Fan Memories
Your Seattle Rainier's website took me back in time as if it were yesterday in my mind. I have vivid memories of those wonderful days of my youth and the golden voice of Mr. Baseball, Leo Lassen. His unique voice, knowledge of the game and his description of certains plays made hime truly, a one of a kind. I remember several of them. A few examples!
Novikoff hits a long high fly back to the left field wall, back, back, back and it's OVERRRRR! (Lou Novikoff. outfielder)
Vanni hits a line drive to the shortstop, BING, BING, THERE IT IS!. (Meaning the shortstop caught the ball)
Layne bunts the ball down the third base line. The throw to first, HE BEAT THE BALL, HE BEAT THE BALL!!! (Hillis Layne)
And when a foul ball was hit into the stands, Leo would usually say, if you've never been hit by a foul ball, you don't know what you missed!
Leo would describe Mount Rainier as the big "Ice Cream Cone In The Sky" and letting you know what was going on, never dead time during his broadcasts.
Some of the players I remember during those golden years include the following;
Pitchers; Dick Barrett, Guy Fletcher, Charlie Schanz, Bud Beazley, Duanne Pillette, Paul Calvert, Steve Nagy, Herman Besse, Rex Cecil, Herb Karpel
Catchers; Rollie Hemsley, Mickey Grasso, Hal Sueme, Hal Bevan.
Infielders; Mickey Rocco, Tony York, Johnny O'neil, Billy Schuster, Hillis Layne, Jackie Albright, Skeeter Newsome.
Outfielders; Edo Vanni, Billy Ramsey, Lou Novikoff ( The Mad Russian), Al Lyons, Jimmy Rivera, Johnny Rucker, Neil Sheridan.
When you're at a future Mariners game and the count on the batter is two and two, pretend Leo is in the booth. This is how he would describe the situation. Roses are red, violets are blue, what's the count umpire? TWO AND TWO!!!
Thanks for the memories and keep up the good work. - Walt Kaplin
Being 52 now, I can remember going to the games in the 50's when players like Bobby Balcena, Artie Wilson, Leo Reghetti, Joe Taylor and other player took the field. I can clearly remember Leo Lassen broadcast games live and then do the difficult job of doing away games via teletype, with the phony crowds ect. The bell that tolled the runs after each inning was a trademark. Sick's Stadium was truly a great ballpark. They ruined it when the Pilots came in 1969, but before that it was the premier minor league stadium in the U.S. After several years away from Seattle I came back to where the stadium now has Eagles. It was a weird feeling walking "0n the field" in the door department of Eagles. At least they made the plate and pitchers mound. - John Bradley
My father, Patricio Scantlebury , played with the Rainers in 1956 after being sent down by the Reds. I have pictures of that team and my mother still has a set of glasses with the Rainer hat on them. My father was a left handed pitcher from Panama. Played in the Negro League (New York Cubans) and Texarkana before going to the Reds. He finished his playing days with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the International League in 1961.