Kickass and the 1953 All-Star game
Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the coronavirus cancellation of the 2020 MLB All-star game in LA was not sufficient to prevent the keeper from doing his annual reminiscence about the 1953 All-star game in Cincinnati that resulted in the keeper having a game program autographed twice by Satchel Paige, as well as his appearance in an extant YouTtube video including the likes of Casey Stengel and Ted Williams. —“Baseball All-Star game (1953)”
It was a helluva day! Recently back from a year in Korea, the keeper and a friend showed up ticketless, and were kindly recruited to be “assistants” of an RKO News crew which put them down on Crosley Field to mingle with the players as they warmed up and later on the stadium roof to watch the game.
During the pre-game session, as Satchel autographed the keeper’s program, a news photographer shouted, “One more, Satch,” which resulted in the double signing.
When the RKO crew went into the stands to film Williams who had also just returned from Korea, Williams initiated a very brief conversation with the keeper regarding Korean service.
Later, as they watched the game from the roof, where there were no railings, the RKO chief warned the keeper and his pal not to chase fly balls.
Even with the passage of so much time, the keeper can call up bright images from that All-Star day, and in this age of heightened racial chaos, his photograph with the great Satchel Paige, however only symbolic, is ever enlarged in his mind.
