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Are You A Side-Line Coach
With spring in the air, flower’s and baseball are in full bloom. As the father of a nine-year old son, each day is spent perfecting the art of baseball. This includes making that perfect pitch to first base, snagging those ground balls and...
International Spring Training
Baseball Team Detroit Tigers and The Italian National Baseball
Team will play an exhibition game at Lakeland, Florida on March
4th. The Italians are preparing for the World Baseball Classic,
for this reason, they will train in the Tigers' spring...
My Prize Piece of Baseball Memorabilia
My Prize Piece of Baseball Memorabilia Back in the day ... I used to deal in baseball cards, and some memorabilia in the mid to late 1980's. Through an old client I had the opportunity to sell a very rare piece of baseball lore. The piece that I...
Sport View for October
For those of you keeping score at home, my preseason picks for the World Series were in fact Anaheim over Houston. Up until a week ago it wasn’t looking the least bit likely, now it’s at least possible (I will admit maybe not probable). But I do...
Top T.E.N Sports Stories of 2004
In no particular order, these are T.E.N webzine's Top Sports stories in 2004 Red Sox win world series after 86 years.The world series itself was anti-climatic compared to the never before done in baseball comeback from a 3 game deficit over...
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Baron Drexel and Harris - My Mentors, Teachers and Coaches
My life was always about playing ball, mostly baseball as I grew up. Therefore, I was always at the playground on Chancellor Avenue. This was a hotbed for sports activity in the Weequahic section of Newark. From Monday through Saturday there were countless games taking place. Baseball on the dirt field and softball on the blacktop. Basketball games, and volley ball games were always being played. Mr Barone, Mr Drexel and Mr Harris oversaw the games that were played. Sometimes they played in those games. They ran the show. Organizing teams for a given game or creating teams for a new league they took charge and got things done. I did not realize some of the things they did that impacted my life until I left the playground scene many years later.
I looked up to all three of them, for being fair, for listening when I had a problem and for being funny. Each one of them was unique. Each one of them was taught me in their own style.
Mr Barone or Mr B as most of us called him was about five feet. The only thing that was small about him was his height. Playing ball with the teenagers was one of his favorite things to do. He often was the director that played in the games when we needed another guy. I would also see Mr B talking to some kids in the batting cage teaching them some fundamentals about batting. He always made himself available either on the playing field or by helping some kids with their homework. I appreciated that he gave of himself. So did many of the other kids. A great guy.
Mr Drexel or Billy Boy as we sometimes affectionately called him was the jokester. No matter how serious I thought the situation was Mr Drexel had his way of making the incident a little less severe. His lightening up of the moment
always made us laugh. I loved that about him. He was noted for his chicanery on the field or court as well. He would find an edge and use it. All within the rules. A Drexel play was referred to bending the rule as far as you could. Hidden ball tricks in baseball and sneaky out of bounds plays in basketball were two of his specialties. What was great was how often they worked. He knew just when to use them. A great guy.
Mr Harris seemed like the leader of the group. The other directors called him Bucky. I always called him Mr Harris. He spoke sternly and was always fair. He was the law. He had a little bit of a snarl about him. I had the utmost respect for him. I thought it was an honor to go to the store and buy him his Garcia Vega cigars.
When he asked me to go I felt like I won something. He was a great guy.
For me these three guys were my mentors as I was growing up. Providing me with guidance on and off the field. There was always one of them at the playground to talk to or get things going so we could play an organized game. I learned about fairness, being stern and about taking the edge off in a seriousness situation from them. Felice Barone, William Drexel and Bucky Harris will always be in my hall of fame. They meant a lot to me.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aron Wallad has been a baseball lover for over 40 years. Writing about his favorite subject, baseball, has been a blessing. You will enjoy the heartwarming stories, the unusual statistics and inspiring quotes. But mostly you will love the heartwarming stories that hit a home run to your heart.
Join his ezine http://www.baseballsprideandjoy.com/index.php?tag=goart
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