New York Police Sgt. Russ Cadley, then a young man, often directed traffic in front of Ebbets Field before Brooklyn Dodgers games.
“When everyone was in the stadium,” he recalled this week, “we’d go in and sit in the front row.”
He still treasures the memory of the day shortstop Pee Wee Reese thanked him and shook his hand.
About 60 years later, Cadley, 89, lives in the Westland Meridian Retirement Community in north Lakewood, and is part of a group of about 15 residents, give or take, that gathers in the TV room off the main lobby to watch the Rockies.
When the top of the seventh ends, the challenge usually comes from Harry Richardson, 87, a World War II veteran of the Merchant Marine and a longtime Denver-area businessman.
“OK, let’s have it,” Richardson says.
Cadley lets loose with “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” often to a reaction fit for Harry Caray.
Cadley, who moved to New Mexico after retiring and then to the Denver area, long ago converted to be a Rockies fan. “They’re our team!” he said emphatically.
Richardson is considered the resident baseball expert. He has an old Empire Magazine clipping about Babe Ruth playing on a team with his father, Spencer Richardson, in a 1923 barnstorming appearance in Denver, and Harry played second base for Denver North High, in American Legion and the semi-pro ranks.
“It’s never the same,” he said of watching the games. “That’s the great thing about baseball. It’s always completely different.”
He goes to about 15 games a season at Coors Field and enjoys watching TV games with fellow residents.
“We get screaming just like the old days, just like we’re at the ballpark,” he said.
Terry Frei, The Denver Post
