This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

World Series Reminds of Street Car Rides

Playing baseball and being a fan for a lifetime brings memories of street cars and Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

The current World Series games brought back many memories:

I was chosen to be the captain of my 1942 baseball team; that fall I was involved as a student trainer in the Missouri Tiger athletic department. One afternoon, the Cards and Yankees game was being broadcast on our radio, and the Yankee pitcher had a no-hitter going on for some time. Then suddenly a Cardinal got a hit and was booed in the room for breaking up a no-hitter. Most listeners were rabid Cardinal fans, but I only report their reaction.

My favorite piece of clothing came to me in the 1930s when I was given a "Me and Paul" sweatshirt, being named for the famous Dean brothers, Dizzy and Paul of the St. Louis Cardinals. I was later a regular on the FMF-Pac (Fleet Marine Force-Pacific) baseball team, and one team in our group was the EVA Air Team, which included the baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams.

Find out what's happening in Eureka-Wildwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

After the war, I played on our Eureka baseball and softball teams for many years.  So I guess you could call me a fan of the game.

I attended my first and only World Series game, between the Cardinals and the Browns at old Sportsman's Park. One of my family members dropped me off on his way to work, and I bought a bleacher ticket for about $2 and I enjoyed the day.

Find out what's happening in Eureka-Wildwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

That is where the street cars came in, as after the game I caught a streetcar, and after a transfer dropped me off a couple of blocks from the home of my oldest brother and he took me to my Eureka home. Perhaps the current high ticket prices and high costs of parking keeps me at home now.

Afterall, it is just a game, much like Life itself.

Soon I was called by the military draft. In the office at Kirkwood, I found that after the group was assembled and the director of the office was a friend of my family, he gave me the chore of carrying our papers and delivering the group to Jefferson Barracks for processing. It caused us to get on a streetcar in Kirkwood, going east to Jefferson Avenue, making a transfer and goin on to the Barracks.  One of my relatives, Stanley "Boots" Wallach was among those selected for the U.S. Marines with me and sent to downtown St. Louis to the Federal Building to be sworn in. So another streetcar ride to the building and after that, another street car ride to my brothers for him to bring us home.

After my Marine Corps School was completed in North Carolina, I was transferred with a full train load of Marines to California where I was able to have liberty to see Los Angeles and Hollywood. A Saturday Evening at the USO, I became acquainted with a nice gal from Beverly Hills and decided to ride a street car all the way there. Since it was the only way back, I rode the same car back to Hollywood. We were young and the night made us friends for years.  Although I have never seen the movie, I sometimes used to think perhaps that is where the movie got its name:  "Street Car named Desire."

During my term in the Missouri Legislature, I did buy an All Star game ticket for the game when the old Busch Stadium was new.  That was when Manager Casey Stengal made the famous answer when questioned what he thought of the new stadium. He said, "It holds the heat well."

It will be interesting to see how this World Series comes out. Sometimes I think the Cardinal manager does too much managing. So many players will be gone by next year, so I urge you not to get too stressed because it is only a game.

Thanks for sharing my thoughts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Eureka-Wildwood