By JOE HOLTZAPFEL
When age creeps up on you and you get to be my age, there are things you have seen that others may not have had that pleasure.
One such thing was the year Ironton turned 100 years old. The one thing that really stood out to me as a 10 year old was the parade that was held to celebrate the Centennial. It was the longest I can ever remember.
Yes even longer than the Memorial Day Parade.
Now back to sports and the first Cincinnati Reds baseball game I ever saw. It was a Sunday doubleheader against the Brooklyn Dodgers and the great number 42 Jackie Robinson. It was a sellout crowd of around 32000 fans.
Joe Black and Don Newcomb on the mound for the Dodgers and Ewell Blackwell and Kenny Reffensberger for the Reds. The Dodgers won both games and I swore I would never go back but I did. The longest homers I ever saw in old Crosley Field was by Ralph Kiner of the Pirates over the clock on the scoreboard in Left center field. Another by Wally Post of the Reds that hit a bus parked under what was then a construction of I-75.
I took my two nephews to bat day at Crosley Field. Being as how we were very early to the game, I took them out to the parking lot of the players clubhouse to watch the players coming to the game.
As the players would come by after getting out of their cars the kids would do their best to get autographs of the players. Never will I forget this one player who came onto the parking lot in a White Pontiac convertible driven by his wife and a very young child in the front seat. When he got out the kids swarmed him. He stood in there and signed everything those kids wanted signed. When he had all the kids taken care of he asked if there was anyone else. He was the only player to take the time to do that.
That man was none other than Pete Rose.
That wasn't the last time I saw Pete in person. I went to Latonia Raceway one evening with a friend and we went to the clubhouse to watch the races. Who was there but none other than Pete Rose.
We got to talking and I ask Pete if he would care to sign an autograph for a nephew of mine who was his biggest fan. All I had was a race ticket and he wouldn't sign that. The man standing with Pete just so happened to have a picture of Pete and that he did sign. the guy was a class act believe me. We must have talked for 30 minutes. Where are you from, have you ever seen me play just some of things that were discussed. Just being in the right place at the right time.
I was out in Vegas one summer and went into this baseball card shop. Who was in there signing autographs was none other than the former Los Angeles Dodger All-Star 1st baseman Steve Garvey. We talked for a bit and he found out we were from closed to Cincinnati.
He then informed me Rose was going to be there the next day. I told Steve we were leaving early the next day and couldn't make it back to see him. Again, being in the right place at the right time.
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