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Page 10A-KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD-Wednesday, November 16, 1988
A Baseball Rookie
Says “Thanks, Ken!”
By ROBERT L. WILLIAMS
Thirty-eight years ago last
June, a kid just out of high school
pitched his first professional
baseball game. Like all rookies
facing a teamful of professionals,
he was nervous, frightned, and
totally bewildered.
He was so tense that when,
with two men out and the tying
and winning runs on base and the
batter had hit a ground ball bet-
ween first and second bases, he
forgot to cover first base.
So the first baseman, a grizzled
veteran named Ken, fielded the
ball, plodded clumsily and pain-
fully across a huge segment of
the infield, and slid with agoniz-
ing pain into first base in time to
retire the runner and save the
rookie’s first pro game.
Ken was very slow in getting to
his feet, and the crowd politely
abuianded as he limped off the
ield.
But what most of them did not
know is that a few years earlier
Ken was one of the finest
baseball players ever to perform
in this area. But when World War
II broke out, Ken gave up his
dreams of playing in the major
leagues and traded his baseball
uniform for a khaki one, he trad-
ed his bat for an M-1 rifle, and he
. swapped his fleetness of foot for
the horrors of a foxhole.
One winter in Germany left
him with feet so badly frozen that
he could barely walk when the
war was over. Still, like so many
great athletes who paid the price
of war, he returned to civilian
life with his dreams, if not his en-
tire body, intact. He signed a
minor league contract and even-
tually led the league in home
runs and set a team home run
record that lasted for years.
He could play only one position
now -- first base -- and even there
he needed all the help he could
get from other players to keep
him from looking pitifully inept
as a fielder.
Occasionally the fans booed
him when he was not able to
make a fairly easy play. But they
did not know what days in a fox-
hole in sub-zero weather can do
to a person’s athletic ability.
Nor was Ken alone. Gene
Bearden won 20 games in his
rookie season with the Cleveland
Indians, despite the fact that he
had steel plates where his skull
should have been. Lou Brissie
managed to pitch for the
Philadelphia Athletics for
several years, although he need-
ed countless operations to
remove the shrapnel fragments
from his legs.
More recently, a local kid nam-
ed Doug returned from the bat-
tlegrounds of the world minus
both arms and one leg.
“I can still handle life,” he
said. “That is, I can handle all of
it ‘but slick metal doorknobs.”
His hooks where his hands had
been could not grasp the metal
tightly enough to turn the knob.
But Doug went on to prove
that, scholastically, socially, and
every other way, he could handle
it and handle it masterfully.
Another kid named Cal came
home from Viet Nam but left his
legs in an army hospital. Even
when all the handicapped park-
ing spaces at the college he at-
tended were taken up by healthy
and thoughtless kids who had
never known problems, he never
complained -- not even when he
had to walk slowly on his ar-
tificial limbs across an entire
campus drenched in a cold
winter rain.
A gentleman named Bill lay in
the snow on a hillside in Ger-
many and closed his eyes and
waited for the pistol shot that
would end his life. A POW, he
had been taken out to be ex-
ecuted, and he still, more than
four decades later, has
nightmares about that day when
he waited for the gunshot that
never came.
Even those who were never
wounded or captured and who
came home able to resume their
lives left a great deal of
themselves in the military bar-
racks. They gave up at least two
years while those who somehow
were missed by the draft stayed
home and gained two years or
more in salaries, job experience,
and just happy living.
And now, 38 years later, a
rookie pitcher who in his first pro
game remembers that he was so
excited about winning his first
game that he forgot to thank Ken
for the agonizing play that saved
the game.
I'd like to do that now.
Thanks, Ken, for the game.
And for all it cost you. And for all
you gave so that games can still
be played the American way.
And thank you, Gene. And Lou,
and Doug, and Cal, and Bill, and
all of the veterans who were men
and women enough to put their
country ahead of their own hap-
piness and welfare.
In a nation that forgets too
quickly, some of us remember.
KMBC Basketball Sign-Up Underway
Registration is underway for
Kings Mountain Boys Club
basketball.
Boys ages seven to 16 may join.
There is no fee.
Registration will be held each
Tuesday, Thursday and Satur-
day through December 3. Team
selection will be on Sat., Dec. 10
at 2 p.m. at the Central School
gym. i
Club Director, Danny
McDowell, states that the basket-
ball program is designed to teach
~ boys basic fundamental skills,
sportsmanship and teamwork.
This year, Kings Mountain will
play teams from Concord,
Shelby, Charlotte, Asheville,
Burlington, Monroe, Wilm-
ington, Winston-Salem,
Greensboro, Statesville, Gaff-
ney, Columbia, Tennessee,
Florida and New York. The team
will also play in the N.C. Junior
Olympics and the Tarheel State
Games tournaments.
Club hours are Tuesday and
Thursday from 4-8 p.m. and
Saturday from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.
The club is located on the cam-
pus of Central School.
Junior High.
Lg
For more information, call
Danny McDowell at 739-7161 dur-
ing club hours, Tom Bennett at
739-3667, or Bobby Bell at
734-0046.
Upcoming events at the Boys
Club include ping pong tour-
naments, one-on-one games, pool
tournament, free throw contest,
hot shot contest, skating, and at-
tending several college basket-
ball games. The club will also
host the AAu 13-under state tour-
nament at Kings Mountain High
School and Kings Mountain
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Only *22°
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ColorTrak
20" Diagonal
EXR-350E
13"
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3399
25" Diagonal Screen
Console
Cable
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6”
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ColorTrak 2000
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CARTER
CHEVROLE
SHELBY
CARL BELL
USED CAR MANAGER
ThA Ahhh Ahhh kA hk Ahhh kkk kok hkk
1985 CHEVROLET CHEVETTE
2 dr., 4 speed, A/C, sport stripes, stereo.
*3295
Yr dk dk dr dk dk dk dk de dk dk dk dk dk kk dk dk kk kk kk kk ok
1983 CHEVROLET CAVALIER
4 dr., 4 speed, A/C, P/S, P/B, rally wheels, local car.
Stock No. 2241A.
*3295°°
od od dk dk kk dk dk ok dk dk dk kk dk kk kk ok kk ke ok
1984 CHEVROLET CAVALIER
4 dr., 4 speed, A/C, P/S, P/B, rally wheels. Another local car.
Stock No. 1994A
*5995%
dod dk dk dk dk dd dk dk kk de dk ok kk kk kk ok ok ok kk ok
1982 FORD ESCORT
2 dr., automatic, A/C, P/S, P/B. Stock No. 1757A
$3295"
Wd dk dk oe ok dk dd db ok dk dk dk ok dk kk kk kk kk kk ok
1985 CHEVROLET CAVALIER
4 dr., automatic, A/C, P/S, P/B, stereo, cloth interior.
Very clean. Stock No. 1965A
*5495%°
dr dk Ak ok kk kk ok kk ok kk ok kok ok kk ok kk
1985 CHEVROLET CAVALIER RS
2 dr., sport coupe, RS model, 5 speed, A/C, P/S, P/B, stereo
radio, exceptionally clean, local trade. Stock No. 2301A .
*5995%
LW A Ak AR kA Ak ok kkk kd kok ok hk kok
1987 TOYOTA TERCEL
2 dr., 5 speed, cassette tape, A/C, rally wheels.
Stock No. 1254A
*6695°
rd dk dr dr dk ok dk dk kk dk kk kk kk ok kk kk ok kk
1987 PLYMOUTH HORIZON
4 dr., automatic, A/C, P/S, P/B, stereo, solid black, radial
tires. Stock No. 1953B
*5995%
ThA kh hk hhh hhh hhh hkhkhkhkhkhkhkkhhhkrk
1986 PLYMOUTH TURISMO
2 dr., automatic, P/S, P/B, A/C, stereo radio, cloth interior.
*6995%
dd dr dk dk dk dk dk dk dk dk dk dk kk dk ok kkk kk kk kk
1987 HYUNDAI XL
4 dr., 5 speed, A/C, stereo radio, low mileage, another local
trade. Stock No. 2211A
*6995%
Jk dk dd ok dk kk dk kk kk kk ok kk kok ok kk kk
1987 FORD TEMPO GL
2 dr., automatic, A/C, P/S, P/B, door locks, stereo radio,
much more. Stock No. 2222A
*8995°
Jr dd ok dk dk dk dk dk dk dk kk dk ok dk kk ok ok ok kk he ok
1985 CHRYSLER LAZER TURBO
Sporty 2 door, turbo power, 5 speed, loaded. Stock No. 2289A
*7995
rk dk kk ok kk dk dk ok dk kk kk kk kk ok ok
1984 OLDS CUTLASS CIERA
4 dr., automatic, A/C, P/S, P/B, wire wheel covers, tilt,
power door locks. Stock No. 2421A
6995"
od dk dk dk ok kk dk ok dk kk kk kk ok kk ok kk
1983 CHEVROLET CAPRICE
4dr., V8, A/C, P/S, P/B, power door locks, stereo, 1 owner
local car. Stock No. 1650A
*4995°°
kd dr dr dk do de dk ok dk dk kk ke kk kk ok kk ok
1985 CHRYSLER 5TH AVENUE
4 dr., leather interior, power windows, power locks, tilt, cruise,
power seats, stereo, exceptionally clean. Stock No. 2172
*9995°
rook dk dr dk dk dk dk ok dk dk dk ok de kk kk ok kk ok
Kk kk ok kk kk ok ok kk kk ok kk kk ok ok ok ok kk
1985 BUICK LIMITED
4 dr., big car, rear wheel drive, V8, loaded, full power, options,
everything, loaded. Stock No. 2388
495°
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1986 CHEVROLET CAPRICE
4 dr., big car, rear wheel drive, loaded with every option.
Stock No. 1789
*9995°°
dk A ok kd dk ok dk ok ok kk kk kk kk kk kk kk kk
1985 PONTIAC BONNEVILLE
4 dr., mid size, very clean car, great family car.
*71995
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1986 OLDSMOBILE DELTA 88
2 dr., sport, automatic, loaded with extra options.
*8995
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1986 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX 2 PLUS 2
V8, Grand National Sport Edition, loaded, collectors car.
*11,995
AAA AAAI AAA AAR AAA AAA AA Ahk kkk
1985 SUBARU WAGON 4X4
GL model, 4 dr. wagon, A/C, P/S, P/B, automatic, 4 wheel
drive, very nice. Stock No. 2089A
*71995%
AAA AAA AAA AA AAA Akh kkk kkk kk kk
1984 MERCURY LYNX
dr., 5 speed, cassette, sport wheels, black.
*3995°
ok A kh dk dk dk dr kk kk kk kk kk ok ok kk kk
1986 CAMARO IROC
2 dr., white, T-top, V8, loaded, one owner, another local car.
*12,995
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1986 PLYMOUTH VOYAGER
Passenger van, loaded, great family van.
Stock No. 2353
*9995°
dod dd dod dk dk ok kk ok kk kk kk kk kok ok kk kk
1987 CHEVROLET BEAUVILLE VAN
One owner, local, loaded, passenger van, fold out bed, much
much more. Stock No. 2343A
*14,995
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1984 FORD BRONCO II 4X4
Automatic, XLT, 4X4, loaded.
*71995"
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1987 NISSAN SPORT TRUCK
speed, sport bed cover, medium gray.
Stock No. 1987C
*8295°
Hk ok kd dk dk dk dk dk kk kk kk kk ok kk ok ok ok kk
1987 FORD RANGER EXTRA-CAB XLT
XLT model, V6, automatic, loaded.
*9995°°
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1988 DODGE DAKOTA
5 speed, stereo, SWB, sport wheel covers.
8795
AAA AA AAA AAA AAA AAR Ahk hhh kkk kk
1986 CHEVROLET C-10
Scottsdale Package, V8, automatic, P/S, P/B,
large wheel base.
*8695°
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~ GARTER
CHEVROLET | |
482-4341, 200 WEST DIXON BLVD.,
SHELBY 482-4341
HOURS:
Mon. -Fri., 8:30 AM-5:30 PM
Wed., 8:30-12 Noon
Sat., 8:30 AM-5:00 PM
909 Grover Road
Kings Mountain
Ray Walker, Jos Hamrick, i
Phone 739-5656
Morris Ramseur, Mark Johnson, ai
Rick Philbeck, Paul Carter,
= Ri
Conway Carter, Darrell Pearson,
Mark Carter - General Sales Manager
Carl Bell - Used Car Manager
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