Last night in
Kansas City, White Sox outfielder Daniel Palka hit his 22nd homerun
of the season; it was yet another line drive in a rush to leave the
premises. Palka has now tied Pete Ward
for most homeruns by a Sox left-handed hitting rookie.
Ward was one of
the Sox stars of my childhood, coming over from Baltimore in the Luis Aparicio
deal. He had two good seasons, 1963 and
1964, and then something happened. I can
still remember a story I read about a car accident; Ward was hurt along with
Sox outfielder Floyd Robinson, who at 5’9” once managed to drive in 109 runs
with a mere eleven homers (please mull that over, Daniel). Anyway, Ward and Robinson both experienced a
serious drop-off in production after the ’64 season.
I also remember
seeing Ward at the last fan fest we attended; Clare wanted to see Aaron Rowand,
I was happy to hear Ward talk about hitting a homerun for the Yankees in an
exhibition game against the Mets in 1970.
He looked a lot older.
Then again, I did,
too, that day.
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