SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2024 - BASEBALL

 SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 2024 - BASEBALL

Baseball used to be “America’s Pasttime”.  It does sseem like football and soccer have taken over.  (I like football, and I’m not a big fan of soccer).  

I haven’t written fiction for a while - so let me try a short story.

*****

My story today comes from Minnesota Falls, Minnesota - about an hour-and-one-half northwest of Mankato - on (of course), the Minnesota River.in the summer of 1959.

Clint Jorgens was a seventh grader - going to eighth grade at Minnesota River Junior High School in the fall.  He was kind of an average kid.  He hadn’t gone through his growth spurt yet.  His voice was in the early stages of changing - those days were ahead of him.

Summers in Minnesota Falls meant baseball for boys. Some girls wanted to play on boys' teams, but the culture of the day was that boys played baseball (and football), and girls played softball (and volleyball). According to the Minnesota Falls summer recreation committee, that was settled.  

The other boys on the team mainly were Clint’s friends. A couple of boys from New Ulm were staying with grandparents for the summer. His friend Roger was now in Sleepy Eye, but Sleepy Eye wasn’t big enough to have baseball teams. Roger’s family had moved to Sleepy Eye last year and now lived on his grandpa’s old farm.  There were three levels of boys baseball in Minnesota Falls - 8 to 10; 11 to 13; and over 13.  

This was Clint’s third summer of playing ball - he had turned 12 in April.  Last year, he had been a utility infielder (or outfielder), and pitched about fifteen innings.  But this year, he was going to be the regular second baseman.  

On boys teams - the fastest and strongest played shortstop, left field and first base.  

*****

The teams were the Cubs, Cardinals, Twins,White Sox, Brewers, and Royals. The games were generally played on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and they were seven innings long.  

*****

Clint was a decent second baseman. He had a good enough throw to first, reasonable speed, and a good understanding of the game.  

But he was a spotty hitter. Greg Noethe, the coach for the Minnesota Falls Cardinals, batted Clint eighth. All the good hitters batted early in the lineup.

*****

On June 7th, the Cardinals played the Brewers.  It was an overcast day in the Minnesota Valley.  Clint made some good stops at second base, But to Coaches Noethe surprise, Clint had four hits - two singles and two doubles - and a walk.  

And, in the next four games, Clint had one hit in the bright sunshine.  

*****

By the first of July, the Cardinals were 9 and 3 (9 wins and 3 losses).  Clint had only three errors in the field (the lowest of the regular players - but was batting.150, the lowest average on the team.  

On Thursday, July 9th, the Cardinals were playing the first-place Royals,

It was one of those muggy days in southwestern Minnesota. At 6:00, the clouds rolled in - but no thunderstorms (yet).  

The Cardinals were batting in the top of the second inning. With two on and two outs, Clint came to the plate. Coach Noethe considered using a pinch hitter for Clint, but he wanted to keep him in the game for his defensive play.  

The pitcher for the Royals knew that Clint was a lousy batter.  Clint smacked the second pitch over the center field fence - one of the longest home runs at Tom Farrell Park.  (The first pitch was low ).  It was Clint’s first home run. 

The teams played even until the top of the seventh inning .  In the fifth inning Clint had led off with a double that had just missed going over the left field fence. 

In the top of the ninth with the score tied, the Cardinals had the men on, two outs - and Clint coming to bat.  Crash!  Clint hit the pitch even farther than his home run in the second inning. 

The Cardinals were up in the bottom of the art with a comfortable 10 to 6 lead.  His friend Roger was pitching now for the Cardinals.  The first batter for the Royals had a single.  Within minutes, there were runners on first and second the Royals had cut the lead to 10 to 9. There were no outs. Coach Noethe didn’t any any relief pitchers left. 

The cleanup batter hit a hot line drive directly to Clint. Clint stepped on the base and the man there was out. The runner at first was going full speed towards second -and Clint had gotten the elusive solo triple play.  The Cardinals won.  

*****

In the next three games, Clint didn’t have a hit. In a rematch between the Royals and the Cardinals-another cloudy day that looked like an impending thunderstorm- Clint had four home runs and drove in nine runs. 

Coach Noethe asked Clint how he could hit so well.  Clint said he could just see the ball better on cloudy days.

*****

Before school started his parents took Clint to New Ulm for an eye exam.  His Dad told the optician about his baseball hitting. 

The doctor did some extra tests and found that Clint had difficulty seeing the pitched ball went there were no clouds. 

“That’s called a pluviophile” the doctor said.  There isn’t much you can do - except some prescription sunglasses.

*****

Epilogue 

Clint played baseball for two more years.  For those bright days he had his prescription sunglasses- and while his hitting was much better, he still hit much better on the cloudy days.

*****

Clint went to Dakota State University- got a degree in informatics.  He played baseball for the Trojans and was all conference his junior and senior years.  He eventually got a doctoral degree in optometry at the University of Minnesota with a specialty in analyzing bright days effects on teens. He became chief optometrist at the Mayo Clinic.

In his research, he and three other colleagues found negative polarization could help pluviophilia. Their works was published in the Journal of New England Medicine.  

And, after twenty years, Clint with two sons playing baseball took a faculty position at the University of Minnesota.  

He became a very success baseball coach for his boys.  

*****

Karen adds - sometimes the least thing keeps us from out best successes.  Finding out what is holding us back and how to overcome it is important.

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

Karen Anne White, July 13, 2024