From the A's to the A-list

It wasn’t exactly Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, but it was pretty close.
In the mid-1950s, Eddie Robinson was single, handsome, playing baseball for the New York Yankees, making a pretty good salary and dating Patti Page, the best-known and best-selling female singer of that era who just happened to be drop-dead gorgeous as well.
That must have been pretty heady stuff, huh Eddie?
“Ya, it was . . . for her,” deadpanned Robinson.
Coo-coo ca-choo, Mr. Robinson.
The man who spent 65 years in and around baseball as a player, coach, scout and executive spit in the eye of Hurricane Irene last weekend and traveled from his home in Texas to Hatboro/Horsham to promote his new book, “Lucky Me” at an event sponsored by the Hatboro-based Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society Saturday at the Days Inn in Horsham.
In my volunteer capacity as a member of the A’s Society board of commissioners, I get a chance to spend some time with the old ballplayers that we have for such events. For this one, I was stationed at the autograph table with Mr. Robinson as he signed books, Heartland statues of his likeness and other memorabilia for fans who braved the pre-Irene grayness in the skies to attend.
Robinson, who will be 91 in December, was a member of the 1948 World Champion Cleveland Indians. He played for the Philadelphia A’s for just one season in 1953, coming to Philadelphia in a trade that sent popular A’s first baseman Ferris Fain, who was coming off two successive American League batting titles in 1951 and 1952, to the Chicago White Sox.
It wasn’t a popular trade in Philadelphia. But Robinson had a pretty good season in 1953, hitting 22 home runs and driving in 102 runs, good enough to be named an American League All Star that year. He was traded to the Yankees after that one season with the A’s.

Robinson is still an opposing presence, even at age 90, and sharp as a tack. Like many players of that era, he has wonderful penmanship and gives a really nice autograph to fans.
During the course of the four hours or so I spent with him, he was tremendous not only with the fans, but was gracious with the non-profit A’s Society, signing several items that can be sold at the shop and museum located at 6 York Road in Hatboro. Check out the website at www.philadelphiaathletics.org.
I enjoyed listening to his baseball stories, and of course, wanted to know about his time with Patti Page. They dated for about a year, he said, but both went on to marry and have families with other spouses.
I have had many opportunities over the years to do things and meet some interesting people. Those experiences continue to fascinate me, and meeting and spending time with Eddie Robinson was another one of those instances.

'Love Train' stops in Philly

It was around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday when The O’Jays broke into one of the group’s biggest hits, “Love Train.” Given the lateness of the concert, a half hour later and that song could have easily turned into “Midnight Train to Georgia” for those of us who were still awake at that hour.
But that took nothing away from a show that served up a good portion of “Philly soul” as we knew it in the 1970s, with a dose of Motown worked in for good measure Wednesday at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia.
The O’Jays — original members Walter Williams Sr. and Eddie Levert Sr. along with Eric Grant, who joined the trio in 1997 — were in on the ground floor of the “Philadelphia Sound,” working with Philly’s legendary songwriting and production team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. In addition to “Love Train,” the group — elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005 — produced several hits in its heyday, including “Back Stabbers,” For the Love of Money” and “I Love Music,” all of which they sang Wednesday evening.
Joining The O’Jays at The Mann were The Stylistics — a Philly group that produced ’70s hits like “Betcha By Golly, Wow,” “You Are Everything” and “You Make Me Feel Brand New” — and The Four Tops, which produced “I Can’t Help Myself” and “It’s The Same Old Song” for Berry Gordy Jr. at Motown in the 1960s.
These days, The Stylistics still have original members Herbie Murrell and Airrion Love while the only surviving founding member of The Four Tops is Abdul “Duke” Fakir, who still performs with the group.
The Mann show featured all the hits — and all the choreographed dancing and matching suits for all three groups. Not only it is great music, but it’s great dancing and showmanship as well. I love that stuff. Over the years, that’s been a tried and true formula for these groups, which makes for an enjoyable evening of entertainment for concertgoers.
I was a big fan of The Stylistics in the 1970s growing up in central Illinois. By the late 1970s, I had become a big fan of The O’Jays. Turns out I was a big fan of the Philly Sound before I even knew there was such a thing. I just thought it was the “Illinois Sound.” Too much time spent in and around cornfields at that time to know the ways of the world, I guess. And Wednesday was the first opportunity for me to see both groups live.
I also got a kick out of watching the crowd for this show. Some people treated it as a big night out on the town, dressing in fancy evening duds, while others opted for shorts and t-shirts. I was among those in shorts, but I did put on a button-down collared shirt so I didn’t look quite as much like I just walked off the beach.
Everybody should take the opportunity to hear The O’Jays sing “Love Train” in concert. It’s just one of those songs that will live forever.
I’m glad I finally got that chance.

Kruk, Williams solidify 'character' personas

Remember those two old guy muppets on “The Muppet Show” — their names are Statler and Waldorf — who heckled the rest of the cast from the balcony, then yukked it up at their own jokes?
Well, meet the modern-day Statler and Waldorf — Mitch Williams and John Kruk, mainstays of the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies squad that lost the World Series to the Toronto Blue Jays when Williams gave up a series-ending home run to Joe Carter. (Boo-boo, hiss-hiss.)



Both are in town for the Phillies Alumni Weekend, which will include Kruk’s induction into the team’s Wall of Fame. And both appeared Thursday at the alumni luncheon at the stadium and showed once again why they are beloved in this city.
Put microphones in front of these two, sit back and prepare to be entertained. They’ve known each other for a long time. Both talk baseball for a living now — Kruk for ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight” and Williams for MLB Network — and both are real characters.
Kruk in particular has that “grumpy old guy” thing down, even though he’s only 50 years old. You expect him to shout, “Hey you kids, get off my lawn!” at any moment.
During their playing careers, neither Kruk nor Williams was all that fond of answering questions from reporters. But I happened to be standing next to former Phillies pitcher Tommy Greene while Kruk and Williams answered questions from the audience during that part of the festivities.
“Krukky doesn’t look like he’s enjoying this very much,” I said.
“Nah, that’s just him. He’s a Scrooge,” said Greene.
Williams, younger at 46, has gone from being the goat of the 1993 World Series to finding a comfortable place in the hearts of Phillies fans. And it’s because he always took full responsibility for throwing the wrong pitch at the wrong time to the wrong guy.
“Joe Carter is one of those rare right-handed hitters who likes the ball down and in,” Williams told the crowd. “I knew that, so that pitch was supposed to be up and away.”
“Missed by just a little bit, huh?” Kruk added.
Har-har-hardy-har-har. These guys should add a drummer to their act just for the rim shots.
Blue collar guys for a blue collar city. They should never have to buy another beer in this town for as long as they live.

A Connecticut Yankee road trip

The road to Hartford, CT — where Younger Daughter was checking out the University of Hartford in a college visit — took a short detour to New York recently because when I’m driving, we’re always looking for a ballgame somewhere along the route.

Actually, I had purchased tickets for a Yankees day game against the Seattle Mariners back in March when tickets first went on sale having no idea what direction life would be taking in July. Stopping in New York on the way to Hartford turned out to make sense from a travel standpoint in this instance.
Our seats in Yankee Stadium ended up being a few rows behind and a few seats over from where Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit landed in the leftfield bleachers a few weeks ago. The Yankees’ captain was the first Yankee to reach 3,000 career hits — not Ruth, not Gehrig, not DiMaggio, not Mantle. So Jeter’s accomplishment is a pretty big deal for a franchise that’s experienced a lot of pretty big deals in its existence.
While we didn’t see that type of history, we were there on a day when something of note did happen: the Mariners broke a 17-game losing streak by beating the Yankees that afternoon. I guess all the Mariners needed was for Younger Daughter and I to show up for a game. I’m sure the Yankees appreciated our role in their loss.
We got out of New York ahead of the evening rush hour — driving in New York is never easy no matter what time of the day it is — and got to Hartford in relatively uneventful fashion.

I say uneventful except for the traffic in Connecticut. I’ve never driven in that state where traffic just isn’t all gummed up for no apparent reason whatsoever. I expect traffic in Philly and New York. I do not expect it in Middleofnowhere, CT.
The University of Hartford tour kicked off Day 2 of the trip. Notable UHART graduates include the singer Dionne Warwick and Houston Astros retired first baseman Jeff Bagwell. It was a nice tour and a nice campus, but I’m trying to not exercise any undue influence on Younger Daughter’s choice of a college. My sense from her reaction is that UHART is not her No. 1 choice.
The highlight of the day for old Dad — considering that UHART costs about $43,000 a year to attend — was a visit to the much more affordable Mark Twain house in Hartford, which only costs $16 per person to tour.
Although no photos or video were allowed inside the home, it’s an absolutely beautiful place. As you undoubtedly know, Twain, the pen name for Samuel Langhorne Clemens, is considered the greatest American humorist of his age.
As a writer of substantially less note than Mr. Twain, I thought it was very cool to stand in the same room where Twain penned some of his greatest works — “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” “The Prince and the Pauper,” “Life on the Mississippi,” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” Hopefully, a little of that karma rubbed off on me.
A couple of days that included visits to Yankee Stadium and the Mark Twain house, two iconic U.S. sites, and the most important aspect of all was that I got to spend some quality time with my daughter. And really, it doesn’t get any better than that.

Right field 'Pence-syl-mania'

As part of the right field contingent at Citizens Bank Ballpark — I’ve had the same seats in my season ticket package since the ballpark was built — it was cool to be there Saturday night to welcome Hunter Pence in his debut as the Phillies new right fielder.
It was exciting to be part of the crowd that reacted to Pence’s arrival. When he came out before the game to loosen up, everybody went crazy-go-nuts. When he trotted out to his position with the other Phillies to start the game, everybody stood and applauded him again. When he was introduced for his first at-bat as a Phillie — which came on the heels of a Ryan Howard home run to lead off the second inning that already had the crowd charged up — it was more of the same.



From my vantage point, it looked like Pence enjoyed the whole experience, a fact he confirmed the next day in media accounts. “The crowd gave me chills,” he said.
He reacted to the attention by waving to the faithful, tipping his cap a couple of times and turning to acknowledge the fans several times during the game.
Pence wears his pants high, to show a lot of red sock. It’s a good look for him. With apologies to Roy Halladay, my sense is that having Pence on this team is going to make it even more funner than it already is.