Alive on Opening Day (10 page)

The Cincy crowd treated
Aaron to a mixture of cheers and boos as he left the field — they
were thrilled to have witnessed his pre-game warm-up, but they
wanted more of the man who might take down Babe Ruth within a few
hours. Aaron tipped his cap as he climbed down the dugout stairs
and faded into the shadows of the Braves’ clubhouse. For his part,
Dan sat in awe, contemplating the importance of the moment and of
the man.

“
Hey, you better close
that up before a bug flies in there,” David said to his son,
smiling and pointing at the young man’s mouth, which hung
open.

Dan’s eyes swiveled toward
his father and, after a beat, he registered the older man’s joke.
He closed his mouth and smiled ruefully. “Ha, ha. Pretty funny,
Dad,” he said.

“
That was groovy, huh?”
David asked.

Dan cringed. “Dad, you
can’t say, ‘groovy’!” he exclaimed. “Besides, ‘groovy’ is out of
style.” Dan stopped to think, realizing he had no idea what WAS in
style after spending nine months unconscious. Finally, he softened
and smiled. “But, yeah, that was pretty groovy.”

The Reds were up next, and
Cincinnati paraded out its usual lineup of All-Stars: Rose, Bench,
Morgan, Perez. They all looked more or less like Dan had remembered
them, but he was especially interested to see what Dan Driessen
could do since David had such high praise for the young third
baseman. After a couple of low line drives, Driessen stroked
several flies deep into the outfield, and two of them landed in the
stands.

“
Seems pretty powerful,”
Dan said as Driessen headed for the dugout.

“
Yeah, it’s like I told
you: Driessen is the third baseman this season. It’s going to be
good.”

Dan nodded, but he was
still thinking about Hank Aaron. Would he hit a home run that
afternoon? Or maybe two? It wasn’t often Dan rooted against the
Reds in any fashion, but he was entering that Opening Day game as
a
bona fide
Henry
Aaron fan.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Hammerin' Hank

As it turned out, Dan
didn’t have to wait long at all to see Hammerin’ Hank in
action.

After the two teams took
fielding practice, lineups were announced, and there was a small
pre-game ceremony to celebrate the Reds’ division crown in 1973.
Following the Star-Spangled Banner, Jack Billingham took the mound
and started warming up. Finally, after nine months of hibernation,
a week of consciousness, nine hours of travel and prep, and enough
confusion to last a lifetime, Dan Hodges settled in to watch a
Cincinnati Reds game — something his family thought he might never
do again.

And, as much as he hated
to admit it, Dan was rooting for the Atlanta Braves or, at least,
for Henry Aaron.

The first batter was
speedy outfielder Ralph Garr, who finagled a walk from Billingham,
prompting Dan to pump his fist and jump from his seat. “Yes!” he
screamed before glancing around nervously, expecting to find angry
eyes staring into his traitor’s soul. To his relief, the fans
around him were clapping, and a few even cheered. Evidently they
realized, too, that as long as Garr didn’t get thrown out, Aaron
would be coming to the plate in that first inning.

Keeping Garr at first base
was normally no easy task, but he stayed put long enough for Braves
first baseman Mike Lum to lace a single into left field. That
brought up third baseman Darrell Evans, which perked Dan’s ears
since they shared a position. More importantly, though, it brought
Aaron to the on-deck circle, and the entire stadium began to buzz
in anticipation. When Evans flied out to Rose in left, the crowd
rose to their feet and cheered Aaron with a raucous approval that
Dan had not heard on the Riverfront before.

Aside from his Spring
Training cuts and the hacks he took in batting practice, Aaron had
not swung a bat since the previous September 30, and he seemed
intent on keeping it that way. A checked swing strike and three
pitches Aaron found not to his liking left the count at 3-1 and
Billingham sweating on the mound. The next offering was just what
Aaron ordered, and he pulled it to left field, where Rose shaded
toward center in pursuit for just a few steps before stopping to
admire the ball’s flight.

Dan and David stood as the
ball arced toward them, and Dan thought for a moment it might reach
the stands. Did he actually have a chance of catching Aaron’s
historic home run?

Instead, the ball
descended rapidly and bounced on the tarmac between the left field
fence and grandstand where the Hodges were camped in seats high
above. Despite missing out on a piece of prime memorabilia, Dan was
both elated and worried. With one swing — his first of 1974 — Aaron
had not only tied the Babe for the most home runs ever, but he had
also put the Reds in a 3-0 hole before they ever came to bat in the
new season.

After several minutes of
celebration, during which both commissioner Bowie Kuhn and
President Gerald Ford stepped onto the field to congratulate Aaron,
play resumed and Billingham took the mound again.

Dan was still reeling from
the heady events that had just occurred when Billingham finally
escaped the inning by coaxing both Dusty Baker and Davey Johnson
into groundouts.

The crowd around the
Hodges erupted again as Aaron took his place in left field to start
the bottom of the first, and Dan yelled out the hero’s name: “Way
to go Hammerin’ Hank! We love you!!”

David cocked his head and
gave his son a questioning glance, and Dan blushed.

“
Well … you know what I
mean, Dad,” the young man said. “That was awesome!”

David clapped Dan gently
on the shoulder and chuckled. “That was awesome, son, but now the
Reds have their work cut out for them.”

Dan waved a dismissive
hand. “Aw, it’s a long game, Dad. Don’t worry about the
Reds.”

As it happened, Dan was
right: it
was
a
long game.

After Cincinnati managed
to scratch out a single run in their half of the first, Billingham
pitched a couple of strong innings before giving up another run in
the fourth and two more in the fifth. By the time the top of the
sixth rolled around, the Reds had scored once more on a Davey
Concepcion home run, and Sparky Anderson had yanked his ace in
favor of righty middle man Roger Nelson. Nelson held Atlanta
scoreless for two innings before yielding to Pedro Borbon in the
eighth.

Borbon pitched a perfect
half inning, and then the Reds’ offense went to work.

Rose finagled a walk from
Braves’ starter Carl Morton, prompting Atlanta skipper Eddie
Mathews to bring in Phil Niekro. After Joe Morgan popped out to
second base, Dan Driessen singled to right, bringing up Tony Perez.
Knuckleball or no,”Doggie” found the groove in a Niekro pitch and
smacked a three-run homer to bring the Reds to within one, at 6-5.
Johnny Bench and Ken Griffey both struck out, the latter causing
Dan to slap his forehead.

“
He’s lunging forward,
Dad!” he said. “No way would he have struck out if he stayed back
just a little.”

David wasn’t as adept at
spotting hitting flaws as his son was, but he trusted Dan’s
judgment. “I’ll take your word for that, Dan. Maybe you should go
down there and tell him about it!”

“
Aw, Dad!” Dan said.
“Always teasing me.”

David may have been in a
joking mood, but Borbon wasn’t, and he mowed down the Braves in the
ninth inning.

A Reds’ rally was cut
short in the bottom of the ninth when Perez fouled out, but not
before a Rose double scored George Foster to tie the game at six
and set up extra innings.

Tom Hall and Clay Carroll
combined to allow two Atlanta base runners but also to retire the
side. In the Reds’ half of the 10
^th
, Jack Aker struck out all three batter he faced.

Carroll stayed on to pitch
the 11
^th
inning, and he set
down Atlanta in order.

Next, with Buzz Capra on
the mound for the Braves, Concepcion struck out and Darrell Chaney
flied out to begin the bottom of the 11
^th
, and it looked like a long night would get
longer.

But Rose was up next, and
he smashed a double, prompting Capra to walk Morgan to get a shot
at Cesar Geronimo, pinch-hitting for Carroll.

Before Geronimo could even
make the Braves’ reliever regret that decision, though, Capra
uncorked a wild pitch, and Rose charged all the way home from
second to score the winning run with one of his patented head-first
slides.

The entire stadium erupted
into a sea of screams and fist pumps, and Dan, already on his feet,
wrapped David in a full-body hug, the type they hadn’t shared in 10
years or more. For that brief moment, all Dan’s doubts about the
future and all David’s concern about his
son’s
future, evaporated into the
chilly spring evening air on the Ohio River. The two men jumped up
and down and shook their heads, disbelieving what they had just
witnessed. What a way to start the season!

Dan and David made their
way toward the field, where some of the Reds were still celebrating
their win and others were picking up their equipment, in hopes of
scoring an autograph or two. As they walked, Dan thought about how
much he loved baseball and was not ready to give it up. He was
still young, and everything he had done to that point in his life
was built on the idea he would play baseball as long as he possibly
could. He may have lost a year, but no coma could rob him of his
God-given talent. He knew he had the drive to build his body back
to where it had been a year ago, and probably even
better.

The more he thought about
it, the more Dan warmed to the idea of helping David start that
summer league and then trying to make the Ferncastle American
Legion team.

Dan was so engrossed in
his budding daydreams that he didn’t notice they were nearly on top
of the Reds dugout until David bumped him on the shoulder and said,
“Hey, Danny Boy, wake up!”

Dan looked at his father,
who was pointing toward the field. There, just entering the dugout,
was the last man to leave the field for the Reds. Young Ken
Griffey, a few days shy of his 24th birthday, had started in right
field that day and stopped in the bullpen to chat with one of his
coaches. Now Griffey was ambling toward the dugout , but Dan
noticed he had stopped on the top step and looked toward the
Hodges. How Griffey had picked Dan’s face out of the crowd of the
several hundred who still lingered in the home stands, Dan would
never know, but the two young men locked eyes.

They were no more than 15
feet from each other when Griffey said, “So? What’d you
think?”

“
Great game!” Dan called
out before he put any real thought into his answer. Although Hank
Aaron had made history and the Reds had come away with an exciting
7-6 victory, Griffey had gone 0-for-4 with three strikeouts — an
inglorious baseball hat trick.

Griffey chuckled. “Yeah, I
guess so. At least we won.”

As Griffey took a step
down the stairs and looked into the darkness of the dugout, Dan
called out to him again.

“
Uh, Mr. Griffey?” Dan
said, and David looked at his son in surprise. “Mr. Griffey … it
looks to me like you’re shifting your weight to your front foot
just a hair too early.”

David’s eyes widened, and
he whisper-gasped, “Dan! What are you doing?”

Dan slapped his hand over
his mouth and pulled his shoulders up around his ears. What WAS he
doing? Who was he to tell Ken Griffey how to hit?

Although Dan hoped Griffey
hadn’t heard him, the young slugger stopped and curled a hand over
the dugout roof, before pulling himself back to field level to look
Dan in the eyes again.

“
What did you say?”
Griffey asked.

“
Um,” Dan stammered,
worried he might get himself and David banned from the ballpark.
“Um, I mean, it just seems like you were a little ahead of some of
those pitches … you know, like off-balance a little.”

By that time, and older,
powerful-looking man whom Dan recognized as hitting coach Ted
Kluszewski had climbed up the steps to stand beside Griffey, and he
was nodding.

“
Off-balance, huh?”
Griffey said, squinting his eyes as if evaluating a new kind of
fungus.

“
See,
what’d I tell you, kid?” Big Klu said, punching Griffey on the
shoulder. Turning to Dan, the coach continued with, “I’ve been
telling him all spring he needs to stay back and wait on the ball,
but he’s all excited to get to the Big Leagues. You’d better listen
to this kid here if you want to
stick
in the Bigs, I tell
you.”