02-01-2019, 02:50 PM
(01-30-2019, 04:08 PM)Stewy Wrote: Crosley was before my time, but I've been to a couple hundred (no lie) games at Riverfront.
However.....
I have an interesting Crosley Field story as told by my grandfather.
He was attending a game in 1933 (he was 22) against the St. Louis Cardinals. He was behind the visitors dugout. He kept pestering the players for a ball during the game. They kept ignoring him, but finally the manager told one of the players to give him a ball. The player told my grandfather to go get him two hot dogs and he'd give him a ball. My grandfather got the hot dogs and the was handed a ball, and it was signed by almost the entire team.
It is a red and black stich Spalding ball (last year the leagues had different balls) including the signatures of Dizzy Dean (beginning of career) and Rogers Hornsby (end of career). In the 1980's my grandfather wrote to the baseball hall of fame to offer them the ball for free. They never replied to his letter.
It passed to my father and then to me. It's sits in a protective container in a cardboard box on my desk at home. I've taken it our twice to look at it. I don't like exposing it to light since the ink from the pen is fading. I should probably try and re-offer it to the baseball HoF.
I'll give you THREE hot dogs for it.
