THE SECOND TUESDAY IN JULY

In 1953 we moved into our new house located at the far corner of northwest Detroit.

This was a new area actually still partially surrounded by woods. A section of those woods was soon cleared and developed into a new park. We lived in the second house from the corner very close to the new park. The new Vandenberg Elementary School was under construction on the outskirts of the park and opened in the winter of 1954. I was there the first day it opened.

The park was called Comstock Field. It had several baseball diamonds. A football field was set up each fall. There was an area for basketball and a number of tennis courts in an enclosed fenced area. These tennis courts became very popular. You could go there to play tennis, but it became a popular place to socialize.

A few years went by and around 1957 and 1958 when I was 12 and 13 the tennis courts for kids my age became a very popular place to meet and hang out on summer days. You could play a little tennis, but you could just meet other kids (boys and Girls) sit on benches or on the nearby grass. Talk, listen to music on some one's portable radio. Sometimes walk to a nearby Dairy Queen. Small cone ten cents. Small sundae twenty cents. Sometimes walk to the new Northland Shopping Center less than a mile away and spend the afternoon.

One afternoon one boy said to the other kids [maybe nine or ten kids at the time.} We could go to my house which was very close by and watch American Bandstand at 3:00 o'clock. Everyone liked the idea. The boy who came up with this idea was me. We went to my house sat in the living room on the floor or on the couch. Everyone was very polite and enjoyed watching American Bandstand with Dick Clark until 4:30.

The other kids went home and asked if it would be ok if kids came over about one afternoon a week to do the same thing. I believe most of the parents were fine with the idea. For the rest of the summer a schedule was set every week. This was the 1950's everyone had a good time and there were never any problems.

In the 1950's the baseball All Star game was televised in the afternoon. The All-Star game is always played on the second Tuesday in July. Once again someone got permission to bring about ten kid's home on a very warm July afternoon and watch the game. Most of us sat on the floor around what was probably a twelve or fourteen inch black and white television and watched our favorite players in the mid-summer classic game. By the way most people did not have air-conditioned homes in the 1950's. No one found that to be a problem. You expected it to be warm in the summer.

Some of my favorite players in the All-Star games in those years were Al Kaline, Harvey Kuenn, Ted Williams, Willy Mays, Hank Aaron, Yogi Berra, and of course Micker Mantle to name a few. Those were good summers in a different era.

I am thinking about the Baseball All Star game today because this Tuesday July 14,2026 is the second Tuesday in July which means it is time for the 96th mid-season classic. The first All Star game was played in 1933. Between 1959 and 1962 they played two All Star games. the proceeds from those games went to the player's pension fund. The two game idea was dropped after a few years.

The game will be played at night as it has for many years. The game is in Philadelphia and will be broadcast on Fox at 8:00 P.M. Many people today will be watching it in the comfort of air-conditioning on large flat panel color T.V.'s.

It is hard to believe I have been watching Baseball All-Star games since the 1950's on those small black and white television sets and will now be one of those people watching on that flat panel color set. That is a lot of mid-summer classic games. You can do the numbers.

A LITTLE BIT OF DETROIT TIGER TALK

The Tigers have had ups and downs this season. They have had a pretty good run the last two weeks headed into the break. They are going into the break with a record of 44 wins and 52 losses. Winning percentage of 458. They are 6.5 games out of first place in the American League central division. They can make a run for it the second half starting Friday night against the Angles. As we saw in the last two games over the weekend they have some very weak spots in the last half of the batting order. Runners in scoring position were being left on base when some of the hitters were not able to drive them home. They have lost games because of this.

They have to find a few new hitters very soon. Trade for them, bring them up from the minors, use pinch hitters. The same guys keep grounding out in these important situations.

Let's keep supporting the Detroit team and hope they can get it done in the second half of the season.

WRITTEN BY

RON TURETT

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Thanks again. Enjoy the All-Star game and have a good week.