Marine Shares A Baseball Memory

Last week I was playing poker at Planet Hollywood when a Marine veteran shared an interesting baseball memory.

Mike is a 79-year-old poker dealer who grew up near Detroit and spent 24 years in the Corps, from 1956 to 1980. When he shared with us that he spent some time in Vietnam, I asked if he was one of the early "advisors" the U.S. sent there in the very early half of the 1960s.

"No, I didn't get there until 1968, just after Tet," he explained. "I was at 29 Palms and the day before I shipped out I saw Denny McLain beat the Angels 3-0. That was the year he won 31 games and he was dominating that day."

Later I looked up the box score of the May 29 game and McLain struck out 13 Angels while pitching a complete game. The win improved McLain's record to 8-1 with a 1.94 ERA. Willie Horton slugged a 2-run homer to give Denny all the offense he would need.

So after 30 minutes of dealing poker, Mike left our table for his regular break. We thanked him for the story and his service as a Marine. A few minutes later, I was watching the poker action, but out of the hand, when I got a tap on my shoulder.

"Thought you might like to see this," Mike said as he handed me the ticket stub from that Tiger victory. It was for a field box seat at Anaheim Stadium and Mike paid $3.50 for the best seat in the place. Mike had the ticket stub laminated, took it with him to Vietnam and carries it in his wallet to this day!!

Semper Fi!!