Where’s Charlie?
Remember those high school basketball games when the score got so lopsided that the coach felt compelled to put the little fat benchwarmer in, the one who—to the hoots of the fans—would play down the clock through garbage time? I was that hefty benchie!
Laundry Day
We’re playing Westminster, Maryland at home and it’s a basketball pride win for us. They are a much bigger school, located in the County Seat, have a football program (we did not) and of course I haven’t seen action all year and so there’s no reason to believe I’ll be playing, even in a mop up, against these guys.
Albaugh Strikes Out
Okay, I’m thirteen, the backup catcher for the New Windsor, Maryland, Babe Ruth League team. Frankly, just out of Little League I’m a bit overweight and undersized for the challenges of the official major league diamond. So, I’m spending my evenings riding the pine and watching Jimmy Albaugh, a one-handed wonder, behind the plate who’s leading the league in passed balls.
Lightning Strikes Twice!
Back in 1960 Pernell Millberry was one of the best shots on the Francis Scott Key Eagles’ bench. How did I know? Because he sat beside me on the high school’s bench and told me this during every game we played.
Bench Warmer Betrayal
In nineteen sixty our Eagles had lost that barnburner at the University of Maryland’s Cole Field House to Surrattesville by a lousy four points.
Moon Over Western Maryland
Jack Baile got some deserved ink in another one of my bench warmer stories and now here he is again. Jack was a hell of a good athlete, all county high school first team in basketball, soccer and baseball. He went off to Western Maryland College, a very good school nearby, and found himself, what with a rash of scholarships being distributed to players from New York, Baltimore and Washington D.C., on the bench.
An Elephant In The Room
I write this with apologies to Don Scalf, my old college basketball coach, and all those who sat the bench with me back in the early 1960s at North Carolina Wesleyan College.
The S-O-Bs
Bench-warmers form a tight bond. They're together throughout a season, working and sweating just has hard as the regulars and finding camaraderie while the coach is gesticulating and yelling and encouraging his "real" players.
Bench Brew
Perhaps this story should be titled Once A Benchwarmer Always a Benchwarmer. Because after my high school benchwarming days, I would go off to Frederick Community College. My father suggested this would be an appropriate educational start considering my academics in high school.
The Project
It’s impossible to coach Little League baseball without having benchwarmer stories. In the late 1980’s when my son was playing Little League in Raleigh, NC, I served as an assistant coach under Francis Combs, who had quite a resume as a baseball player.
Bat Rattler!
Esposito, the old White Sox, who backed up Aparicio and Fox from the bench, recalls this one that involves a kid, a rookie catcher with the Tigers who had been working in the bullpen, a benchwarmer, and in the late innings as the game was winding down, he comes in and sits in his favorite place on the bench in the back corner of the dugout.
It’s Academic
Punch, medical doctor and ESPN NASCAR analyst retired, recalls the day Lou Holtz recruited a benchwarmer who came to him with some very valuable talents.
Put Me In Coach
Terry Gannon, nationally known sports personality was a major contributor to NC State University’s 1983 national championship team. But as a freshman he rode the bench with limited playing time.
Touch ‘Em All
Here are a few more bench warmer classics from the King of the Major League Pine Riders---Sam Esposito.
Fits Like A Glove
Later, at the end of his career playing with Kansas City, Sam Esposito and Hawk Harrelson were great friends and golfing buddies.
Lights Out
Then, there was the one Sam told about the secret light in Cominsky Park. A Sox bullpen/bench coach named Del Wilbur was a world class sign stealer.
NC State Bench Goes from Warm To Hot
In the summer of 1954 one of America’s slickest basketball coaches hosted a recruit that would have made his team a contender for a national championship. Everett Case, known as the Old Gray Fox, had come south in the 1940s to NC State University and brought along something that would change the region and in fact nation---big time college basketball.
Hot Rod Falls Back On Lakers Bench
In 1963 Hot Rod Hundley was coming to the end of his career and doing some pine riding for the Los Angeles Lakers. Fred Shaus, his old West Virginia college coach, was the Lakers Coach that year and the Lakers had just picked up Dick Barnett, one of the great NBA shooters of the day.
A Windy Sunday in Philly
Lee Elia had his introduction to major league baseball as a middle infielder, a .200 hitter, who warmed the benches of the Chicago Cubs and White Sox in the early 1960s.