Warren Spahn lived in Oklahoma after his career as an active player ended. He also managed the Tulsa Oilers Baseball Club for three years and I got to know him at the ballpark when I was a kid. i hung around the clubhouse running errands for Spahnie and the players because one of my friends was a batboy so I got a lot of "perks" as a result. Spahn loved to tell stories and regaled me with many of them - I wish I had had a recorder back then! He told me about the Remagen Bridge (I was not only a baseball nut as a kid, but a big WWII nut as well - still am obviously). I remember him telling me that some of the men killed were his friends and how lucky he was to not have been on it when it collapsed as he was preparing to go but got detained with something - i don't remember what now. He also told me about being wounded and how it burned him as the shrapnal was hot but wasn't that bad of a wound. I remember telling him I wanted to see his Purple Heart Medal and he laughed and said something like, "Here, you can see this" then showed me his shoulders/neck (he had downed a couple of beers by this point). Every once in awhile i would bug him about seeing his Purple Heart and he'd just ignore me. Heck, I should have kept my mouth shut about it but I was only 12 yrs old and didn't know any better. When I was in the Marines I was doing armed guard duty on a commerical aircraft as we had sensitive equipment in the cargo hold (yeah I know - "why weren't you on a military AC". - I don't know....it was a job I had to do and didn't question it). I got to ride in first class and was the last man on the plane and the first man off. Yes, I was armed with a .45 on my hip (this was about 1977 I guess). I sat down next to a guy reading the newspaper. He looked over the paper at me but i didn't look at him. After a few minutes he looked at me again and said, "Show me your Purple Heart!" I looked at him and it was Warren Spahn. He couldn't remember my name but knew who I was even though it had been about 8 years. We had a great plane ride and he talked all the way about his days with the Braves and about his best friend Lew Burdette, Johnny Sain ("Spahn and Sain, pray for rain") etc, etc. It made our 2 hour flight pass in about 15 minutes. When he died I attended his funeral and got to meet Lew Burdette, Johnny Logan, Cal McLish and a few other old ballplayers. Hank Aaron showed up and I got to shake his hand but that was all as he left right after the service. Anyway...just thought I'd share.
Rick Lawrence, MSgt., USMC/USAFR (RET)