Luke Was Right

In the fall of 1989, White Sox Hall of Famer Luke Appling appeared at a downstate memorabilia show, and I just had to go.  For some reason, not many people felt the same way, so I had Old Aches and Pains all to myself, for the price of an autograph.  How that man did talk.

He complained about the April weather in Chicago and how the snow bit into the back of his neck at shortstop and how he once found a rusty lid from a tin can that had found its way into the infield and how he was robbed of extra bases on Opening Day 1940, when the umpire called his shot down the left field line foul, so Bob Feller got himself a no-hitter and 1-0 win.

Appling was the oldest Opening-Day shortstop for the White Sox at age 42.  Second-oldest would be Jimmy Rollins this season, at 37.  I wonder how he liked the home opener Friday with all the snow showers or yesterday when the grounds’ crew had to shovel snow off the tarp and the game-time temperature was a balmy 32?  If only he could compare notes with Appling, who passed away at age 83 in 1990.

If only John Danks could’ve compared notes with Bob Feller for the home opener, maybe he wouldn’t have given up five runs in the first two innings.