Another Hard Hit Ball, an addition

My brother and Marty Snyderman have already commented on my earlier post about hard hit baseballs. Perhaps Rico wasn’t all that fast at that point in his career.

But it did bring up another hard hit ball i did not see in person. In the early 1950’s, i listened to Dick Shively  and then Larry Munson announce the Nashville Vols baseball games. When someone hit a home run, Shively would began slowly with his natural voice, saying repeatedly, “It’s going; it’s going, it’s going,” with each reiteration getting higher pitched and louder until he and the ball reached their zeniths as the ball went over the fence, and Shively concluding with a scream, “IT’S GONE!!!” Munson, as i recall copied this home run narration of Shively’s.

In the one Sulfur Dell game against the Little Rock Travelers, the Vols were ahead in the eighth inning, 3-2. The Travelers player-manager, Les Peden, came to bat with a runner on. Peden hits a long line drive to left center, just left of the huge scoreboard projecting out from the fence. It was exciting already and Munson went wild, screaming his usual “It’s going, going, and hitting his highest note, “IT’S GONE!!!”

But the ball hit squarely against a telephone pole behind the fence and bounced back over the fence almost to the infield. With his voice breaking at his highest pitch and volume, Munson hoarsely in a falsetto screech screamed, “AND IT’S COMING BACK IN.”

Of course, it still counted and the Travelers won the game, but i will never forget that call.

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