Remember When – The Boys of Summer

Lee Mrowicki was nicknamed “The Voice of the Stone Pony” by Rolling Stone Magazine and has been associated with the legendary Asbury Park club and the rock and roll city for decades. He currently can be heard each week spinning the best of New Jersey music with Radio Jersey. This is part of an ongoing series entitled, “Remember When”.

With deference to the Don Henley song, but more to the book by Roger Kahn, we were the Boys of Summer.

Only one of those two were about America’s game but a few of us on the field did wear something similar to Wayfarers.

The boys of summer play a game with a round ball and round bats and leather gloves. I think it was Ted Williams who is attributed to saying “ the most difficult thing to do in sports is to hit a round ball with a round bat.” Where also if you fail more often than succeed, you’re a star ballplayer. Ain’t that the truth!

So it brings me to the game most of us guys were brought up to play… the game of baseball. Up until we get a little older and the ball gets a little bigger and softer and we call it softball.

We never think as we are young (or younger) that a day will come that we will hang up the spikes and put away the bat and gloves that had been so much a part of us during the spring and summer.

And least of all myself… little did I think of anything that Sunday afternoon but where the guy at bat was going to hit the ball as I patrolled center field against the opposing team headed by a guy nicknamed “Scooter”… none other than Bruce Springsteen.

If you were driving down the Garden State Parkway and nearing the exit for the Garden State Arts Center (now PNC) and took a look to your right near the State Police Barracks and Holmdel High School, you would see a bunch of guys in shorts and t-shirts playing the traditional American game.

Yes indeed, you would have seen the E Street Kings versus the Pony Express, teams representing the E Street Band and the employees of the Stone Pony.

The field behind Holmdel High School was an ideal place to play… secluded, out of the way and fairly private. Most of us didn’t even know how to find it unless you had the directions or you had played there in the past in high school, which I did as a member of the Neptune High School baseball team.

Now, most of the employees of the Stone Pony, me included, had some sort of experience in playing the game, mostly in summer softball leagues (by the way, the Stone Pony won the 1985 Eatontown Men’s Softball League championship)  or in pick up games while at family or community picnics. Most of our players were used to playing what was called “arc or slow pitch” where the pitcher threw the ball on an arc, under a 10 foot rule, towards the batter… unlike more serious fast pitching, which was either a windmill or fast as you can throw it underhand delivery.

So, here we were… a rag tag group of players, a little rough around the edges from working at the Pony on Saturday night and getting only about 5-6 hours of sleep.

The other team, captained by second baseman named Springsteen, was made up of some band members and friends of the band… none of which were really known to us as far as their abilities on the baseball diamond were concerned. And you usually can tell if there is a real ballplayer in someone once they get on the field.

We were really there only for the fun in the sun… the camaraderie of playing America’s game only a hot sunny day.

The agreement was the E Streeters would bring the big grill in Bruce’s pickup truck along with the burgers and hotdogs, and with Chef Obie Dziedzic supervising the cooking in between games– as Ernie Banks would say, “The Sun is out…so let’s play two!”

Our end of the agreement would be to provide the liquid refreshments for all– a keg of beer and other liquids.

And a good time was guaranteed for all.

Until gametime.

Little did we know that Bruce was going to bring his ringer with him.

So, E Streeters are up first… and hitting third would be the nimble second baseball Springsteen. Fleet afoot but we had no knowledge of his hitting prowess, if any.

The first two make out and up comes Scooter. After a couple of pitches taken, he hits a line drive towards right center. I get on my horse, no pun intended, and make a shoestring catch on a full gallop to end the inning.

I think it was then, although we had met a few times before at the club, that I had garnered some respect from that second baseman, who said “Nice Catch!” as I ran past him heading to our dugout.

So, go back a few sentences and check on the word “ringer”.

A “ringer” is someone who has appeared unsuspectingly for the other team to give them a decidedly unfair advantage….and here was one on the mound for the E Street team.

Bruce had brought with him his booking agent, Barry Bell, who didn’t look like much on the mound. He was no physical specimen like some of the bouncers who worked at the Pony (but who couldn’t hit much). He could be described as “wirey”… a little more slender in physique than Bruce.

But what we saw that day was unlike what most of the players on the Pony Express team were used to…having only played mostly “slow pitch” softball.

Here we had for the opposing team was a fireballer who probably threw 90mph from 45 feet away.

You blink and it was past you. And it was a difficult day for most of the Stone Pony Express that afternoon.

Hitters were flailing away at the nasty stuff Mr. Ringer was throwing past them.

Now, I had been a baseball player most of my life, although I joined the Pony softball team to keep in baseball shape all summer long when my baseball team had become defunct. So I was kind of still used to seeing fast pitching from my baseball days (the smaller ball compared to the larger softball).

After a few Pony Express hitters could even touch the fastballs Mr. Bell was throwing, I got up to bat.

Having never met Mr. Bell before and him not ever seeing me, except maybe in the Pony DJ Booth, I felt that I might have a little advantage here, probably more than our guys used to slow pitching.

I looked at the first pitch which was close… and just like some of my heroes in the Major Leagues, I’d always take the first pitch to see what the pitcher was throwing. I remember an interview with NY Met Keith Hernandez who said he always took the first pitch so he could see the speed of the pitcher’s fastball. And everyone in the world knew Keith always took the first pitch!

So, I remember the old baseball adage of having fast hands to the ball and got in the batter’s box with everyone thinking I was going to meet the same fate as all my teammates.

Here it comes… fast ball down the pike… quick hands and I lace a double to right center.

And there’s Mr. Bell looking at me standing on second base, kind of proud of myself. And him looking like “Who the heck is this guy?!!!”

Well, the game continued and I think we lost the first one 5-1. There we were… looking forward to the burgers and dogs cooked up by Ms. Obie and the liquid refreshment served up by the Stone Pony.

Of course it was great having some fun in the sun on a Sunday afternoon… I thought of all the cars driving down the Shore on the Parkway and people looking down the hill and seeing a bunch of guys playing softball. Little did they know who was down there…I said to myself…man, imagine if we could sell tickets? Nah, better off being private.

I think we played a shortened second game because after all was said and done, we still had to go to work that night at the Pony for our regular Sunday night soiree with the most talented Cats on a Smooth Surface, who were some pretty good ballplayers in their own rite.

I think we played a couple more times after that… all for the fun of it and for keeping the American tradition alive.

Hitting a round ball with a round bat. Doesn’t get much better than that!

Lee Mrowicki was nicknamed ‘The Voice of the Stone Pony’ by Rolling Stone Magazine and has been associated with the legendary Asbury Park club and the rock and roll city for decades. He currently can be heard each week spinning the best of New Jersey music with Radio Jersey. He writes an ongoing series entitled, ‘Remember When’.