DOUBLE FATHER'S DAY

June 22, 1924

Rachel had planned to take her father to the game, it being Father's Day and all, but she still had a few drops of scarlet in her and figured she'd just sit the thing out. Sarah and Sammy were too young for that crowd and her mother wasn't a fan, so guess who got elected to sit with good old Saul Stone?

Well, even though the Phils lost again it turned out to be one of the best times I had at a ball park, because from the first Burleigh Grimes spitball to the last, I felt like my own papa was sitting with us.

Mike Spanelli, or "Micky" as his drinking pals called him, got killed over in France six years ago, maybe a week before the Big War ended, and it just about killed me because I had my baseball mitt all oiled up and ready with a ball in it, just waiting for the day he would walk back in the house. See, he got me into baseball when he gave me a Rube Waddell player card from his pack of cigarettes when I was around seven, and before long we were out in the alley every weekend day and summer night after his job, whipping a ball back and forth or showing me how to choke up on the bat to hit bottle caps better.

He took me to a good amount of Phillies games but they were real bad back then and I could barely remember the players' names. He hated the Giants worse than Benny does now, and he wasn't crazy about the Athletics either though I still haven't figured that one out, but I used to love going to Baker Bowl with him on hot days because he would always sit on my left and keep me in shade with his big body.

Anyway, Saul had a small body so it didn't matter where he sat, and our seats at Ebbets were mostly under a roof so nobody got baked—except the Phillies of course. Grimes had his loogy-ball going pretty good. We only got four hits off him the whole game, a single, two triples and a double, but they were spaced far apart to not cause trouble. Bill Hubbell meanwhile pitched another bad game, giving a cheap homer to puny Mitchell to start the Brooklyn 1st and a 2-run smash to Fournier an out later.

Saul really enjoyed himself and bought me five pretzels, and kept dropping nice hints about Rachel all through the game, like he was waiting for me to ask him if I could marry her or something. Not that I wont one of these days, but gadzooks I haven't done anything but kiss her yet!

Zack Wheat's his favorite player and when he doubled in the fourth and fifth Robin runs in the 2nd inning he pounded me on the back a few times and threw his boater up in the air. He was acting like a little kid, but I guess that's what baseball does to you sometimes. It's like drinking a big tall glass of youth juice, and in the summer, you can have one almost every day.

Rachel couldn't stop hugging me after dinner when I got up to leave. Tomorrow's Benny's birthday and I promised I'd go to the Braves-Phillies game with him at Baker, so I needed to catch the next luggage car back home. She was real happy I took her dad to the game, and she actually had a different look in her eye than I'd ever seen. It was a long delayed twinkle, like the North Star, and it got me feeling all warm in new places. If anything, it'll be something new and nice to think about all week while we're hopefully destroying the Braves.

Good night, reader-people
—Vinny

PHL 000 000 102 - 3 4 2
BRK 320 000 01x - 6 13 0


Other National League Father's Day games:

PIRATES 3-8-1, at REDS 2-10-0 (12 innings)
Boy, I can't get over how tough these Bucs are. Down 2-1 to Dolf Luque in the 9th, Traynor ties the score with a sacrifice fly, then wins it three innings later with a high homer off the other Cuban Red Pedro Dibut. Babe Adams relieves Morison and gives Pittsburgh five scoreless innings.

at CUBS 6-9-0 CARDINALS 4-10-2
Hartnett and Grantham homer, Jacobs throws a complete one, Hornsby only gets a double in four tries, and the Cubs even the series. Bad news is that their shortstop Hollocher goes out for two weeks with a twisted leg.

NATIONAL LEAGUE through Sunday, June 22
Pittsburgh Pirates	41	21	.661	—
Cincinnati Reds	39	27	.591	4
New York Giants	36	27	.571	5.5
Brooklyn Robins	34	29	.540	7.5
St. Louis Cardinals	35	30	.538	7.5
Chicago Cubs	31	33	.484	11
Philadelphia Phillies	24	40	.375	18
Boston Braves	15	48	.238	26.5