The Boys of Summer never really grow old.
If you are lucky enough to have a conversation with one, like I was this week with Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine, one of Roger Kahn’s Boys of Summer, you realize they remain young at heart as if they are still going out to play a ballgame.
In an instant they are back at Ebbets Field and life with Jackie, Gil, Campy, Newk, Pee Wee and the Duke.
Memories come alive with every word.
You are transported to a time when baseball offered so much more than a game. Erskine, at the age of 94, offers us the great gift of his love for the game and of the Brooklyn Dodgers. And his baseball knowledge, plus the understanding of the human condition.
Erskine is the last living member of The Boys of Summer, but those players will forever live on in Kahn’s 1972 classic.
Erskine’s game is the game you want to remember, the Golden Age of New York City baseball. It is why baseball had such a hold on America. And if you’re not old enough to remember what that game was like, let “Oisk’’ – as he was known in Brooklynese – and Baseball or Bust take you there.
Let’s begin on October 3, 1951. Erskine is warming up in the visiting bullpen of the Polo Grounds. In just a few minutes, Bobby Thomson will come to bat in the sudden death game for the pennant.
Dodgers manager Chuck Dressen calls down to the bullpen to speak to coach Clyde Sukeforth as Erskine and Ralph Branca throw.
A three-run ninth-inning lead is evaporating for Don Newcombe, who told Dressen before the bottom of the ninth began that he was gassed.
“Which one is throwing the best?’’ Dressen asked Sukeforth.
“They’re both throwing okay, Erskine is bouncing his curve occasionally,’’ the coach answered.
The Dodgers went into that ninth inning with a 4-1 lead and were three outs away from the National League pennant. One run had already crossed the plate and there were runners on second and third. The runner at third, Don Mueller, sprained his ankle on the slide and had to be taken off on a stretcher, giving Dressen time to consider the situation. Up 4-2 with one out and Bobby Thomson coming to the plate, a decision must be made.
Here is where Erskine tells BallNine what might have been the deciding reason, something you have not heard through the years. Read and learn.
Dressen chose Branca.
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