This thread has brought back a lot of memories!
Another favorite memory was from one of the two cross-country train trips we took back then. This was 1958 and we were on a train on the east coast. It was the summer before I turned 10 years old, the Dodgers had not yet moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, and my dad had died almost 2 years prior after a very short illness so I hadn't yet developed my love of baseball.
Just before bedtime that evening on the train my mom and I had gone back to the club car to get a soft drink because the dining car was already closed. I remember there was a group of guys laughing and having a great time next to where we were sitting. One of them turned to me and said something like, "Come here son, I want ot introduce you to somebody." That "somebody" turned out to be Casey Stengel, manager of the NY Yankees who were on the train travelling to their next series of games! I remember he talked with me for a few minutes and signed his autograph for me (my mom put it someplace for safe keeping when we got back home and I've never been able to find it). Walking back through the cars to our spot, we opened the door to one of the sleeping cars and there was Mickey Mantle standing in the aisle in his boxers and t-shirt just getting ready to climb into his sleeping berth. Remember, this was 1958 and my mom was extremely embarrassed but I had a story to tell when I started back to school the following September.
Wow, I haven't thought of this stuff in years!
