How The Braves Gave One Fan The Baseball Experience Of A Lifetime

Steve Jaronik was nine years old in 1963 when the Milwaukee Braves gave a young kid the experience of a lifetime. Jaronik wrote the Braves asking if he could meet the players from his favorite team. What happened next seems like an impossibility in today's era of teams closely guarding access to their players.

Steve Jaronik with Willie Mays in 1963 at County Stadium

A few months later, Bob Allen, the team's public relations director unexpectedly wrote him a letter with an invitation to the ballpark. He traveled with his family from Illinois, and the Braves took him on a journey that any fan, old or young, would cherish forever. In the video below, Jaronik narrates the entire day's events, which includes meeting multiple Hall of Famers (Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn, Willie Mays) in an emotional play for one's heart.

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Milwaukee Brave Denis Menke recalls the greatest game ever pitched 50 years later

On July 2nd, 1963, a 42-year-old Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves squared off against the 25-year-old Juan Marichal of the San Francisco Giants in a duel for the ages. Sixteen innings later, the game ended with one of the future Hall of Famers on the mound watching the flight of a home run by another legend carry off into exile. What transpired in between those 16 innings makes this matchup one that many experts argue is the greatest game ever pitched.

Denis Menke, just a few weeks shy of his 23rd birthday, was a promising infielder for the Braves learning under the tutelage of veterans such as Frank Bolling, Roy McMillan, and Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews. Menke started that game on the bench, but was unexpectedly tapped by manager Bobby Bragan to enter the game in the fourth inning.

Denis Menke - 1963 Topps

 
"Eddie [Mathews] got hurt, that's the only reason he came out of that game," the 72-year-old Menke said Tuesday evening from his home in Tarpon Springs, Florida.

Menke spent the remaining 12 innings of the game at third base, cementing his place in the legendary contest.

"It was just amazing, the people that were involved in that game, it was really something," he said. "You think about it now all of the Hall of Famers that were in that game." (There were seven future Hall of Famers that participated in that game, and an eighth in Gaylord Perry in the bullpen for the Giants.)

He managed two hits off of the stingy Marichal, who struck out ten Braves hitters that day. Despite the Dominican pitcher's dominance, Menke felt comfortable in the box.

"I didn't mind facing Marichal because I knew he was always going to be around the plate," he said. "He was going to give you a pitch to hit, what you did with it was up to you. He could throw a strike from any position, sidearm, overhand, three-quarters ... any pitch! That was what was amazing about him."

Maybe even more impressive than Marichal's efforts was the performance of Spahn at that stage in his career. At 42, he was a year older than the Giants manager Alvin Dark and still excelling at his craft.

"With Spahnie, I don't think he ever thought his age came into play," Menke said. "He was such a competitor and he just enjoyed the competition. I think that's one reason why he just kept on going. He had one of those great arms that could keep on throwing. His motion was so good. It was just one of those things you had to marvel at."

As each team put up zeroes, it became an increasing battle of wits between the two mounds men. Neither man wanted to leave the game. Pitch counts be damned, their pride was a bigger issue.

"You look at Marichal on the other end that was 25-years-old. He wasn't going to let a 42-year-old man to show him up. He wasn't going to come out of that game," Menke said.

The Braves had a scare in the 9th inning when Willie McCovey hit a towering fly ball down the left field line. Menke, who was playing third base, took a long look at it and couldn't tell whether the ball was fair or foul.

"McCovey in the 9th inning hit one just foul," Menke said. "Nobody knows if it was really foul. In Candlestick, they way the wind blew, McCovey hit 'em so high, it was hard to tell if it was fair or foul. I was on the third base side and they asked me if I could tell and I said, 'Nope.' For our sake, the umpire made the right call."

Both teams barely reached base in the extra frames until the 14th inning when an error by Menke loaded the bases for the Giants. Spahn extinguished that fire by getting catcher Ed Bailey to hit a pop-up to center field, but when Willie Mays stepped to the plate in the 16th, it was 1951 all over again. Mays garnered his first major league hit, a home run off of Spahn in 1951.

The Giants center fielder wasted no time this at-bat, and hit Spahn's first offering over the left-field fence for a home run. Spahn said it was a screwball that, "didn't break worth a damn." Finally after four hours, the game was over.

Spahn finished the year 23-7, tying his 1953 for his best season ever. It would also be his last effective run in the majors. He would pitch two more years in the major leagues, posting marks of well under .500 for the Braves, New York Mets and ironically the Giants. Marichal ended 1963 with a 25-8 record, starting a string of four consecutive 20-win seasons. The two would combine for 606 career victories, earning them both enshrinement in Cooperstown.

A half-century later, this particular contest left an indelible mark on Menke, an incredible feat for someone who spent 40 years as a player, coach, and minor league manager.

"I give those two pitchers a lot of credit because I don't think we'll ever see a game like that again."

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Eddie Carnett: At 93 memories of a baseball player and soldier in World War II are as clear as ever

World War II veteran and retired major league baseball player Eddie Carnett holds the unique distinction of being one of only a handful of players to make their debut as a pitcher and later return to play full time as a position player. Others on this short list include Smokey Joe Wood, Lefty O'Doul, and someone named Babe Ruth. While Carnett did not put up Ruthian-like numbers, he was an excellent mentor, teaching Warren Spahn his pick-off move and tutoring Bob Feller on how to throw a slider.

Eddie Carnett / Author's Collection

Carnett is one of the few living members of the legendary Great Lakes Naval baseball team. On this Memorial Day in 2010, he recalled his entrance into the Navy 65 years ago.

"I'm pretty old, I'll be 94 pretty soon," Carnett said via telephone. "I went to Great Lakes in 1945, 65 years ago today. I was 28, heck I was an old man in the service! It was very interesting. Bob Feller was our manager, Walker Cooper was our catcher, I played first base, and Johnny Groth was in center field. Pinky Higgins was there too. We were all big league ballplayers."

A few days into his service, Carnett played in an exhibition game against the Detroit Tigers. He recalled an entertaining exchange between Hall of Fame manager Mickey Cochrane and pitcher Schoolboy Rowe over the decision to pitch that day.

"In fact, on June 6th we had an exhibition game; the Detroit Tigers came into Great Lakes and I hadn't been there too long," he recalled. "I remember Mickey Cochrane was the manager, and before the game, Schoolboy said [to Cochrane], 'Skip, it's kinda cold out there today.' Cochrane shot him a look and said, 'It's pretty warm over in the South Pacific.' Rowe quickly said, 'Give me the damn ball skip!' Rowe and Virgil Trucks pitched and we beat them. In fact, we beat every big league club we played."

In 1944 while playing with the Chicago White Sox, a visit to a Philadelphia area hospital proved to be a sobering experience for Carnett about the realities of war.

"We went around and played quite a few exhibition games across the country," he said. "We went into the Valley Forge Hospital in Philadelphia with all of the guys from the White Sox. All of the guys from Normandy were sent back shot up. I never seen such a bloody mess in my life. That was when they went across the channel and got shot up.

"One big kid, his idol was Hal Trosky. The nurse told me he had both eyes shot out, he had a bandage over his face so I didn't know that. Trosky was in a batting slump, and the kid got up and said, 'I can see ol' Hal Trosky now.' He just stood there perfect in Trosky's stance, and Trosky got white as a sheet. Trosky then said, 'It takes a blind kid to tell me what I was doing wrong.' There wasn't a dry eye in the room; he wasn't worried about his eyes, he was worried about his buddy Trosky, his baseball idol. I'll tell ya, I would have rather been over there than see what I seen coming back at Valley Forge Hospital. Those guys that came back, I'm telling you, they were shot up."

Carnett explained why many of these horror stories never reached the public consciousness.

"The public never sees any of this stuff," he said. "And I can understand why the government hides this stuff from them. I don't know whether the public can take it or not. War is hell! There ain't nothing fair about war. If I know you are going to try to shoot me, I am going to shoot you first and ask questions later."

He also acknowledged that some of the players took heat from their fellow servicemen because they were shielded from combat duty as they traveled the country playing exhibition games for the troops. A vast majority of the armed forces appreciated what they were doing.

"I was fortunate," he said. "I was in the Navy, scheduled to go out in a bunker hill and [instead] the Commodore of our Naval District wanted us to go around. We went to Fort Dix and played some exhibition games. There were a couple of soldiers that called me a draft dodger because I was playing ball. The guys over there in the Army told me not to worry and they picked those guys up and threw them out of the ballpark."

Far removed from his military service, Carnett suggested enlisting the services of the retired veterans to help put an end to battle.

"I'll tell you how to stop war," he said. "Take guys like me, 80-90 years old and put us in the service, on the front lines, and after four or five shots, you know what we're going to say, 'What in the hell are we doing here?'"

While the current administration may not be knocking down his door anytime soon, Carnett is glad to be around to continue to tell his story.

"I had a lot of good friends in baseball and I miss them," he lamented. "I love the fans. A lot of my buddies lost their lives, the only thing I lost was money and my big league career. That was fine; I came back alive."

Carnett is featured in the following books about World War II and baseball:

Hardball on the Home Front: Major League Replacement Players of World War II - Craig Allen Cleve

Bluejackets of Summer: The History of the Great Lakes Naval Baseball Team 1942-1945 - Roger Gogan

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