Some kid busted his arm over on diamond 2...

 Some kid busted his arm over on diamond 2...

      A real plus to living near the South Gate Park was that it afforded ways for kids to get a hold of some cash money. I had a big brother who taught me the ways of the Park world but in a society made up of brats abundant you learned fast or stayed broke. One of the first ways to get  change was collecting soda pop bottles which could be redeemed for 3 cents each or 5 cents for a much more rare quart bottle. Boys would try to make a bit from odd-jobs and Billy Hogan and Greg had after school sweeping tasks at the Owl Drugstore that made them some filthy lucre. Johnny Knowlton got on the ground floor at the Arena bowl and kept score for beer guzzling men who could not focus on rolling and writing. He got a quarter a game. When we reached the teen years the park also offered modest part-time gigs like keeping score at SGJAA baseball games and some pretty serious fast-pitch softball tilts on diamond 1. The Sports Office took the score-keeping serious and even wrote about the games in the South Gate Press which added plenty to participating in the city. Scorekeepers were required to wear a white shirt and tie with "clean" long pants to show the crowd your official capacity. The mind of a teen often wanders so when a cute sister of a player might show up, details sometimes fell through the grandstands. Once I missed an entire inning, which meant at least six batters and lot of  action. I was a scorekeeper one afternoon when Buck Whitney ran over to tell me that I was an uncle as Michelle was born that day. This story involves the always exciting 4th of July All-Star Saturday with leagues filling up all of the big diamonds with Pee-Wee, Midget, Junior and Senior divisions peforming in the most glorious of inclusions. I was on diamond 3 scoring the Pee Wee battle when people started moving over to diamond 2 drawn by a fire department appearance that was called to administer to a youngster who had received a broken arm in the game. Someone ran by and said "Some kid broke his arm over on diamond 2!" Of course, I ran over in between innings to see a pale faced Greg Sheehy being escorted off the field to applause from the small crowd. Greg had been named to the All-Stars as a member of the Midget Orioles and was playing catcher in the big game. There had been a runner on third, the mature Gary Puffer who set sail for the plate on a grounder to the infield. The throw was a little wild and Greg stretched both arms out to catch the ball whn Puffer arrived and plowed into the extended arms, breaking the radius and leaving poor Sheehy in a heap at the dish. The break was major and it took an above the elbow cast with several screws to hold the bones in place for healing. On the other hand Greg was not going to be forced to join the slaughter in Vietnam with hardware in his arm but it did slow him down in Airports.