The other day, I was sitting in my car at a local store with my youngest son listening to the Phillies game on the radio. This was game two of the NLDS series against the NY Mets. We were listening to hear how the game would end since we were in the 9th inning and the Fightin’ Phils were losing. We were excited to listen to the electrified announcers as they described how Nick Castellanos saved the day and the Phils tied the series.
My son commented that I don’t usually listen to baseball on the radio. I replied but I used to listen often when I was around his age. For a moment, I was mentally taken back to a place in my life when I was a staunch Phillies fan. I remember the 1980 World Series win, I was actually on the cover of the New York Times Sports page when we won the pennant. In 1980, we were a “City of Champions”. All four major sport teams made it to their championship games but the Phils were the only ones to win.
I was in 7th grade. My Homeroom Teacher decided to start a school newspaper and the 7th grade class would be in charge of it. My classmate and I applied to be the sports editors. Our teacher approved and we went fast to work trying to find a story good enough to be published. The best stories were about our professional ball teams. So we brainstormed how we could possibly conduct interviews with professional athletes. I had the idea that we should consider ourselves reporters just like the professional media. I remember reading the 1st Amendment on freedom of the press. It didn’t specify that you had to work for a news station or real newspaper. I sold my classmate, my parents, his parents, and our teacher on the idea that we were included. We typed the amendment’s language on one side of an index card and a note signed by our parents and teacher on the other. We had them laminated and hung them around our necks with shoelace lanyards.
I will share about our 1st interview another time., but our 2nd interview was at Veterans Stadium to talk to the Phillies. We just walked into a game at the Vet through the press entrance and walked down to the front row by the dug out and I interviewed Lonnie Smith. I interviewed him with a tiny spiral notepad learning over the third baseline. Below is the Lonnie Smith Interview which appeared in the November 1980 issue of the Stella Maris Star (Sandone and Conti, 1980):
“Our sports reporters were able to get inside Vet Stadium to interview Phillies rookie Lonnie Smith.
Rep: Is there any pressure on the Phillies since there are only a few games left in the race for the Pennant?
Lonnie: No pressure on me. I sit on the bench.
Rep: Do you think you’ll make the play-offs?
Lonnie: If we go two out of three in Montreal.
Rep: If the Phillies do make the play-offs, do you think you’ll play?
Lonnie: I’d probably sit on the bench during the play-offs.
Rep: Do you consider yourself the fastest runner on the team?
Lonnie: No, the right fielder, Bake McBride.
We heard Lonnie talking to a friend and he asked Lonnie if he’d get rookie of the year award. Lonnie said “They’re thinking about it.”
Post-Script: The Phillies beat Montreal two out of three, and as this paper goes to press, they are playing Houston. We’re rooting for our Phils to go all the way.
And the rest was history.
This story is important because this is an example of how caring adults did not impede the ideas of children. My teacher, my parents, and my friends’ parents all let us try to do something that we believed we could do, and we were more than enthusiastic! They did not try to stop us, curtail us, or even help us in any way. We even walked to and from the stadium alone. In the end, this interview with Lonnie Smith belonged to us. The dream came true, the feeling belonged to us. The ability to believe in yourself doing something unbelievable belonged to us. Looking back on this I believe this was one of those life moments that set the stage for others. It definitely was in the works when I created the idea of what Zhang Sah was going to be. We even celebrated our 27th birthday on October 4th and we are stronger now than ever. This is why I tell you Red October is actually Zhang Sah Red October around the dojo!
Go Phils!
Go Zhang Sah!
