica duet with Musial. “I instructed him later, ‘It was loads simpler to play with you, Stan, than it was to play towards you.’”
“Aaron was an fascinating batter as a result of in his early years, he didn’t have very many residence runs. He hit these line drives, simply bullets; the time period in baseball is a clothesline. However he finally — I don’t know what modified — however he began getting the ball within the air. And when he did, he hit them out of the ballpark.”
Going through Willie Mays
“You lastly realized to pitch Mays inside since you all the time averted that as a result of he hit these upper-deck foul balls. You needed to actually crowd him lots to maintain him from getting the ball truthful. He was a pure hitter. These guys, there’s only a handful of them in baseball, they break all the foundations about the way you stand, the way you grip. However they’re the very best hitters within the league.”
Adjustments within the Recreation From 1949 to 1959
“The diamonds started to be extra persistently professionally performed. There weren’t so many unhealthy hops, that was one factor. Then the gloves improved the protection loads as a result of the gloves was very heavy, made out of cowhide. However they began making it out of kangaroo conceal, very light-weight leather-based, and it modified the way in which you can have an enormous glove however not so heavy. In order that was an enormous defensive change in baseball. Simply a part of the evolution of the sport.”
Transferring From Ebbets Area to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
“The Coliseum was just like the Polo Grounds had been within the Nationwide League, very brief down every line and deep within the outfield. So it was not a lot of a shock to pitch within the Coliseum, as a result of it reminded all of us of the Polo Grounds. That was one of many coincidences that occurred.”
On the Trendy Recreation
“That’s an fascinating query as a result of all of the adjustments truly got here from round baseball greater than in baseball. The sport itself and the basics, they hardly modified any. The way you discipline a floor ball, the way you hit the ball to the alternative discipline, all these issues are nonetheless there. So after I consider baseball, I don’t suppose a lot of the way it’s modified as a lot as the way it’s stayed the identical.”
On His Upbeat Outlook
“Norman Vincent Peale — are you aware that title? He was a minister. His id is his remark: constructive pondering. He all the time emphasised it. You possibly can suppose alternative ways, however one of the best ways to maintain life in perspective is to be constructive, and to see the constructive in it. In order that struck me, and I consider that. That’s what he’s recognized with. In actual fact, he wrote a e-book, ‘The Energy of Constructive Pondering,’ and it’s a strong e-book. It focuses you on a constructive life. As a substitute of all the time seeing the worst a part of the expertise, there’s all the time one thing in there to pick that offers you one other benefit. I like that. And I believe he’s proper.”