"25 Years Ago Today, The Day I Met Carl Erskine"

With NO baseball currently being played because of the Coronavirus Crisis, it seemed EXTRA important to me to write about 25 years ago today, The Day I Met Carl Erskine.

Erskine was a former Brooklyn / LA Dodgers' pitcher and MY first team (from 1960-1975) was the GIANTS...the Dodgers' bitter RIVALS.  So how did I ever meet Erskine, and why is it worth remembering, to me?? Here's why.

The year was 1995 and since 1994 baseball had been on STRIKE...there was no World Series in 1994.  However as 1995 began there were rumblings that the strike would END in time for Spring.  In February, I drove my twin sons (then 13) and their friends down to Maryland where MLB was celebrating the 100th birthday of BABE RUTH (news article at bottom). You see, since 1978 I've been a YANKEE fan and was amazed that Baltimore, the city where Ruth was BORN, tried to claim his as their own even though he spent most of his storied career as a YANKEE.

Fast forward to May, 1995.  A group I was affiliated with via my carpet cleaning business, the "Maryland Association of Professional Carpet Cleaners," put on a one day convention, in Baltimore, at the hotel overlooking the beautiful baseball stadium CAMDEN YARDS.  Yes, baseball was BACK!! And businessman / former Dodger great CARL ERSKINE was one of the speakers at this gathering. I drove down from Jersey for the day with a new colleague, Jim "Sixto" Plascencia,  and I decided to wear a YANKEE jacket for the occasion. My purpose for this jacket was NOT to emphasize the Dodgers and YANKEES rivalry (the Dodgers were bitter rivals of the Giants AND Yankees you see) but to jokingly let my MARYLAND colleagues know that Babe Ruth belonged to New York, not to THEM.

You see,  at the time, I only knew of TWO things that Carl Erskine was famous for: 

1.) He was in the bullpen warming up with Ralph Branca in that famous playoff game against the Giants. However, BRANCA got the call to face Bobby Thompson, who then hit "The Shot Heard 'Round The World" to give the Giants the pennant.  (It COULD have been ERSKINE in the history books.)

2.) "Oisk," as he called in Brooklyn, was part of that 1955 Dodgers team that (finally) beat the Yankees in the World Series....the ONLY time they beat 'em.

I did not know of the THIRD thing...but Erskine told the audience about it in the middle of his speech. "I see a fellow with a New York Yankees jacket on in the audience," Erskine said, as all eyes turned to me from guys with BIG smiles on their faces. "Did you all know that I struck out the great Yankee, Mickey Mantle, FOUR TIMES in a World Series game?" Carl and I joked about it afterwards and I found him to be a true gentleman. Got his autograph for a few of my customers back home in Jersey, BIG Dodger fans, and here, 25 years later, that's all I recall about The Day I Met Carl Erskine.

Above: AP article regarding Babe Ruth's 100th in Feb. 1995. I was mentioned in the article.