maly, too: This Is Mostly About Autographs: The Day In the Summer Of 1948 When I Got An Autograph At Wrigley Field From the St. Louis Cardinals' Stan Musial, And How Fans Of Ames' Harrison Barnes, Now An NBA Player, Can Get His Autograph Free

Saturday, May 17, 2014

This Is Mostly About Autographs: The Day In the Summer Of 1948 When I Got An Autograph At Wrigley Field From the St. Louis Cardinals' Stan Musial, And How Fans Of Ames' Harrison Barnes, Now An NBA Player, Can Get His Autograph Free

By RON MALY

I'll start by saying that I'm not someone who normally wants anyone else's autograph.

The only time I can recall asking an athlete to sign his name to a piece of paper was when I was 12 years of age and was attending my second major league baseball game.

Stan Musial

The game was at Wrigley Field in Chicago, and the Cubs were playing the St. Louis Cardinals.

I'd been invited to go to Chicago on a driving trip with Cliff Stone and his family from Cedar Rapids.

At the time, I was a friend of Cliff's son, Jack Stone.

The year was 1948, and the first game we saw on that trip was at old Comiskey Park in Chicago, where the White Sox played the Cleveland Indians.

[By the way, the summer of 1948 was very eventful for me--and not all of it was pleasant. I'd had a pretty good season as a second baseman and pitcher for my Kids League baseball team in Cedar Rapids and--as a 12-year-old might do then and now--I foolishly envisioned myself as a future big league star. But I couldn't keep any weight on my body that summer, and it seemed like I was thirsty all of the time. Little did I know when I accompanied the Cliff Stone family to Chicago that I was in the process of developing Type I diabetes, a serious illness that people didn't know nearly as much about in 1948 as they do now. In that summer of '48, my weight had dropped to dangerous levels and, on the trip to Chicago, Cliff Stone would pull his car into farmyards throughout Iowa and Illinois so I could quench my thirst at water pumps. The Stones didn't know it, and I certainly didn't know it, that a month later I would have an atrocious 700-plus blood glucose score when I was examined by a doctor in Cedar Rapids, and my weight would be 79 pounds. Before insulin was discovered in 1921, the life expectency of a newly-diagnosed Type I diabetic was anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months. It was on Sept. 20, 1948 that I was told by Dr. Walter Block that I would spend the rest of my life as a Type I, insulin-dependent diabetic. After being informed what was in store for me, I spent the next 5 weeks in hospitals at Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Needless to say, it makes me very happy to be able to tell you all about this nearly 66 years later].

Now back to autographs.

The atmosphere at a major league baseball game in 1948 was much different than it is now.

Jack Stone and I were able to get the autograph of Stan Musial, one of the best baseball players in the history of the sport and a future Hall of Famer with the St. Louis Cardinals, before the game at Wrigley Field began.

The way I recall it, Musial was signing autographs for kids near the St. Louis dugout, and Jack and I were able to go down there from our seats in the grandstand to get autographs.

Can you imagine a kid being able to get the autograph of a major league standout these days before a game?

Certainly not.

Now back to the other stuff I intended to write about.

It's about autographs.

Free autographs.

I saw on ESPN.com this morning that Golden State Warriors forward Harrison Barnes, who was a very good basketball player at Ames High School and at North Carolina, is saying he will fill his offseason with staying in shape, playing video games and signing autographs.

Barnes said on his Facebook page that he's implementing an autograph policy that will allow his fans to get his signature, free of charge, in the offseason.

Harrison Barnes

"Since I get so many requests for autographs, I bought a P.O. Box for all of you to send items for me to sign," Barnes wrote. "I'm really excited to sign for everyone who's ever asked me for an autograph. I appreciate all the messages and replies I get on social media. This is my thank-you to all of you and a token of my appreciation for not only supporting me as a player, but as a person as well."

Barnes wrote that in order for fans to qualify for an autograph, they must write a handwritten letter explaining why they want an item signed and send a photo of them holding the item. Fans, who are permitted only one autograph per person, also must include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for Barnes to return the item.

"My time is limited because of daily workouts, 'Games of Thrones,' 'House of Cards,' and video games," Barnes wrote. "Items will be sent back as soon as possible."

That's a very nice thing for Harrison Barnes to do.

*

Photos of Stan Musial and Harrison Barnes courtesy of Google and ESPN.com

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.