Wow. Has it really been since the All-Star break or so since my last post? I thought I'd get into this a little more. Maybe I will now that I know I have at least one reader (Hi Art!).
Hopefully this story will somewhat make up for the lack of posts. This is a description of my incredible baseball day on October 1, 2006. But first, let's get a little background.
After the 1912 research was completed, I turned in the results to a few folks in the baseball research field. The work was very well received and appreciated, which made me feel like a "contributor" to baseball research again, rather than the normal "consumer". Anyway, the bug to get something else published and relatively soon struck again, and I thought maybe I should expand on this 1912 Minnesota-Wisconsin League season to give everyone a solid background on Burleigh Grimes' first professional experience. All the copies of newspapers were already printed off. It was just a matter of filling in some blanks on Burleigh's young life.
Enter Charles Clark.
Now, it's 2006, so you don't normally expect the best friends of baseball players who got their start in 1912 to still be alive. Charles is the special and wonderful exception. Still seemingly in his prime in his early 70's, Charles befriended the ex-ballplayer Grimes in the mid 1950's. Both were from the tiny town of Clear Lake, WI. Charles was a huge baseball fan, so the match was perfect. Eventually, Charles became Burleigh's agent, but he was always, ALWAYS, a friend first. I first heard of Charles in Jerry Poling's superb book "A Summer Up North", and meant to write to him for years. It finally happened this summer. Charles called back and said it would probably be best if I visited with him in person to get the answers to the questions I sent about Burleigh's early life. Clear Lake is about ninety minutes away, so on a beautiful Sunday afternoon (soon made even more beautiful after the Vikings lost to lowly Buffalo) I drove to Charles' house to spend maybe an hour.
Heh. Yeah. An hour.
Charles met me before I could even get in the door. He said, "Let's get in your vehicle". Hmm. Okay. So we drove out to the new high school, built near the grounds where Burleigh first played baseball as a child. A newly erected plaque detailing Burleigh's contributions to baseball and the community was there. Obviously, and rightfully, proud, Charles told me the money all came in from private funding. Another plaque honoring Clear Lake's other famous resident, Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, was on the horizon, Charles informed me.
We then set off for the cemetary where we visited Burleigh's grave site. Burleigh once asked Charles if he should put something on the headstone about his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Charles emphatically stated it needed to be done, so a small logo is there. Later on at Charles' house he showed me the only picture of Burleigh standing next to the headstone. I must admit, I was a little creeped out by this. Oh, and Burleigh's wife passed away exactly one month after Burleigh's election to the Hall. Charles' friendship meant more than ever after that. Every year after Burleigh's election in 1964 until his death in 1985, Charles accompanied him to the ceremonies. But more on that in a bit.
Our next stop was the museum, a place I had stopped by two years prior. Back then, I truly felt I was stepping back in time. The lovely husband and wife who opened the museum for me that day were just as sweet as can be. I would be looking at something and the wife kept looking for things I could purchase (I had mentioned I was a collector). She would come out with a plate, or a pin, or a poster, or a picture and ask if a dollar or two was too much to ask. I paid more than that, and later sent them a copy of my book. This time around, the museum was in a much more organized state. One room is devoted to Burleigh and one to Nelson. Again through private donations, Charles informed me they had made some major structural improvements to the old school building that now served as the museum, and they were now using monies to improve the displays.
Well, the hour I had planned was almost already up and I hadn't even set foot in Charles' house. Charles didn't seem to mind. We got back to his place and he showed me around a bit. It is the ultimate room for a person like me--a baseball history buff who also collects. Every square inch of wall space was covered with photographs of Charles with different baseball immortals. Joe DiMaggio. Ted Williams. Bob Feller. Basically name a Hall of Famer and there was a picture of Charles and/or his wife Ardyth with him. And nearly every photo was autographed. Again, he attended many Cooperstown weekends, and these people became his friends. Bob Feller even sent him a bronze cast statue of his hand--one of only ten made!
Books. There were hundreds of baseball books. Now, my book collection matched up pretty well with his. Except when you consider the vast majority of his books were signed by the players who were mentioned in it. He might have an "All Time Best..." book and each chapter is signed by the player. Absolutely remarkable! His den also had Burleigh's 1931 World Series ring in it, as well as his glove from that season, neatly bronzed as the base of a most unique lamp! Charles also brought me out to a work area around his garage--more signed books and other memorabilia. He would pull our a drawer and out would fall signed clippings, or a couple of baseballs--all signed. He honestly didn't even really know what he had. But the best part of all that was what he told me. He said he wouldn't take a million dollars for it all (I quickly thought that perhaps a million would be shortchanging him, considering the amazing pieces he had. But I understood what he was saying.). He said it might as well be worth nothing, because he would never think of selling it. What a great attitude!
If the memorabilia wasn't great enough, the stories he was able to tell were positively priceless. Writing about it won't help me explain it. You just had to be there. He called up Andy Pafko while we were there, and Bob Feller wasn't home or I would have gotten to say "hello" to him like a fellow would if he ran into a buddy at the grocery store. Was Charles just showing off his connections? Yeah, maybe, but who cares--it was AWESOME!
I strongly encouraged Charles to start getting his stories recorded. Whenever he would think of one, I suggested he get a recorder our and tape it. I would be honored to be able to compile these stories for him. I think it would make for a true best-seller of a book.
When I finally left nearly four hours later, Charles bade me farewell with a signed Burleigh Grimes index card and an extremely rare Grimes set made in the 1970s. He even signed one of the cards in that set for me. He said I should come back anytime and we could talk some more. He told me to bring a friend, too, if I wanted.
So, who's going with me?
