Now that the World Series is finally turning interesting, let’s turn our attention to baseball. If you’re a Rudeen, you love baseball. It’s the law!
My Grandpa (Lawrence) Rudeen had an older brother Walter who loved the game. Here he is on the 1908 Ceresco team.
Middle: Delbert Larson, Bob Jones, Charles Gould, Edwin Boyles.
Front: Thurman Martin, Ed Sinn.
Here’s an undated team – probably after 1908 because I think Walt looks older. It looks like Walt’s got the catcher’s mitt in this photo. Notice also that there’s only nine guys. Yikes!
Front: Vigo Harkson, Walt Rudeen, Bob Jones, Thurman Martin.
The family lore is that the Ceresco team went up against future hall-of-famer pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1906 and Walter got a hit off him! Alexander was from Elba, Nebraska. He didn’t turn pro until 1907, so it’s entirely possible that the two small-town clubs really did meet that year.
My dad offered up this quote for my 1997 Rudeen Family History book about his brother Don:
Don was a good baseball player. He pitched or played short-stop in all the games I remember. When he pitched, he would take so much time getting signs from the catcher (Ed Frasier) that it nearly drove me nuts. “Throw the thing,” I would say. There were several huge games with Weston or Valparaiso, always on Sunday. Dad never went. Not once. He loved baseball, but not on Sunday. He never objected to my going and always asked how Don played. I remember one game that opened with a first-pitch grounder to short- stop and Don threw him out at first (to Ernie Swanson). When I told that to Dad he smiled. Dad was known in the community mostly as “Baker”, a reference to a major-leaguer who played third base as did Dad.
Of course, Ed Frasier went on to become Don’s brother-in-law when Don married Ed’s sister Vivian.
Dad bought tickets for all of us to go to the first-ever home opener of the Colorado Rockies on April 9, 1993. The game was held at what is now Mile High Stadium. Dad caught a foul ball – a great memento! And who can forget EY’s homer? Re-live it with this video:
In closing, I say “Go Cubs!”
Sources:
Ceresco History Special Edition, November 6, 1975. Archived on rootsweb.ancestry.com.
Love this Karen!
Love it!