Baseball has always been a huge part of my identity. While I mostly get my obsession with baseball from my father’s side of the family, my mother’s side of the family gets some credit too. My grandfather on my mother’s side, David Wein, has seen a lot of baseball in his 82 years of life, and my family has been forever changed because of it.
Wein grew up in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in New York City that was very close to the old Yankee Stadium. The stadium was within walking distance from where he lived. All you had to do was walk a few blocks, cross a bridge to get there and pay $5 for a ticket. Wein’s earliest memories of the Yankees involve a legend.
“I remember my mom took me to a Yankees game on my birthday and we bought a small, inexpensive baseball,” Wein said. “Somehow she was able to get Joe DiMaggio to sign it and to say happy birthday.”
The Yankee Clipper wasn’t the only legendary player Wein witnessed in-person.
“I went to a number of Dodgers and Giants games,” Wein said. “I saw Willie Mays and Duke Snider in center field against each other at the Polo Grounds. I also saw Mickey Mantle’s final home game and the final game at the old Yankee Stadium before they renovated it.”
But perhaps the biggest baseball story in his memory was the day my mother was born. On September 14, 1968, every baseball fan in the country was on their couch to watch the Detroit Tigers’ star pitcher Denny McLain record his 30th win of the season. The significance of this is that a pitcher had not recorded 30 wins in a season since 1934, and it would not be done again after this date.
Wein joined these people on the couch to watch this historic moment. But someone had other plans.
“Your mom was ready to be born, but I wasn’t ready to leave the couch,” Wein said. “I was watching the game.”
My grandmother was already having contractions so she called the doctor and asked if he could meet her at the hospital to deliver the baby. Unfortunately for my grandmother, the doctor couldn’t be bothered because he was watching the game as well and asked if she could wait.
Frustrated by this, and left with no other options she went outside and saw her neighbors.
“Our neighbors were going out at that time to get Chinese food,” Wein said. “So your grandmother asked if they could drop her off at the hospital cause we didn’t have a car at the time.”
Finally, Wein got the message that this was truly bigger than baseball and they took the ride with her neighbors to the hospital and my mother was born.
My mother became a big Yankees fan in her youth as well. She would go on to watch legends like Reggie Jackson and Thurmon Munson take the field for the Yankees. She was also one of the first girls to play little league baseball in her neighborhood.
While these experiences may not have shaped me directly, they played a big part in who I am today as a baseball fan and a person.
