Stories from the Steps

Vol 1, Chronicle 48FREE BASEBALL FLASHBACK TO 3RD & O’NEAL: As Juan Soto prepares to sign a deal that pays close to $125 a minute for his next few circuits around the sun & cause MLB concession prices to look like mortgage payments, & Dabo makes the CFP by beating the OG NIL school without the transfer portal (& possibly boot ‘Bama?), I find this gem that saved me from a $1 general admission charge in the last days of the Carter administration. A savings granted me by my dad’s 1940s Avondale community neighbor & family friend, Engel Stadium organist Charlie Timmons. A keyboardist tossed from the stadium grounds in ’76 by a thin skinned umpire for playing “3 Blind Mice” after a questionable call. The ump who did the tossing would go on to become a thin skinned major league ump known as Joe West. In the summers of 1976-77, my Dad & I sat in Engel Stadium & watched 4 Lookout pitchers surnamed McCatty, Kingman, Langford, & Keough (in his original incarnation at the hot corner) that would eventually grace the cover of Sports Illustrated & see their arms expire under the duress of “BillyBall”. We also witnessed the beginning of what would be the 12 & 18 year MLB careers of Dwayne Murphy & Denny Walling & Orioles Hall of Fame 1st baseman Eddie Murray send a big fly over the Marlboro Man in right center. The summer of ’79, I had the opportunity to watch “Super Joe” Charboneau, the 1980 American League Rookie of the Year, (& in ’84, a member of the 1939 New York Knights, who led by manager Pop Fisher & one swing of the Savoy Special by Roy Hobbs, claimed the National League pennant in a nail biter) roam the outfield of Engel Stadium & revel in the fact he acknowledged our shared birthday. With this card in my wallet, sunflower seeds & some Dubble Bubble in my front pocket & a snuff can ring in the back pocket of my khaki shorts, the diamond entertainment was free in 1980. The early ’80s baseball, regrettably, at the corner of 3rd & O’Neal didn’t match the late ’70s. Given those were the Cleveland Indian years before Jake Taylor, Wild Thing, & Willie Mays Hayes, two of the best outfield performances of that era I witnessed were by Rick Springfield in ’81 & The Beach Boys in ’82…