Re: your icons disappointing you (previous post on Dylan covering Sinatra songs) it reminded me of another occasion where a “hero” of mine let me down very badly.
When I was a kid following the Baltimore Orioles, Milt Pappas was my favorite Oriole.
Whenever he pitched, I would put on my Little League Orioles’ uniform and pretend that I was pitching along with him . I would mimic Milt’s actions as described by Chuck Thompson‘s play by play: “Pappas looks in, shakes off Triandos, nods, winds and throws a fast ball down the middle for strike one.”
Not only would I pantomime the whole scene along to Chuck’s description, but also I would have a pillow propped up against the headboard of the bed and would throw a baseball into it. Sometimes I’d miss the pillow and throw the ball into the wall where it would make a loud noise and Buzzy would yell from downstairs “Knock it off up there.” (My bedroom was upstairs right above the store’s counter.)
One day Mike Joy took his sons Poogie and Larry and my brother Steve and me to see an Orioles-Senators game. We were there early and as the Senators took their batting practice, I saw Milt down the right field line leaning on the rail talking to someone in the stands. I ran down with paper and pen in hand to get his autograph. But as I got near him, he just glanced at me and said “Go away kid.”
I was devastated and could not believe that Milt would do me like that. It marked the end of my Milt-Pappas-hero-bs as I learned a lesson young about not looking up to any ball player.
Too, I remember being very happy when the Orioles traded Pappas for Frank Robinson a few years later. (Came upon this weird story about Pappas’ wife disappearing for five years before they found her dead in her car at the bottom of a pond near their house (click here.) Leads me to wonder if maybe she had asked Milt for his autograph and he told her to get lost too.
