Safe by a Mile
Publication Year: 2002
Charlie Metro was born Charles Moreskonich in Nanty-Glo, Pennsylvania, in 1919. He played in the major leagues from 1943 to 1945 with the Detroit Tigers and the Philadelphia Athletics. He managed for parts of two seasons, with the 1962 Cubs and the 1970 Kansas City Royals. He also coached the 1965 Chicago White Sox and the 1982 Oakland Athletics. Although he had far longer service in the minor leagues, he will probably be best remembered as one of the great scouts and teachers in baseball history.
Published by: University of Nebraska Press
Contents
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pp. vii-
Illustrations
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pp. ix-x
Acknowledgments
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pp. xi-xii
We would like to thank the editorial staff of the University of Nebraska Press for their invaluable help, which has undoubtedly made this a better book; Joan Foster, the dean of the School of Letters, Arts, and Sciences..
Introduction
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pp. xiii-xix
My father might as well have put a baseball in my hand when I was born, even before the doctor slapped me into this world. As far back as I can remember, baseball has been a part of my life. I wouldn't trade my career...
ONE Hookey from High School
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pp. 1-23
Baseball has been my life as far back as I can remember. I don't ever remember when I didn't know anything about baseball, when I wasn't crazy about it. I never thought that I would do anything else but baseba...
TWO The Big Leagues Were a Long Way Off
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pp. 24-62
My first minor league club was the Easton Browns in the Eastern Shore League. This was a ClassDleague. This was where Jimmie Foxx came from. He was a legend, of course. People still pointed out where he had hit home...
THREE Up with Detroit and Philadelphia
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pp. 63-105
After the Beaumont season in 1942, Helen and I and our baby daughter, Elena, went back to Mayfield to let the grandparents see their new granddaughter. I had a job down in Beaumont for a month, but we wanted to go back up to Kentucky. About twelve miles away from Mayfield, in Viola,..
FOUR Go West, Young Man
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pp. 106-156
After my release from Philadelphia and my trade to Oakland in the Pacific Coast League in the summer of 1945, I headed west to join my new club. I traveled on the train that was taking troops to theWest Coast for the Pacific...
FIVE Points South
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pp. 157-191
After the 1949 season, the Yankees decided to retrench on their farm system. They offered me a position with the Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, club, which was in a Class D league. They had other guys in mind for the jobs higher..
SIX The Road Back to Triple-A
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pp. 192-226
When the next year, 1956, started, I couldn't begin to guess that it would be one of the stranger years of my career. The year started for me in the South and ended in the West with a stop in the Midwest in between. You can...
SEVEN Mile High, Here We Come
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pp. 227-249
When we left Vancouver after the 1959 season, we decided to move back to Montgomery. We still had our house there, which we had rented out to some nice people. I wasn't sure where I'd be the next year, but I would go...
EIGHT A Car Missing a Wheel
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pp. 250-280
In 1962 I got my first opportunity to manage in the major leagues when the Chicago Cubs hired me as one of their rotating coaches. I had had a string of good seasons managing in Triple-A. I'd managed in All-StarGames in the...
NINE Scouting, the Toughest Job in Baseball
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pp. 281-315
I had very many enjoyable days at Comiskey Park as a special assignment scout and coach for Al Lopez. I was crazy about him. I'm indebted to him forever for giving me an opportunity to coach for him. He rewarded me...
TEN Putting All the King’s Men Together
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pp. 316-344
In 1968 the American League awarded expansion franchises to the Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Pilots for the 1969 season. Cedric Tallis, whom I had managed for at Montgomery and Vancouver, signed on as general...
ELEVEN If This Is Tuesday, It Must Be Albuquerque
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pp. 345-377
After I finished out my 1971 contract with the Royals, Jim Campbell of the Tigers invited me to come over as an advance scout. I suspect that Billy Martin, who was the Tigers manager, had something to do with the offer...
TWELVE Billy Ball
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pp. 378-402
In 1982 Billy Martin offered me the chance to coach for the Oakland A's. This would give me the year necessary to qualify for my major league pension. I was having a very difficult time. Billy's offer made life easier....
THIRTEEN Retirement? What Retirement?
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pp. 403-440
Even though I retired in 1985, I've kept quite busy with a bunch of baseball-related projects and by following the Colorado Rockies since 1992. Retirement has also given me more time to enjoy my family. Two...
FOURTEEN My Own Hall of Fame
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pp. 441-468
A few years ago, about 1993, I got a phone call from a Denver-based sculptor named Raelee Frazier. She wanted to do a life-size bronze cast of my hands because a mutual friend with the Rockies had told her I had "great"...
FIFTEEN I Dream of Baseball
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pp. 469-498
Baseball has been great for me. If I had to do it all over again, I'd want to live another fifty years in baseball. But the 1994 strike was devastating. It crushed me. I don't want to sound like an old fogey or anything, but...
Appendix: Career Statistics
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pp. 499-502
Index
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pp. 503-529
E-ISBN-13: 9780803201804
E-ISBN-10: 080320180X
Page Count: 537
Illustrations: Illus.
Publication Year: 2002
