A's Society Seminar Standing Room Only

A standing room only crowd packed the conference room on Saturday March 10th at the Days Inn, in Horsham, PA to participate in the A's Society's first ever seminar. The audience was held spellbound by the program put together by the Society's committee of Steve Harlem, Max Silberman and Carl Goldberg.

The morning began with a free refreshment period offered to all of the attendees, followed by an unbelievable display of actual game used uniforms from the 1930's, 40's, 50's from the personal collection of long time sports memorabilia collector, and uniform collector expert, Jay Turek.

Standing alongside his Hall of Fame caliber display that included uniforms of Babe Dalgren's 1946 St. Louis Browns Hank Edwards 1948 Indians, Johnny Sain's (of Spahn & Sain and pray for rain fame) 1947 Boston Braves, Cookie Lavagetto's 1955 Washington Senator's, Barney McCoskey's 1949 Philadelphia A's, Morrie Martin's 1953 Philadelphia A's, Bill Renna's 1954 A's and Hugh Mulchay's 1949 Phillies, arranged with 15 assorted hats from the same era, Turek went on to explain how he got into the "art" of collecting uniforms in 1984, and from that beginning has put together an astonishing assortment from baseball's past. (Editors note: we know from our association with Jay that he is one of the foremost authorities in the field today, and is often called upon for his expertise by many of the most prestigious memorabilia firms in business today.)

Turek fielded many questions from the audience about the quality of uniforms from that era, the maintenance and other related questions. When asked by someone in the audience the inevitable question of what he felt his collection was worth, Turek responded, "Nothing, because I don't ever plan on selling any of it. I am a collector, they bring back my youth, and they are a part of baseball's golden era" Turek's program was extremely well received by all and he indicated that he would welcome an invitation to the next seminar. Stay tuned on this one. Jay promises some more heavy hitting uniforms the next time he is up to bat.

The fans were then treated to an open discussion with former major leaguers, Joe Astroth, Al Brancato. and Mickey Vernon, as the three shared their reminisce of the daily life of a major league ball player from that era." My dad once said, "the good old days were not always so good" Vernon quipped as he said how much he would rather have the pleasures of taking his after game shower in a pleasant modern day facility as opposed to the one pipe shower in Sportsman's Park, St. Louis, where "the whole team, all 25 of us had to fit under one water pipe in the visiting teams clubhouse, look at the facilities they have today."

Brancato added the camaraderie that was developed by the long train rides from city to city that allowed the players to bond with one other. The card games, diner cars, going to sleep overnight from Philly and waking up the next day in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit. To that end it was a great experience. "Not always' tuned in Astroth. Sometimes our accommodations were determined by whether the team was winning or losing. If you look at the A's record in the period I was there, with the exception of 1948 when we were in it to darn near the end ,we did a lot of losing, I saw lot of changes in our travel arrangements, but I still treasure those moments, even to this day."

All three agreed that Jimmie Foxx was without a doubt, one of the greatest hitters of all time. "No matter what ballpark we were in, when one of our guys hit a shot out, some old-timer would invariably jump into the conversation and point out some far off distance and with some satisfaction inform us that Foxx hit one way way over there "Brancato remembered a game when he was playing 3rd base and Foxx was at bat while with the Red Sox." I was playing so deep I was in short left field, Foxx hit a 2 bouncer so hard to me it cracked my glove in half, geez what power that guy had" That's all Astroth needed to add that "I struck Foxx out once on three pitches, of course, it was only batting practice" to which Brancato added, "he probably got tired of waiting for the ball to arrive."

Bob Feller was without a doubt the toughest pitcher they had to face, while Bobby Shantz not only had the best curve ball the three ever saw, but was one of the games best fielding pitchers. Astroth said, "I was told early in my minor league career that if you wanted to make the majors as a catcher and stay there, latch on to a quality type pitcher, I did, and caught darn near every game Bobby pitched the whole time we were with the Athletics together", Astroth added," he was not overpowering, but he could put that ball just where he wanted it, (pause) every darn time, what a pro." The atmosphere was electric as these heroes of our past kept the audience transfixed for over an hour.

The days program ended with the awarding of the Ronnie Joyner/Bill Bozman original A's Society Fan Favorites art work won by Bill Kelly, who selected the Connie Mack drawing, and Joe Brancato who selected, who else but, uncle Al Brancato's original artwork.

The final event was the conclusion of Max Silberman's silent auction that offered many items of sports collectibles to the gathered throng. Upon leaving the facility, Max, who also served as the Master of Ceremonies looked skyward and said, "Mr. Mack, the A's Society did it again, another successful venture, the A's live on in Philly."

The Society is making preparations for a second seminar to be held in either May or June. Details will be made available on the Society's web-site philadelphiaathletics.org, and in our Newsletter or by contacting us at 215-323-9901. The success of today's event should urge non members to join the Society since it is evident that seminar will be a sellout too.

The A's Society would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the staff at the Horsham Days Inn for their wonderful cooperation and warmth in making this first event such a huge success. Our A's hats are off to Joanne Zapata, Carmen Zapata, & Mary Lyons for making our visit so welcome. And to you, our members or visitors to the web-site, if you are in need of accommodations and are in the area of the Days Inn in Horsham, take our advice, and make your stay a pleasant one. As our host motel, we will see you in Horsham in the near future.

Unfortunately, George Binks, former A's & Senators outfielder, was unable to attend because of a business conflict in Florida, said his son Terry, "We are really saddened to have to cancel our plans so close to the event, however, circumstances beyond our control prevented Dad from making the trip. Perhaps we can attend another A's Society event in the near future."