Cort, Red, and Nap

Cort, Red, and Nap

Cort:

My Grandfather on my Father's side was Cortland Joel Backus. Everyone called him Cort. He was born in 1892 and was the youngest of 11 children. I don't know a lot about his father other than he fought in the Civil War and he was married twice. He had 6 children with his first wife and then 5 more with his second, who was my Great Grandmother. Her name was Mary and her maiden name was Stowe, part of the Harriet Beecher-Stowe clan and true to the Beecher-Stowe family,she was very religious. Evidently I am related to Harriet Beecher Stowe through my Great Grandmother. While it's true I am completely against slavery, I am not a religious person, but my wife is. Maybe I can get 50% credit.

My Grandfather grew up a city kid, Cleveland. He learned to swim in Lake Erie when his older brother threw him overboard one day and told him to swim or drown. He told me he realized later that his brother would never have let him drown but that was not what he was thinking at the time. He loved baseball. He saw the Bill Wambsganss unassisted triple play in the 1920 World Series, one of the most famous plays in World Series history. Wambsgnass played for Cleveland and they were playing against the Brooklyn Dodgers. He saw this from the rooftop of a building or house where they could see the field over the stadium outfield wall. He said the ball was hit so hard that he initially looked to the outfield then had to look back to see Wambsgnass had the ball. His brother paid the owner of the house whose roof they sat on $25 to let the two of them sit there to watch the game. For context, the average salary in America was around $100 a month at that time. He was in the Army for “The Great War”, WWI. He never spoke about it. He was a very good athlete and played both baseball and basketball at a very high level.

Nap:

Napoleon “Nap” Lajoie was a superstar baseball player. He played his first five seasons with Philadelphia of the National League and then jumped to the Philadelphia A's of the newly formed American League in 1901. Lajoie was the first star player from the National League to jump to the new American League. Philadelphia was forced to trade him the next year to dodge a legal battle with his previous National League team. They traded him to Cleveland. He played with Cleveland from 1902 through the 1914 season. The Cleveland Indians were a charter member of the American League. Their original name was the Bluebirds but after obtaining Nap Lajoie the team was renamed the Cleveland Naps after its star player. They kept that name until 1915 when Nap was traded back to the Athletics at which time they changed their name to the Indians. Nap Lajoie was my Grandfather's favorite player and he talked about him a lot. He told me that in those days when the team came back from a road trip they would sometimes have a practice. The players would throw an old glove out to the crowd greeting them and whatever boy caught it could go in with them and act as sort of an assistant to that player for the practice. My Grandfather once caught Lajoie's glove. Nap told him he could keep it and he did. Lajoie still holds the American League record for the highest single season batting average (426). He's in the Hall of Fame and is still considered one of the greatest 2^nd basemen to ever play the game.

Red:

My Grandfather played minor league baseball. He had a number of baseball-related stories. He didn't talk about himself much but he talked a lot about the players of that time. He was a good pitcher and once threw a no-hitter for his minor league team. He generally played under a fake name, Red Faber. I'm not 100% sure I have the last name right but it's at least close. He did this because of his mother's strict religious beliefs. She felt it was a sin to play baseball, or any games for that matter, on Sundays. Despite her feelings on the subject, baseball games were played on Sundays and the results of the teams my Grandfather played on were reported in the paper. To keep her from finding out, he played under the Red Faber name. He was a lanky 6' 2” and when not pitching played 1^st base. He was invited to a major league camp one spring but did not go. It was in Texas. He was the last one at home, his father was gone and his mother was getting on in years. He did not feel comfortable leaving her all alone. Back then being a baseball player was not looked on as much of a respectable profession.

Cort:

Grandpa used to play catch with me and he had this windup where he'd bend over on his right side as he lifted his left leg and then he'd throw out his left arm with his right arm following it and release the ball. He didn't throw it fast because I was young, but the ball seemed to come up on me fast because I always had a hard time picking the ball up from his hand. My Dad, who was the shortstop on his high school team, told me he would sometimes come out and pitch in the neighborhood games and strike everyone out. My Grandfather would have been in his late 40's by then. My Grandmother was Grandpa's second wife. She was related to his first wife (cousin?). They had the same last, maiden, name. His first wife was never mentioned, a taboo subject. I thought there was some grand scandal attached to the story. All I was told was that he had a previous wife and she was somehow related to my Grandmother. Later, like when I was in my 40's, I found out all that had happened was she died. Yes a big deal, certainly to her, but why this was so hush hush is still unclear to me. It was much more interesting when I thought there was some sort of scandal involved.

Cort, Red and Nap:

My Grandfather had a major heart attack at 60 and another at 62 after which his doctors told him to retire. They told him if he had another attack it would likely kill him. The doctor also told him that he should go south during the winter months to escape the harsh NY winter weather. So my Grandfather retired in 1954 and he and my Grandmother started going to Daytona, Florida for a month each winter. While staying down there my Grandfather ran into this old guy also staying in Daytona. Like my Grandfather, he also played professional baseball in the early 20^th century. They started reminiscing about the old days and after awhile they exchanged names and it turned out this old guy was..... - Yes!, Napoleon Lajoie, the same Nap Lajoie who played for the Indians and was my Grandfather's childhood baseball hero. They became friends and would meet up in Florida each winter until Nap passed away at the age of 84. My Grandfather lived another 15 years or so, also passing away at the age of 84.

I stole this story from Reader's Digest  -  Kidding of course........