Broadway Joe was nearly Wrigley Joe
When Bill Mazeroski launched a walk-off residence run to win the 1960 World Series at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, an iconic second was born: The baseball crusing over the ivy-covered wall as Yogi Berra’s chase morphed right into a dejected jog again to the guests’ dugout is a picture embedded within the minds of baseball followers all over the place.
About 30 miles north of the place that was happening, a 17-year-old highschool baseball participant was jubilant — his beloved Pirates had simply upset the closely favored Yankees in a seven-game collection that put the “Classic” in “Fall Classic.”
Less than a 12 months later, that top college outfielder was in the exact same batter’s field as Mazeroski was in when he related for the historic homer. The prep star was taking swings throughout batting apply forward of the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League highschool baseball championship between Beaver Falls and Elizabeth Forward.
As he took his pregame cuts, Joe Namath was dwelling a dream.
“One of my highlights was being able to hit one out in batting practice over the left-field wall at Forbes,” Namath mentioned. “My teammates got a big kick out of that.”
Surely, his teammates had been jokingly uttering the identify “Namath” in the identical breath as “Mazeroski” because it grew to become clear the ball was loosely following the trail of probably the most celebrated residence run in Pirates historical past. Little did they know that Namath would sometime eclipse their beloved “Maz” in athletic fame whereas below the brightest of lights in New York City.
Namath went 2-for-3 within the championship sport to steer Beaver Falls to the WPIAL title, the primary in class historical past. And that was after he hit .450 through the common season.
“I tried to hit everything I could,” Namath mentioned. “It just so happened that in a couple of championship games I was able to connect with the long ball.”
Namath delivering within the clutch with a championship on the road? Where have we heard that earlier than?
With his resume capped by a league title, Namath had his eye on his final objective: to turn into a Major League ballplayer.
Sure, he was an amazing highschool quarterback, to not point out a standout basketball participant. But lengthy earlier than he famously gained Super Bowl III over the Baltimore Colts after guaranteeing his underdog Jets could be victorious, and lengthy earlier than he grew to become “Broadway Joe,” one of the crucial well-known quarterbacks in professional soccer historical past and one of the crucial recognizable athletes on the planet, baseball was Namath’s past love. And Roberto Clemente was his hero.
“As a kid, maybe 11 or 12 years old, I started watching Roberto,” Namath mentioned. “He just was so graceful to me, the way he ran and the way he’d slide into third or second — he’d start that slide about five yards away, man. Oh, he was just wonderful. And catching the ball — I even mimicked his style of catching a fly ball, which was similar to Willie Mays’ basket catch, but it was because of Roberto that I used it so much.”
It was Namath’s older brother, Bob, who would take him all the way down to Pittsburgh and the outdated ballpark infrequently as a teenager, and one sport stands out among the many others in Joe’s thoughts.
“I’ll never forget it,” Namath mentioned. “It was like the bottom of the eighth and the Pirates were down,” Namath mentioned. “They didn’t do something that inning and Bob desires to go away to beat the site visitors. And I didn’t wanna go, however your massive brother, you realize, you take heed to him.
“So we get in the car and turn on the radio, and we’re driving out and darned if the Pirates don’t come back and win it! And we’re driving along and cheering. And I was a little upset with Bob. Of course, he was a little upset with himself.”
Another sport that Namath by no means forgot was performed on May 22, 1956, when the Pirates hosted the Cardinals. It turned out to be the fourth straight sport by which Dale Long would homer en path to a report eight consecutive video games with a roundtripper for the Bucs’ first baseman.
For younger Joe Namath, there was a lot to soak up: not solely the Long residence run and seeing the legendary Clemente out in proper discipline, however getting the possibility to observe Stan Musial hit. “The Man” would go down as one of many biggest sluggers within the sport’s historical past, smashing 475 residence runs and successful three National League MVP Awards, seven NL batting titles and three World Series rings with St. Louis throughout a 22-year Hall of Fame profession.
“‘Stan the Man’ was in the box, and boy, he hit a shot into the outfield to score a run,” Namath mentioned. “I’m so glad I got to meet and visit with Stan ‘The Man’ Musial later on in my life. He was always so sweet. I’ll never forget meeting him at Oakmont [Country Club] for a golf tournament with Arnold Palmer. He was so soft and gentle and had a smile that just made you feel so good.”
Namath was in love with baseball very like numerous different 12-year-old boys rising up in Nineteen Fifties America, notably those that had the chance to observe superstars like Clemente and Musial in individual. Five years later, his plan was on monitor: Major League scouts had been noticing him.
During one highschool sport in 1961, Namath regarded up within the stands behind the Beaver Falls’ dugout and noticed a person watching him extra intently than everybody else. That man was a second-year Dodgers scout named Tommy Lasorda.
“Tommy and I talked quite a bit, even years afterward, about him coming to town,” Namath mentioned. “Yeah, Tommy was scouting me out — every time I would see Tommy in later years, we’d talk about it. He remembered my hometown and sitting in the bleachers and all kinds of stuff.”
There was no MLB Draft again then; it wouldn’t be established for an additional 4 years. The Dodgers by no means ended up providing Namath an expert contract, however there have been 4 MLB golf equipment that did: the Athletics, Orioles, Cubs and Cardinals.
The Cardinals scout who really helpful that St. Louis provide Namath a contract was Ollie Vanek. Vanek’s biggest discover was a highschool pitcher out of Donora — a small city simply south of Pittsburgh — whom he satisfied the Cards to show into an outfielder (and later a primary baseman). His identify was Stan Musial.
But St. Louis’ provide to Namath wasn’t the largest. The Cubs held that distinction, providing him $50,000 (about $470,000 at the moment). It was attractive, and Namath wished to take it and start the professional baseball profession he had dreamed about for years.
“Getting an offer for the amount of money Mom and Dad would have to work 10 years for, that was a big amount of money back in 1961,” Namath mentioned. “And I loved the game.”
Of course, there was extra to the choice than what Namath wished. When his dad discovered what he was planning to purchase with a great chunk of the cash, alarm bells began going off.
“Oh, I had it picked out,” Namath mentioned. “It was a Pontiac Starfire. It was a convertible with a white top, and it was blue, and it had this like six-inch strip of chrome along the side doors. They had it right there where you could look at it through the front window of the car shop. I used to walk by that thing and look at it and boy, it was so cool.”
The Namaths known as a household assembly over the dinner desk, and Bob, Joe’s older brother, took cost.
“We had a sit-down at the house with two of my brothers, my sister Rita, and my mother,” Namath mentioned. “Bob was the oldest, and we sat all the way down to determine what I used to be gonna do. And my mom’s sitting on the desk and he or she’s not speaking an excessive amount of, and Bob mentioned, ‘We’ve gotta determine right here what you’re gonna do between baseball and going to school. What do you wanna do, Joe?’ And I mentioned, ‘Well, I wanna play baseball.’
“And he looks at Mom and says, ‘Mom, what do you think?’ And she says, ‘Aww, I want Joey to go to college.’ Bob hit the table with his fist and he said, ‘That’s it. You’re going to college.’ And that was it.”
Now, the query was: the place? Namath had a ton of scholarship provides to play soccer and thought of a number of faculties, visiting Notre Dame, Michigan State, Iowa, Miami and Arizona State. He even ended up signing a letter of intent to matriculate at one other college he visited, one which was solely 300 miles or so away from residence: the University of Maryland.
“I was holding out,” Namath mentioned. “I was home when school was starting because I wanted to play baseball.”
Namath may solely maintain out for thus lengthy, and predictably, Mom gained. But as he was making ready to go away residence for Maryland, a knock on the door modified the trajectory of his life.
“It just so happened that one morning, while we’re getting ready toward the time to leave, someone came to the front door,” Namath mentioned. “It’s a good-sized man, and he launched himself as Howard Schnellenberger, assistant coach on the University of Alabama.
“Well, he sold my mother on the benefit of coming to the University of Alabama, and how they’d take care of this Pennsylvania Yankee and all that stuff. And after about a half hour of talking, she went upstairs, got a suitcase and packed my clothes. I didn’t even get to pack my clothes. She reached in her purse, gave me $5 and said, ‘All right coach, you go ahead and take him.’”
Namath was off to Alabama and the remainder, as they are saying, is historical past.
The Jets chosen Namath with the primary total decide within the 1965 AFL draft (the St. Louis Cardinals — the soccer Cardinals — selected him with the twelfth total decide of that 12 months’s NFL draft) and he would turn into a five-time Pro Bowl quarterback, the MVP of Super Bowl III and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.
Still, Namath has usually thought of what it will’ve been like if he had taken the Cubs’ provide in 1961.
In June 2018, Namath visited Wrigley Field for the primary time in his life, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to then-Cubs supervisor Joe Maddon. On that event he had an opportunity to tour the venerable ballpark, and the person who left so many individuals awe-struck over time was himself struck with awe simply exterior the right-field entrance.
“I just marveled at Ernie Banks’ statue out there by the stadium,” Namath mentioned.
Namath and Banks may very properly have been teammates had Namath caught with baseball. Imagine a Cubs lineup with Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Lou Brock and this Namath child everybody had been raving about.
Things turned out alright for Namath, although. While it wasn’t a diamond, however a gridiron, on which he would rise to superstardom, he however has had alternatives to reside out a few of his baseball desires.
“I’m in a line at O’Hare Airport one time late in my career, waiting to get up to the ticket counter,” Namath mentioned. “And I see this massive man in line forward of me, and he’s obtained on this lengthy black topcoat with black fur across the collar, and I kinda lean outta line and I am going, ‘It looks like Ted Williams. I think that is Ted Williams!’
“So I just went up to him and tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned around. I said, ‘Mr. Williams’ — I’ve always called him Mr. Williams — and he said, ‘Hey, Joe! How ya doin’?’ He was warm. He was just wonderful. I’ve got a baseball of his right here on my shelf — it says, ‘To Joe Namath, Big-League Best, Ted Williams.’”
A couple of years again, Namath, who runs his personal charitable group known as the Joe Namath Foundation, was invited to a charity golf event by which baseball legends had been teamed up with soccer legends. Namath’s companion was going to be none apart from Mickey Mantle, however Mantle couldn’t make it.
So because the organizers of the occasion scrambled to search out Namath one other companion, they regarded for some other staff that was lacking a member.
They discovered one: Team Mazeroski.
“It was one of the highlights of my life to meet Billy and play golf with him,” Namath mentioned. “Man, I just couldn’t believe I was playing golf with Mazeroski. I can still see him with that wad of chewing tobacco, playing second base at Forbes Field.”
Oh, how historical past may need been completely different had Namath accepted that $50,000 provide from the Cubs 60-plus years in the past. There’s actually no assure he would have had as a lot success in baseball as he did in soccer — who is aware of if he would’ve been enshrined in Cooperstown moderately than Canton?
But it’s enjoyable to consider, even when Namath gained’t.
“I wouldn’t even dare to consider that,” he mentioned. “That’s not the way my brain works. I could’ve only hoped to make a team and play well and live the life.”
He lived the life in soccer. And perhaps he would’ve accomplished it in baseball, too. We can solely think about. But one factor is for certain: Namath’s coronary heart was intercepted by baseball lengthy earlier than he grew to become a soccer legend.
“I do still think about it sometimes, what it would’ve been like if I stayed in and all,” he mentioned. “I just loved the sport.”
