[PRCo] Re: 1960 recollections

[Bob Rathke]

Noted, Bob.

In 1959, I believe, Bob Friend lost a bunch of games.  This was the same
year when he was spokesman for a local dairy, and his photo appeared on
billboards all over Pittsburgh.  Toward the end of the baseball season, some
fans ("vandals"?) painted a new headline on one of the billboards stating
something like, "...and I lost 23 games."

Bob 3/2/905

-----------------------------
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dietrich, Robert J." <Robert.Dietrich at unisys.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 6:57 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: 1960 recollections


> Bob:
>
> Tell Al Dudreck that his wife should go easy on Bob Friend.  If I recall
> correctly a perfect double play ball was hit to Rocky Nelson in the top
> of the ninth.  It was perfect until he blew it allowing dem damn Yankees
> scored.
>
> Bob
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
> [mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Bob
> Rathke
> Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 6:37 PM
> To: Pittsburgh Trolley List
> Subject: [PRCo] 1960 recollections
>
> The following very interesting recollections are from Al Dudreck with
> whom I
> worked in Pittsburgh.  And there are at least a couple of PRC tie-ins in
> his
> message.
>
> Bob 2/28/05
>
> ----------------
> > BOB et al:
> >
> > In 1960, I was pretty good friends with a lot of guys in the
> Pittsburgh
> > Broadcast Media, so I was invited to watch the last game of the World
> Series
> > on what was then a "giant TV screen" in the Webster Hall Hotel, just
> across
> > the way from Forbes Field.  The "giant screen" was probably 4-5 feet
> wide
> at
> > that time and the station hosting the party was
> > KDKA-TV.  We were on one of the upper floors of the hotel (I think it
> only
> > has 10 or 12 floors) and you could look out the window and see most of
> the
> > outfield from the hotel window.
> >
> > Just to correct a piece of information, the guy who hit the home run
> before
> > Mazeroski was Hal Smith, our catcher.
> > If I am not mistaken (Paul Adomites would know this) Hal's home run
> was in
> > the 6th or 7th inning and made the score
> > 9-7 Pirates.  The Yankees then tied the score when they scored two
> runs
> off
> > of Bob Friend, who I talk with now at Oakmont Country Club where we
> are
> both
> > members and who my wife berates because he almost gave the game to the
> > Yankees.
> >
> > When Mazeroski hit the ball, about six of us were standing next to the
> > window of the room and actually turned away from the TV and saw the
> ball
> go
> > over Berra's head and over the left field wall. Needless to say,
> pandemonium
> > reigned.
> >
> > But, several of us were smart enough to realize that the real party
> would
> be
> > Downtown, so we raced out of the hotel and caught one of the last
> trolleys
> > to go downtown from Oakland before they closed off the downtown area.
> It
> > might have even been the "Flying Fraction (77/54) trolley.  We got
> into
> > downtown just in the midst of the "telephone book rain" that was
> happening
> > from every high rise office building downtown.  Whole telephone books
> were
> > being tossed out windows and it was actually dangerous.
> >
> > I happened to see the photograph being taken by the Pittsburgh
> Post-Gazette
> > of a guy sitting on a curb on Fifth Avenue between Grant and
> Smithfield
> who
> > had a martini on his briefcase and was toasting everyone who passed
> by.
> The
> > picture appeared in the paper the next morning.
> >
> > My friends and I beat it to the Carlton House hotel (our favorite
> watering
> > hole at that time) and there, on top of the piano that was in the bar,
> was
> > my next door neighbor in Bethel Park, Miles Harper, singing "Beat 'Em
> Bucs"
> > at the top of his lungs.  I called my wife (in Bethel Park) and told
> her
> the
> > town was "shut down tight" and I couldn't get home because NO trolleys
> were
> > leaving town.  ( A very good excuse and, in the main, the truth!)
> >
> > We stayed until 9:00 PM when I caught the Library trolley and went
> home.
> >
> > Do I remember?  Deed I do!
> >
> > AL DUDRECK
>
>
>