Letter from Chip Northrup

We All Wanted To Be Willie

We live a block away from the Baseball Hall of Fame. We strolled over last night to see the Hall of Famers arrive in the back of pickup trucks with their families. Some of these players started out life riding in the back of pickup trucks to work or school or church. Shown here (above) is Pedro Martinez, Class of 2015, who grew up with five siblings in a one-room shack in the slums of the Dominican Republic.

When George Bush was asked if he wanted to be president when he was growing up, he replied, “Heck no, I wanted to be Willie Mays.” Me, too. When I was a kid in Texas, my father took me to see Willie Mays play in a minor league exhibition game with the Fort Worth Cats. It was a night game and we drove across the Trinity River Bridge in the mist. The stadium lights lit up the rainy sky like sunshine. Then the mighty Fort Worth Cats took the field. And there he was, my boyhood hero, the “Say Hey Kid,” Willie Mays!

The only cult I want to belong to is the cult of baseball. Wear any hat that suits you. Or no hat at all.

Chip Northrup
Cooperstown