His statistics don’t leap out: 3,442 at bats in 1,061 video games, 813 hits, 82 house runs, .236 batting common, 381 runs batted in. But baseball is greater than chilly numbers and Randy Hundley was greater than a catcher for the Chicago Cubs.
It is in no way odd — particularly in mild of the ineptitude of our skilled sports activities groups nowadays — to be drawn to baseball in these winter months. Baseball is the summer season sport and recollections deliver heat and so they deliver enjoyment as a result of the sport is like an ongoing novel, stuffed with gamers (heroic and the flawed) and tens of millions of characters who populate the town’s baseball historical past. We get sights and sounds, really feel disappointments and joys, bear in mind goats and black cats, bats juiced with cork, that energetic refrain often known as sports activities writers, followers, homeowners, coaches, managers, umps, broadcasters, distributors, Andy Frains and memorable quotes.
My favourite? “I’ve never played drunk. Hungover, yes. But never drunk!” from Cubs’ heart fielder Hack Wilson a century in the past.
And now I’ve “Ironman: Legendary Chicago Cubs Catcher,” wherein Hundley writes, “I’ve always wanted to share the memories. … When I turned 80 years old in 2022, I figured it was getting to the ‘now or never’ point to tell my story.”
And so he does, throughout practically 200 energetic pages that take us to his upbringing in Martinsville, Virginia, and the way his father taught him the tactic of catching a pitched baseball with one gloved hand, which might quietly revolutionize the catcher’s place. We fly by way of his minor league years and main leagues with the San Francisco Giants and his commerce to the Cubs in 1966, his first full season. And, after all, these Cubs years sparkle.
I’ll admit that my favourite Cub of that youthful time was Billy Williams (and for the White Sox, Luis Aparicio) however this e book offers me a brand new appreciation of Hundley, whose full identify is Cecil Randolph Hundley Jr.
As his battery mate, pal and Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins writes within the complimentary introduction to Hundley’s nice e book, “When you think of the thousands of players who have played in the major leagues, most of their names are forgotten, but there is one name — Randy Hundley — that will forever be remembered as the man who caught more games in a single season than any other catcher in the history of the game.”
Yes, he holds that document, extra a testomony to sturdiness and work ethic maybe than to expertise however admirable nonetheless. In 1968 he was hunched behind the plate at Wrigley Field and elsewhere for 160 video games in a 162 sport season.
But extra resonant, extra memorable is what happened the following season, that well-known, heartbreaking swoon of 1969. “Time has erased much of that glorious, yet bittersweet season when we set the world on fire,” he writes. Good for him however the ache of that season nonetheless lingers for me.
Hundley, then and nonetheless residing within the suburbs, was finally traded away earlier than ending his profession with the Cubs with a couple of video games in 1976 and 1977.
He coached for a bit within the minor leagues after which inspiration struck. With the counsel of restaurateur and baseball fan Richard Melman, he created the primary baseball fantasy camp, a weeklong expertise throughout which middle-aged followers mingled and performed with former professional gamers who returned to uniform to assist coach. He employed such former teammates as Jenkins, Ron Santo, Williams and others to mingle and coach the potbellied amateurs.
With the slogan, “The place where lifelong dreams come true,” many individuals reacted enthusiastically to Hundley’s baseball fantasy camp concept. Among them was Tribune columnist and devoted Cubs fan Mike Royko, who wrote, that it was “one of the nuttiest ideas I’ve ever heard. It’s so nutty, I’m tempted to take part.”
Mike by no means did, sticking to 16-inch softball, however 1000’s of others signed up, serving to spawn related endeavors throughout the nation. You’ll hear from a few of the contributors within the e book. Two-time camper, comedian Mark DeCarlo writes, “I just tried to fit in, but it’s an overwhelming experience for a Chicago boy … (One memory) is hitting two grand slams off a pitching machine, which is not as easy as it looks (at least that’s what I tell people).”
WGN radio’s Bob Sirott was a 1983 camper and known as it “a legendary experience. Besides the aches and pains, foul tips and strains, I found myself in the presence of baseball royalty.”
This e book was written in collaboration with John St. Augustine, an inexhaustibly artistic man as author, radio host, producer and on and on. It was clearly a labor of affection and respect, since he tells of first assembly Hundley when he was a wide-eyed 8-year-old looking for autographs and getting a journey in Hundley’s Corvette. A few a long time later, he traveled to and wrote in regards to the fantasy camp for a bygone sports activities journal. He hit a grand slam there however extra importantly fashioned the muse of what has develop into a deep friendship.
“We worked on the book over five and a half months,” he instructed me over the weekend. “We would meet for breakfast and then return to Randy’s house, all the time recording our conversations. There was nothing off limits and it was very emotional for him at times, especially when talking about his wife.”
The e book is devoted to Hundley’s late spouse, Betty, and he’s clearly happy with their youngsters, together with his son, former large league catcher/outfielder Todd Hundley. There are, inevitably, shadows right here, as when he writes, “Nineteen players from the 1969 team have passed away … (but) my memories are solid gold. In my mind, we are locked in as we were back then — invincible young men, playing the game we loved.”
The e book is simply obtainable by way of Lulu.com. Winter has arrived however opening day for the Cubs at Wrigley comes on April 1, 2024. Hundley is 81 now and hopes to be there.
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com