My One Day in the Show with a Uniform On (The Other Side of Sports Too)

April 3, 1964

I met then future HOF’er Tim McCarver on the St. Louis Cardinals team bus in route from Al Lang Field in St. Pete to Ft. Myers where the Cardinals played the Pittsburgh Pirates during spring training 1964.  Yes for at least that day I was a major league batboy wearing a Cardinals road uniform with the number 63 on the back.  During the trip down old route 41 to Ft. Myers I sat in the back of the bus in front of the rest room next to McCarver who while I watched the card game showed me how to play “Hearts.”  That coupled with an occasional, “So Right, So Right,” by McCarver with the rest room door made the trip interesting.  After a 12-5 loss to the Pirates that afternoon the trip back wasn’t as interesting as the trip down but still it was the show.  The photo is of what I still have of that uniform I wore, my major league hat.