OTDIB – May 29th – 104 year-old World War One vet visits Dodger Stadium
On this date in baseball, May 29th:
May 29th, 2010 – Doc is in the house
Roy Halladay throws the 20th perfect game in major league history, outdueling Josh Johnson in the Phillies’ 1-0 victory over the Marlins at Miami’s Sun Life Stadium. The former American League Cy Young Award winner, obtained from Toronto in the off-season, joins Jim Bunning as the only other hurler in franchise history to accomplish the feat
I mention this one because Jim Bunning died last week.
May 29th, 2000 – WWI vet visits Dodger Stadium
At the age of 104, Fred Roberts, the oldest living Dodger fan, makes his first visit to Dodger Stadium. Wearing a jersey with the number 104, the World War I veteran cheers as Shawn Green’s sixth inning grand slam helps to beat Al Leiter and the Mets, 4-1.
May 29th, 1979 – Dodger power
At Dodger Stadium, Dusty Baker, Rick Sutcliffe, Steve Garvey, Gary Thomasson, Derrel Thomas, Joe Ferguson, and Davey Lopes set a team record by hitting seven home runs as the Dodgers crush the Reds, 17-6.
I was at this game, they lit up a young Red prospect named Frank Pastore. But guess what. The date was actually May 25th, 1979 not May 29th as the website claims. Didn’t occur to me that I had to error check these events.
- Posted in: On this day in baseball history ♦ Uncategorized
- Tagged: Doc Halladay, Fred Roberts, Jim Bunning, Roy Halladay
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 
The sister of my mother’s mother married a man named Ralph.
Ralph would be one hundred nineteen years old now, but he has been at peace since he was around age ninety.
He served in the Great War with his brother. They joined the Marine Corps. together, leaving the family farm in Minnesota.
Ralph told me he was a pretty nifty baseball player before the war. Said he would have given going pro a shot.
Ralph was severely wounded in his first action.
As he and his brother were charging across a field side by side, just as they were reaching the trees at a place called Belleau Wood he saw his brother go down. Ralph watched his brother die on the spot. They had both been hit by machine gun fire.
At first, Ralph didn’t realize that he had been hit too. After his brother passed, which wasn’t very long at all, Ralph found that he had been shot as well. He was shot in the chest and left eye.
The doctors and nurses saved Ralph’s life, His life going forward would be without his right lung and the use of his left eye, now blind.
When I met Ralph, I would have never guessed such a calamity had befallen him.
Ralph was sent home to Minnesota to convalece. He left the Marine Corps.as a First Leutenant.
His doctor in Minnesota advised Ralph to seek the warmer climes of Los Angeles, Ca.with the hope that this would help him breath easier and help him heal.
In 1920, Ralph arrived in LA with no job and no money. He decided to give security sales a try on the advice of friends. He eventually got good at at. Good enough to eventually have a house next door to Clark Cable.
But the success didn’t start immediately. Until Ralph became proficient in sales, he earned his income hustling golf games at Los Angeles Country Club. Somehow he was able to walk on without being a member.
When I was first starting out in sales it was nerve wracking for me. Ralph gave me a lesson on perspective. He told me real pressure was teeing the golf ball up on the first hole and making a big bet on the round with three other wealthy men, when all the while, you did not have a dollar in your pockets! That is when you must win, he would tell me.
When the stock market crashed, Ralph lost everything. He decided to start a security company.
A guard company. Ralph became very, very successful again. After WWII, Ralph put together a trucking company. My mom’s brother, my dad, a man from the security company, and a family friend were the first employees. My mom was the first secretary the trucking company ever had.
Ralph and my aunt did not have any children and he enjoyed taking me under his wing.
His persona was very much like the character George C. Scott portrayed in the movie Patton.
A good friend of the Great Ace Eddie Rickenbacker.
Uncle Ralph loved golf and enjoyed his life, but he took it seriously.
Real Grit.
“Everybody’s had to fight to be free.”
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This is outstanding. Sounds like a bigger than life type of person. My best friends Dad was also a golf hustler. He had some interesting stories. Never bet against the local golf pros.
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