Tonight is the Major League All-Star Game. It is the traditional game that pits the National League All-Stars against the American League All-Stars of Major League Baseball.
The notion of a Major League All-Star team is kind of oxymoronic to me. Given there are so many minor league teams out there…look it up…it will amaze you, it seems to me that any player making a major league roster is somewhat of an All-Star.
Still, I know, they have to play an All-Star game and every year there are clear cut selections to the team, head scratching selections to the team, and questions as to why some guys were left off the team. No wonder these little league all-stars have the problem they do…they are already trying to be like major- leaguers…at least their Dads are.
For me the 1979 Major League All-Star Game still holds forth in my memory unlike any other I can remember. Though I do remember one ended in a tie about a decade ago and seems like Dave Concepcion or was it Ken Griffey…hit a homer at Dodger Stadium and won the MVP Award in 1982… I think. I’ll have to look that up.
On July 4th 1979, a midst fireworks in the background, I was part of a moving caravan that moved my great-grandmother from her house on Bridge Street in Brownstown, Indiana to a house next door to her son (my grandfather) on Alma Street in Shreveport, Louisiana. My grandfather and I were in a U-Haul truck; it was no big deal as my grandfather was a commercial truck driver. My grandmother and her mother were in a Dodge pick-up truck with a cab on it. My great-grandmother, whom we were moving, was in a Cadillac with Illinois license plates that belonged to her other son. He was driving his mother down along with his son.
If you are keeping score I was in the midst of two great-grandmothers, one grandmother, one grandfather, one great uncle, and one second cousin. It was a real good time.
After the move was finished, I stayed in Shreveport with my grandparents. It was a bit of a strategic move, I suppose, on the part of my parents.
My Dad was looking for another job at the time. My mom was looking forward to selling our house in Brownstown. It was most convenient for all involved if I was 800 miles away. I was. I I was in Shreveport. And I was there for a good while.
Earlier in that same year, March to be more specific, my Dad was told he could no longer be the head football coach of the Brownstown Central Braves. Dad wanted to continue coaching and I am glad that he did.
On July 17th, 1979, the Major League All-Star Game was being played in the Kingdome in Seattle, Washington…the then home field of the Seattle Mariners.
The phone rang at 1439 Alma Street in Shreveport as I was watching the All-Star game with my grandmother. It was my Dad. He called to tell me that we were moving to Harrison County, Indiana. He was to be named the new head football coach at North Harrison High School. I was puzzled…not sure where he was talking about.
“Remember the place we went to last basketball season. That old cracker-box of gym with the rims you made fun because they shook so much.” he said.
Well, I did remember. I ended up graduating from high school in that same cracker-box in Nineteen hundred and eighty-six.
I also told Dad under no uncertain terms that we would go back to Brownstown and “kick their …uh…butt.” I was eleven at the time. It was the first time I ever used such language so freely when speaking to my father. But…we did. In 1982 we took a 6-1 North Harrison team into Brownstown’s Blevins Stadium to take on a 7-0 Brownstown team that was ranked #3 in their class. We won 27-14. It still ranks as the most impressive win in North Harrison history. I was a freshman player on the team.
As vivid as that 1982 football game is in my mind, none of it stands out like the throw Dave Parker made from right field to get Brian Downing out at the plate to help the National League preserve a 7 to 6 victory in the 1979 All-Star Game.
That is why I am going to turn this computer off now and go find a piece of 1979…if only in my mind…as I watch a little All-Star game action. They are in the bottom of the third and the American League is leading 3 to 2. Where is Dave Parker when you need him?
Danny Johnson