LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- Jimmy Piersall, who died earlier this month, grew up near my small country town in Connecticut. We had Ted Williams in nearby Boston; Mantle, Maris and all the hated Yankee greats within 90 miles of home.
However, as kids playing Babe Ruth ball, there was only one team which caught our eye -- that of the Cleveland Indians. As fledgling, hopeless candidates for even Legion ball (the next progression on baseball's ladder to the minors), we tried to emulate the amazing (to us) batting stances of Vic Power, Minnie Minoso and Rocky Colavito.
Power and Minoso had such different stances, yet they had the same statement, cocky confidence.