By: The Observer

The Observer — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 22:52:52 +0000

Bruce, thanks for helping to bring back a flood of memories and names from my youth in L.A. The Coliseum was the worst baseball stadium ever, with that giant net “wall” in shortened left field, and half the field lights not working….but it did allow the beloved Dodgers to come west.

By: Rich Rifkin

Rich Rifkin — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 20:20:43 +0000

Bruce, one of the great NL All-Stars that year was Vada Pinson.(In the game, he was used only as a pinch runner for Joe Cunningham, a member of the Cardinals, who was an on-base machine.) I am not sure if Vada was eligible for the Rookie of the Year, because the Reds brought him up in 1958, when he was just 19. But he really broke out in 1959. And he looked like a sure Hall of Famer until he was 28 years old. However, he got hurt at 29 and never really was all that good for the last half of his career. Pinson grew up in Oakland, and he attended McClymond’s High School, the same school (around the same time) which produced Bill Russell, Frank Robinson, Paul Silas, and Curt Flood. That was a pretty amazing generation of talent all to come out of one school in West Oakland, only a few blocks from where I was born on Pill Hill.

Comments on: Mantle, Mays, Williams and Spahn. Oh, my!

By: The Observer

By: Rich Rifkin