Talk:Dick McAuliffe

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Back around 1950, I played in the Farmington Little League for 2 years, on Dick's team. He played SS and pitcher, while I played nearby, at 3rd base. At age 11, I was good field, little hit. But at 12, while Dick was 11, My uncle, Anthony Leiper of Lake Garda, taught me the Wee Willie Keeler method of contact hitting (a crisp, level swing aiming up the middle, with hands separated an inch or two), and I became the 2nd best hitter on the team. Dick was by far the best, almost always putting good wood on the ball. (Those were pre-aluminum days). We were on the Red Sox team, but both years the Farmington boys on the Blue Sox kept us in 2nd place. Their star then was 'Lefty' Dave Peters, CF and pitcher.

Dick and I, with his brother George and my cousins, Albert and Jim Leiper, also did some caddying at the posh Farmington Country Club, J. Russell Ebbets as Pro, Jim Sukes as his assistant. We were all hackers at that stage, but we were there most every Monday morning for Caddy Day golfing. Dick paid the penalty for being a lefty. Left-handed clubs were rare then, so all of us with leftover clubs used the common right-handed ones. So Dick turned around and hit righty, but, unlike the rest of us normal righties, he hit cross handed! They had a well-publicized annual Caddy Tournament (a member knew a Hartford Sport's Editor, Abe McGinley), so our scores were noted in the paper. For my age group, 13, I came in 2nd with a 108, and Dick, 12, was about the same. One guy shot a 120, and won praise in the article for being so honest. After the 9th grade, I moved to a bigger school in West Orange, NJ, and by baseball days were over. I've often thought, if the best guy on our Red Sox had such a stellar major league career, how well might the #2 guy have done? ("Dream on, self...") Watching Dick on TV games against the Yankees, I recall several items. First, the announcer, Mel Allen, introduced him each and every game as "Dick McAuliffe, from Unionville, Connecticut." What CT connection Mel might have had, I don't know. Another memory was a crucial mid-season clash at Yankee Stadium, where Lefty Whitey Ford was hand-cuffing the Tigers until the top of the 8th. McAuliffe came up, lefty against lefty, and battled well, fouling off about 7 2-strike pitches. Finally he got one he could handle, and ripped a line drive homer into the Yankee bullpen in right, enough for the eventual 1-0 victory. Another recollection was of the NY Daily News -- just about every season, they had a great picture on the last page, of McAuliffe sliding hard into one base or another. He was that kind of player: intense, determined and hustling. Maybe a lot like Pete Rose in that respect.

Dick: Thanks and best regards, Austin Herzog, Whitehouse Station, NJ