By Dale Hughes (‘55)
In the fall season of baseball in 1946 I was in the fourth grade and, as the high school baseball games would get started at about 3:15 we younger students would get out of the classroom routines shortly after 3:00 to parade to the baseball field and watch about three or four innings of the game before it was time to parade back up to the school to get on the busses to go home.
The group of youngsters I was with happened to be on the east side of the diamond** (along the third base line) behind the opponent’s bench when Kenny Watson hit the ball very hard and it got through the outfield and rolled further. As he was rounding third base and racing for home he stumbled and fell down about 2/3- 3/4 of the way there. He started crawling on his hands and knees towards home base when the throw from the outfield was relayed to the catcher. Kenny, who was still on his hands and knees and who, it seemed could not get up or see very well, was within about eight or ten feet from the plate.
The catcher, in his full catchers uniform, minus the mask, caught the ball, assured himself that it was securely in his big glove and took a couple of steps and demonstrated the poorest example of sportsmanship I had ever seen up until this time. He placed the glove with the ball in it against his knee and while he was still moving quickly, pounded his full weight against Kenny’s left shoulder and knocked him severely, face first, to the ground. I thought, and I suspect the opposing team thought so too, that the catcher would have simply stepped over to Kenny and slapped the glove lightly against Kenny’s shoulder and then helped him up but such was not the case. The Milford teammates, amid much shouting and arm waving at the opponent, helped Kenny up and they brushed the dirt and white marking lime from his face, hands, arms, and uniform; and the game continued. I don’t recall who the opponent was, and I guess it’s just as well that I don’t recall.
I still recall this incident fifty plus years later as one of the worst examples of sportsmanship I’ve ever witnessed and I wonder if many of the other witnesses felt the same way. I “picked up vibes” from our teacher, or perhaps it was from the Supt, or maybe it was from the opponent’s coach, that they wished we students had not seen this incident.
** Our Milford baseball team sat on the north side of the field, along the first base line , facing the south--- The opponents, sat along the third base line- facing the west and looking into the setting sun. Strategy? I don’t know, but what ever it was, it didn’t seem to work too well, at least in the mid fifties, ‘cause we sure didn’t win very many games.
There are always memories from school days- some of them remain etched in your mind better than others. One such day was when everything seemed to go my way.
I think it was at Huxley- can you imagine a student body cheering for a player on the opponent’s team? I had come to bat and hit a foul ball far to my left and over the backstop. The ball crashed through one of the schoolhouse windows and Huxley students watching the game erupted with a loud cheer. A few innings later I was positioned as centerfielder when an opponent smashed a well hit ball over my head into grove of trees behind the normal fielding position. I ran back under the tree canopy waiting for the ball to fall to the ground. I had no idea as to where the ball was, but it came crashing through the leaves and fell right into my glove, ending their at bat!
At my next at bat I hit a ball out into that same grove of trees. The opponents’ fielder was not so lucky as I and the ball fell to the ground some distance from him. He quickly retrieved the ball and launched a mighty throw toward the infield in a effort to prevent an extra base hit. However, a tree was in his line of fire and the ball hit the tree trunk and was propelled even further into the outfield. By the time the ball reached the infield I was safe with a home run! It really was my day. Edit: For more by Kenny Watson. see page 219.
Ol’ Milford Farmer remembers; the first State of Iowa gasoline tax, 2 Cents a gallon, was in 1925.