Happy 98th, Mom
Jerry Lutz
Yesterday would have been my mom’s 98th birthday. She passed away much too soon, at about the age I am now, in 1984. I miss her still.
My mom was a special lady, and there’s not a day goes by that something doesn’t happen to cause me to think of her. She comes to mind now, not only because it’s her birthday, but because the World Series recently concluded with the Chicago Cubs being crowned the 2016 World Series champions. She comes to mind because Mom loved baseball and she instilled that love of the game in me.
Some of my earliest memories are of watching the Saturday Baseball Game-of-the-Week with her. She would be working around the house doing the many things she always did. And my little brother and I would be sitting in the middle of the floor watching the game. The games were black and white. Color TV was still a dream for most American households. The Lutz family set wasn’t color until the late 60s … possibly early 70s. I was small enough that at the start of the game, when they played the National Anthem, to me that was the Baseball Song. And, the American flag waving on the picture screen while the Anthem played was the Baseball Flag. I had no idea yet that they were American symbols of our freedoms.
It seems to me that CBS and NBC carried games. We usually watched the network (CBS I think) that had Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese calling the games. Mom explained they were both famous former players and that Dizzy Dean was from Missouri and played for the St Louis Cardinals. I took some sort of pride in that bit of trivia. (This was way before my “strong dislike” for the Crudinals developed.) Every week Dizzy somehow worked in a verse of The Wabash Cannonball. To this day, if I hear that song, I think of Dizzy Dean and baseball before I think of Roy Acuff. Falstaff beer was the primary game sponsor, and their animated commercials with the Falstaff Old Pro were great.
As I got older and started to listen to ballgames on the radio, I became a Kansas City Athletics fan. Mom never minded that I listened to the games on a transistor radio after going to bed. Charles O. Finley was the tightwad owner of the A’s and finally moved the team to Oakland after the 1967 season. I relished the Oakland World Championships in 1972, ’73, and ’74. The Royals came along in 1969, but I didn’t become a Royals fan until all my favorite former Kansas City A’s players had left Oakland for other teams. I listened to the A’s games on radio as often as I could. I could hear them when they played the Royals, Twins, Rangers, and White Sox. I was listening when Catfish Hunter threw his perfect game vs. the Minnesota Twins. Thanks Mom for understanding and not making me shut the game off on a school night.
My brother and I were able to take Mom to some Royals games in the 70s. She absolutely loved going to the games and seeing a game live. She got to see the Royals play in the 1980 World Series and was happy for me that I got to go as part of my job at KNIM. She would have been crazy with joy with last season’s success.
I love baseball and it’s because of my mom. And I feel blessed that I’ve been able to pass that love of the game on to my daughter. Jessica and I watched the Royals clinch the 2015 World Series title together. It was a special moment, and Mom was a part of it. Thanks, Mom. This baseball love affair is in its third generation, and getting stronger all the time.
