It was a moment of nostalgia, surprise, and joy. More than 30 years after hanging up his spikes, Luke Appling went yard at the age of 75 in the 1982 Cracker Jack Old Timers Baseball Classic at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.
Far from a power hitter, Luke Appling bashed 45 home runs in his career, which was one of, as Wee Willie Keeler said, hitting them where they ain’t. Appling fell shy of the magic mark of 3,000 hits, ending his career with 2,749 hits, including:
- 440 doubles
- 102 triples
He played his entire career in a White Sox uniform—1930 to 1950.
The Cracker Jack game was a shot of adrenaline to baseball fans suffering the psychic wounds created by the previous year’s strike, which shortened the 1981 baseball season. Appling’s home run off Warren Spahn washed away, if only for a jiffy, the festering stench of despair felt across the fan spectrum, from Tee-ball players first learning the basics to senior citizens reminiscing about ballparks that no longer exist.
Appling was the oldest player in the Cracker Jack game, which ended with the American League beating the National League 7-2.
Nearly 30,000 fans poured into RFK on July 19, 1982 to watch baseball’s heroes of days gone by. Though the ex-players wore the uniforms so familiar to baseball fans, their appearances showed the slights of age. A little grayer. A touch heavier. A bit slower. None of that mattered. Old Timers games are affairs of the heart. Baseball is, after all, a sentimental game, at once wistful and exciting.
Appling’s homer punctuated the pleasure at seeing a game where icons, though far from their prime, can recapture the feeling that anything is possible.
Bobby Thomson proved it when he knocked a Ralph Branch pitch over the left field fence at the Polo Grounds to win the 1951 National League pennant for the New York Giants.
The 1969 Mets proved it when they beat the favored Baltimore Orioles to win the World Series.
Cal Ripken, Jr. proved it when he broke Lou Gehrig’s streak of consecutive games played.
A .310 career hitter, Appling suffered injuries that came faster than a street hustler moving the cards in Three Card Monte. “Old Aches and Pains” became his moniker. Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964, Appling’s career achievements were:
- 528 strikeouts
- 1,302 walks
- .399 On-base percentage
- Led major leagues with a .388 batting average in 1936 (Lou Gehrig eclipsed Appling in the voting for the American League Most Valuable Player Award)
- Led American League with a .328 batting average and a .419 On-base percentage in 1943
On the morning of the Cracker Jack game, in a harbinger of the home run, an Appling quote appeared in Denis Collins’s article “Old Timers: Memories Are as Strong as Ever” for the Washington Post: “I can still slap the ball around here and there.”
Indeed.
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on October 20, 2016.