The American Spectator

As this young guy with the jet black hair walked by… Dennis and I made the decision to ask him for his autograph. We knew he was a Dodger, but wasn’t one of the BIG names like Duke Snider, Don Drysdale, Johnny Podres or any of the other players we’d had sign our 8x10’s that day. When we approached him, he smiled, signed our photos, then headed toward the tunnel.

While back under that tree… we catch another player walking toward the entrance. This fellow was a small(ish) black guy wearing a nice shirt and tie and one of those sporty mini-fedoras with a silk band around the outside. Again, Dennis and I both decide to go for the autograph. After he signed… D & D went back to the tree.

Back then, our battle plan for getting autographs was — “Let’s go for the BIG names first, then (if we decide it’s worth the effort) we’ll go for the bench players.” The idea on collecting “second tier scribbles ” was simple: “OK, let’s get ‘em. They might BE somebody , SOMEday.”

Looking back, it was a wise thing to do. The pair of ”tier II autographs” we collected that afternoon were from a young, unknown rookie shortstop named… Maury Wills, and a guy with jet black hair, named… Sandy Koufax. As old baseball fans know, both Mr. Wills (MVP in 1963) and Mr. Koufax (Hall of Fame) went on to ”be somebody… someday.”

Oh, and just so you’ll know — wherever Dennis and I went we always kept two things near to our vests: (a) our envelopes containing a current collection of black ‘n white team photos (for quick access and autographing) and (b) a pocket sized thingy called a transistor radio.

If you were a 4-foot-nothing baseball fan in ‘58 Los Angeles — there was an rule of thumb that needed to be adhered to: “Keep your friends close; but keep Vinny closer.” OK, one of them Godfathers mighta’ said it first — but we got the message. And just so you’ll know, that evening after the game, Mr. Scully took the time to stop his car while pulling out of the Coliseum driveway, roll his widow down and sign the back of our black ‘n white 8x10s. Can’t imagine Manny pausing to do that for less than a pair of Benjamins.
— Dave
California

TINY, BILLION-DOLLAR ERROR
Re: RiShawn Biddle’s Golden Apples:

RiShawn Biddle’s “Golden Apples” is very well done and I look forward to reading more by the author on the subject. However, there is a significant error in one of the statistics that the author cited, namely the amount of the unfunded health care liability carried by the Encinitas Union School District. The problem stat is quoted below:

“An even larger bill comes in the form of unfunded costs for teacher healthcare deals. School districts — and ultimately, taxpayers — will pick up $16 billion in unfunded healthcare payments on behalf of retiring teachers. This includes the $10 billion in as-yet-to-be funded health insurance payments owed by the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest (and most visibly dysfunctional) school district. The tiny Encinitas Union School District near San Diego, which educates a mere 5,600 elementary school children, has $4 billion in unfunded health care payments.”

Obviously a jaw-dropping figure. But, further investigation leads me to conclude that the author overstated the liability by a factor of 1000. Please see this 2008 article from another publication, with their presentation of the Encinitas unfunded liability at that time ($4.4 million).

Encinitas has about 485 school department employees. If the $4 billion figure mentioned by the author were correct, this would translate to an unfunded liability of over $9 million per current department employee. Obviously not reasonable.

Nonetheless, the other points made by the author do illustrate the severity of the nation’s looming public employee pension and healthcare cost problem.
— Roland Perkins

STARTING WITH THEIRS

Re: Christopher Orlet’s Life in the Blagosphere:

Howzabout a term limit on political parties?
— David Govett
Davis, California