If Not Baseball: Then What?

Most of us who love and played the game had those dreams when we were young. We were all going to play for our favorite team and hit a homer in the 9th inning of the seventh game of the World Series. Marry the most gorgeous girl in high school and be the envy of all of our friends. That kid in the photo had those dreams. I also wanted the Edsel that is in the photo behind me.

Never came close. Played a little high school ball, one year of little league and a ton of softball in the Army. Life has a way of making your plans moot. Things happen, and sometimes they happen so fast you have no idea what the hell is going on.

So, my first real job was being a soldier. I even considered making the Army a career. Bad timing. Viet Nam was just starting. I was one of the lucky few who never went. I spent my nine-year Army career stationed in three places. Ft. Bliss, Korea, Ft. Bliss, Germany, Ft. Bliss. Then in 1974 I got out. I was a radar tech in a missile unit, HAWK missiles.

There were few opportunities for radar techs when I got out. I applied at Raytheon to be a tech rep for the Army. But it wasn’t something I really aspired to be. And it would take about three years before I found something I enjoyed doing. Driving big rigs. It took a while, but I got pretty good at it. Backing 20-foot trailers was about the hardest thing to do. They pivot faster than the bigger trailers do.

But baseball was always there. I played softball when I could and as long as my knees held out. Running was not something I enjoyed. It hurt too much. But I loved to hit. On my off time, I would sometimes go to the batting cages around LA. I would get in the cage that threw the hardest. I could still hit line drives, but my hands stung a lot.

If I was playing softball, I would go into the fast-pitch cage. I still had a lot of the softball equipment I acquired while I was in the Army. I even had a left-handed catcher’s mitt. Those are rare. But as I neared my thirties, I knew my ball playing days were dwindling.

Days like this were behind me. So, I needed a new outlet. I still went to games, but I began to focus more on my music. The other dream was playing music on the road with a band. And while I have sung for many years and entertained a lot of people, I never did get to go out on the road on tour. I regret that.

As relaxing for me as playing baseball, softball, or any sport was, being on stage in front of a lot of people is a whole different high. You have to learn a whole different set of skills. For one thing, you need to learn how to read your audience. Not as easy as one might think. It is kind of like looking for the right pitch to tee off on.

When I first became interested in music, rock and roll was still young and something most adults did not understand or care for. Pagan music some called it. Guys like Elvis and Little Richard were lewd when they performed. By the time I actually began singing in the choir at high school, the music had changed and so had most attitudes towards rock and roll.

I also was into folk music. I loved Peter, Paul and Mary and the Kingston Trio. The Beatles and the Beach Boys, who were from just down the road in Hawthorne, were big favorites. My mom had been into country. But that would not become something I liked until I got out of the Army. My foster parents were both into easy listening and jazz.

But my tastes would change over time. At one point while I was in the Army I had over 4000 record albums. I had a stereo setup that featured. 3 reel to reel tape decks, a cassette tape deck and an 8-track deck. Six speakers, a couple of Gerrard turn tables and an amp that was 400 watts.

I would spend hours recording my albums onto those reel-to-reel tapes because one of those would play for a couple of hours. Most of my collection was made up of rock and roll. I had about 12 country albums, some soundtracks, and several folk albums. I also had several comedy albums which at the time were very popular.

I had Vaughn Meador doing the Kennedy family, a couple of Cheech and Chong albums, Bill Cosby. Jonathan Winters, Shelly Berman, and Don Rickles. I also had David Frye’s Nixon album. Hilarious stuff. I would memorize some of the bits. It was just something fun to do.

I cannot read or write music. But I have an excellent ear and near perfect pitch. I would play songs over and over to learn the lyrics. I hated using sheet music, especially on stage. So almost everything was done from memory. Those days are long gone.

As I got more into country, and met some new friends, I got involved with a band that was made up of two brothers and their wives. One wife was a drummer and the other played bass. The two brothers played guitar, one was lead, the other rhythm. Everyone sang.

I began sitting in with them at a little hole in the wall bar called the Gold Key. It was in a small shopping center across Hawthorne Blvd from the South Bay Center Mall. When they went to a new place called The Chat Room in Carson, I went along.

I think I learned more about entertaining and how to read a crowd over the 5 years the band was the house band at the Chat Room. I also got to watch and see how the stars did it because in 1976, the bar started booking some name acts. So, I got to see Johnny Rodriguez, Ernest Tubb, Joe Stampley, TG Sheppard, Eddie Dean and Red Sovine do their thing up close. We opened for all of those guys and many others. Plus, when Urban Cowboy came out, all of a sudden there were country music clubs all over LA and Orange County.

The mainline clubs were going strong too. The Palomino, Crazy Horse, George’s Round-up, and the Forge out in Glendale, they were packed every weekend. A couple of larger clubs opened in the early 80’s, the Golden West in Gardena, and the Western Connection out in San Dimas. In Orange County, near Disneyland, a club opened that was originally called, The Cowboy. Many of you who saw the movie, Road House, would have seen it after it was renamed, “The Bandstand”.

Plus, a huge change in country music happened when the first self-contained band in Country music history became very popular. Alabama changed everything. It was no longer about just the twang. Alabama brought a slight rock n roll tint to the music. A bunch of bands followed in their footsteps. Diamond Rio, Shenandoah, Little Texas. Prior to that, vocal groups were just that. Statler Brothers, Oak Ridge Boys, and many others concentrated on the vocal arrangements and traveled with their own backup bands.

Some single artists bands became pretty popular, but rarely released their own albums. Hank Jr.s Bama Band was one who did, but the sales were very lukewarm. I kept playing, singing in talent contests and learning as much as I could. I did do some shows of my own at George’s Round-Up. I was friends with the house band’s leader, Danny Michaels, so he booked me in there several times. That is how I ended up getting to sing the National Anthem at Dodger Stadium.

I went to a card show in Orange County and Wes Parker was there. I gave him tickets to my show and was totally surprised when he showed up. We talked a lot, and I told him my dream was to sing the anthem. He told me he would find out what I needed to do. Later in the year, it was 1980, he called me and told me I needed to record three versions on a cassette tape and bring it to his dad’s machine shop in Santa Monica.

I did that, and in February of 1981, I got a letter from the Dodgers giving me a date. September 9th, 1981. They were scheduled to play the Giants. Of course, in mid-season, they had the strike. But they settled it just before the end of August. I got another letter from the Dodgers concerning the date. No changes. With this letter they sent me four-box seats right behind the visitors’ dugout, a parking pass, and an on-field pass.

This was when they still had those field level seats behind home plate. You had to take an elevator down to those seats. Wes met me there and we went into the dugout, and I got a bunch of signatures on the ball he gave me. Then the escort showed up and I got my pic taken with Jay Johnstone. Then we walked out to centerfield, that is where they set the microphone up in those days. The announcer said my name, the organist played the intro, and I did my thing in front of a packed house. I had my fifteen minutes of fame.

I had people come up and ask for my autograph during the game. I signed maybe 40 or 50, scorecards. It was fun. But then it was back to business as usual. Driving a truck and playing music when I could. Oh yeah, they lost the game in 10 innings, 6-3. But it was still one of the best moments of my life.

I kept playing and driving for many years. I moved to Colorado in January of 1994. I had surgery to help me lose weight in November of 92. And I had dropped over 200 pounds. I got as low as 217. Had not been that light since about 1966.

I moved to Phoenix in 1998. I wanted to be closer to my grandkids and my daughter. And that is where I stayed until 2010. I had to quit singing for many years. I had scar tissue on my vocal chords. I sold all of my music equipment as I thought I would not be able to sing again without some sort of surgery. Once in a while, I would try, but it just was too painful to sing more than one song.

But about 2006, my voice started to come back. So, I bought some more music equipment and began playing again. You have to understand that music and baseball keep me sane. They are my go-to calm down activities. Baseball when I just want to watch something, and music when I feel like I need to get out and do something. I couldn’t play pro ball. Not good enough, but I have gotten to rub elbows with some of the best musicians to come out of California and our country. Music was what kept me going when my day job got to be a pain. Nothing has changed. Music and the game of baseball. I love them both.

Talent finals with Doo Wah Riders at the Crazy Horse about 1988

DJ’s Ranch 1993

Pickin on the porch 2019