The Certified Auto Braves

 The Certified Auto Braves




     I have had a lifetime love affair with baseball and it all began sometime in the early 1950's. It was not because my Dad took me to Gilmore field to watch the Hollywood Stars battle the Portland Beavers. That actually filled me with a dread of falling through the open slats of the grandstands on the land now covered over by a gigantic mall. My love was more from looking at the acoutrements of the game and hearing of my brother's heroism when he played a game for the Redbirds wearing muk-a-luks because of a terrible sunburn. Because of big bro I got to check out the glory of a baseball uniform, the beloved cleats and the tiny bringers of dreams: Topps Baseball cards.When Stephen was not guarding them I flipped through his collection with the little symbols of the teams at on the corners of the cards. I never got to eat the stiff stick of gum since he took care of that but I looked at cards with cute little cubs, impish characters representing the St.Louis Browns, a completely racist Indian face and an elephant holding a baseball bat for the Philadelphia A's. All of this was great but the closest I came to actually playing the game was tossing a ball back and forth with my brother and examining his worn out "Hank Sauer" model glove. So it was that my Dad took charge and through a pal at J.M. Taylor he got  me signed up on a team called "the Certified Auto Braves" who were sort of leftovers who had not registered at the proper time. I was so naive I did not even know what position I was going to play but we drove over to Vic Hardin's house and picked up my World War II vintage wool flannel white and green uniform with Braves sewed on the front. He told me to show up at diamond A by the swimming pool at a certain time and I was stoked to wear the uniforn and be part of the game. I walked over to the the diamond but when the game started I was not in the nine players on the batting list. Having never had the game explained to me I just left the bench and walked a couple of blocks away to the Knowlton's house to show them my cool uniform. Within minutes BC screeched to a halt in front of their house and shouted for me to "GET IN THE CAR!" He took me back to  diamond A and the coach put me in the game later for an inning. As other kids took vacations or lost interest I ended up being the regular second baseman and I believe got one hit all year. However, being so small and timid I walked a lot and made very few outs. The Certified Auto Braves made a respectable showing, finishing in the middle of the pack behind teams like Billy Hogan's "Pacemakers" However, I was officially a baseball player.





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