[PRCo] 1925 trolley ride

[Bob Rathke]

The following recollection was sent to me by Tom Greco, a B&O fan whose family was from Pittsburgh.  It's mainly a baseball story, but he mentions a 1925 trolley ride from Forbes Field to East Liberty.

Bob 3/23/02

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Bob,

Several years ago, I recorded books for the blind.  One of those I read was, I believe, "The Lost Ballparks".  Forbes Field was included in the book, and there was a thrilling story about the Pirates winning the 1925 World Series in a rain-soaked final game.   I got this "funny feeling" while reading that story:

My maternal Grandfather was Dr. Abram Vernon Hicks, a well-known physician in Pittsburgh.  He had suffered an attack of the flu in the Fall of 1925, and was just "over it".  He was a baseball fan like you and I are B&O fans, and he just HAD to go to a ball game now that he was feeling better.  So he went and got completely soaked, and rode home to East Liberty on the trolley.

He entered the house soaked and shivering, much to my Grandma's chagrin (she was an R.N.), who could only say to him "Vernon, what have you done??!!"  He went to bed, caught pneumonia and died three or four days later.

A phone call to my Mom in Omaha confirmed the date he died.  It was indeed three or four days after that final World Series game.  I had read on tape the story of the ball game that my Grandad had literally died to see!  I told that story on the tape at the end of the book.

Tom