1960: Coors Beer, a White Sweatshirt and Night-Driving Glasses

In 1960 I played softball for the Coors team in the Riverton, Wyoming league. In those days all softball was fast pitch, and my position was first base.

Our uniforms didn't have the black and gold colors Coors uses on their cans and labels, but instead was a beautiful royal blue. COORS was written across the chest in bright red as were the numerals on the back. As well, we wore red caps and leg socks. Those outfits really looked sharp. Mine looked even better because I had a long-sleeved, tight-fitting jersey that was a gleaming white. I wore that jersey under my uniform shirt. But after four games I was hitting about .125, something like 2 for 16. Discouraged, I left the jersey off one night and began to hit. I never put it back on. The damned thing must have tied up my shoulders a bit, enough apparently to affect my swing. After it had been shucked, I had a very good season at the plate.

The early game always started before dark. Just before sundown there would be a glare that made it hard to see pop flies and such. It was too dark for sun glasses and the lights really had no effect at that time of day. So, I got the bright idea that a pair of night-driving glasses was the solution. One evening I bought a pair at the drugstore and went out to play. Well, the glasses didn't help a bit with balls hit in the air, but they made it difficult to see ground balls as well. Oh well, another failed theory.

The thing that caused me to think of all this now and why I wanted it in this blog was one of the opposing pitchers. One of the league teams, Susquehanna Western, a uranium mining outfit, had a pitcher named Gentry. This guy Gentry didn't wear his team's cap, but wore a Detroit Tigers cap with the script D instead. I shook hands with him a few times after our teams had played, but never asked his first name.

Could this maybe, just maybe, have been Rufus Gentry? That would explain the cap. Rufus Gentry had played some for the Tigers, starting 30 games in 1944, but, more importantly, had, sa I recall, pitched the shutout for Dallas in the seventh game of the Texas League playoffs in 1947 against the hated Ft. Worth Cats. In Ft. Worth, no less. This made him one of my real heroes. Was he this Gentry? I don't know. I was too timid to ask his first name.