| Chapter 3: | Stores, Houses |
Oakland, California, the son of Italian immigrants, Lombardi played for the Oakland Oaks before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1931. After one season he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds, where in ten years he amassed one of the greatest records in baseball. In 1938 his batting average of .342 led the National League and he was voted the Most Valuable Player for the year. Cincinnati sold Lombardi to the Boston Braves in 1942 and in 1943 he came to the Giants for a three seasons stay. It was at the Polo Grounds that I saw the great man play. He was the slowest runner in baseball but got on base with his devastating bat action. Lombardi rarely struck out. After his death he was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.12
Since indoor spaces were not large, the Braves liked to stay out of doors. Even in winter when we couldn’t stay in the shack we stayed warm by building fires near the sidewalk.
The boys on my street were inseparable. Three guys from One Hundred and Thirteenth Street joined our gang. There were eighteen regular members of the Braves. Sometimes other kids from East Harlem joined us temporarily. We played stickball and stoopball on our block. We went swimming and played softball at Thomas Jefferson Park. In our late teens we played ball in Randall’s Island. We took long walks on the East River Drive and smoked cigarettes on the pier. We necked with the girls at birthday parties held at Maxie’s apartment.
Many of the kids on my street went to the Boys’ Club on One Hundred and Eleventh Street between First and Second avenues. We played games there and adults told us stories. I joined the Navy