Memorable Moments ”
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BASEBALL DIGEST WORLD SERIES EDITION A Special Publication of Arnall Golden Gregory LLP By Abe J. Schear Bob Hope October 2017 “Memorable Moments ” * * * Schear: Bob, where did you grow up? Yes, we would drive down to the games. It would be unlikely to ever be able to I grew up in Atlanta and basically have I was too young to drive back then. replicate the career of Bob Hope. Working lived here most of my life. I was in Was your family interested in as a PR person and usher for the first New York for 4 years, but Atlanta’s my baseball? Braves’ team, Bob later became the public hometown. Oh yeah. My dad had played baseball relations director for the Braves and the What part of town did you grow up growing up in high school. So he was a Atlanta Hawks (and the Atlanta Chiefs). In in? big Crackers fan. We enjoyed baseball. addition, and with the encouragement of Ted 1753 Moores Mill Road, which is I guess the games were on the radio Turner and the Braves, Bob orchestrated the Buckhead area. But back then Buckhead back then. They were the Crackers, media around the 1972 Baseball All Star was more out in the country than it is they weren’t Major League Baseball. game and the Hank Aaron home run chase. today. It was definitely the Crackers. I mean I live right near Moores Mill and the Crackers were on Ponce de Leon and Without the benefit of a manual, Bob was Howell Mill. you had your favorites. Eddie Matthews able to add fun to the early Atlanta Braves Oh yeah, absolutely. was probably the darling of the Crackers experience without reducing the product That was a pretty neighborhood then and then he went to the big leagues. to the woeful quality of play in those first and it’s a pretty neighborhood now. They had a lot of players that came years. It helped, for sure, that Bob is an It was a nice neighborhood. We didn’t through and went on to play in the big Atlantan since birth, and he understood the have an interstate connector back then, leagues. southern mentality. In 2015, Bob was inducted into the “We just knew there was a tree in the outfield.” Atlanta Hospitality Hall of Fame, an honor which recognized his lifetime achievements so you were a little far out. Did you have many memories of the and his robust volunteer spirit. Interstate 75 probably wasn’t even park or the magnolia tree out there? built then. Did you follow baseball as Oh yeah. The magnolia tree was a In his interview, Bob recounts an Atlanta a child? fixture. I don’t think that we necessarily period not too far into the past, one with Yes I did. I went to a lot of Atlanta knew that it was unique to Atlanta. We wonderful characters and, like today, a Crackers games and you know we would just knew there was a tree in the outfield. “we can” attitude. His stories surely bring go to Ponce de Leon Park. Somehow, I heard all the stories about the longest to life an Atlanta we have only read about, one of our neighbors was a friend home run ever hit was by Montag. It but not fully appreciated. of several of the Crackers players. I landed in the railroad car and ended up in remember going down to their house Chattanooga, and that type of legendary and meeting Bob Montag and some of thing. * * * the other players. Whitlow Wyatt was It all gets recycled. The railroad track the manager. In fact, we had a German is part of the beltline now and they Abe J. Schear is an attorney with Arnall shepherd dog that had gotten too big for basically hit it from Home Depot onto Golden Gregory LLP and is a member of our yard and we gave it to Wyatt to take the beltline. the firm’s Real Estate Group. Contact Abe out to his farm. That’s right. at 404.873.8752 or [email protected]. So you would drive down to the That’s how I see it now when I walk games? on the beltline. Now did you play A r n a l l G o l d e n G r e g o r y L L P | October 2017 baseball as a child? “Bob, Eddie Robinson may want to make night pushing these giant rolls of paper I think all of us played baseball. Back a trade, but if you’re not around and I’m across the concrete floor after doing it all then, baseball was probably in third not around he can’t do it. So let’s go summer and three or four months during place in the city schools. Football was sailing.” So we did. the school year. Did that all night and the king and basketball was number Well, Mr. Bartholomay is a nice man. then I’d go to classes in the morning. I two and then baseball. Oddly enough, I So did you follow a Major League would try to get some sleep and study. went to Northside High School. I think baseball team when you were a little I thought there had to be a better way one of the years we didn’t have enough boy? than that. So one Saturday morning I had my Dad drive me over to the brand new Braves stadium in Atlanta, which “I never would’ve been in a bar brawl if I was just sparkling. There were trailers outside, they didn’t have offices yet. I didn’t know Eddie Matthews.” walked around and spoke with a man named Jim Hay. He told me I could fill players to actually fill out the team, I mean you watched Dizzy Dean and Pee out an application and that I could start but everybody played a little baseball. Wee Reese, the announcers on TV. All ushering. This was during the spring of Whether you were good at it or not, you you could get was pretty much the game my senior year and then very quickly still played baseball. of the week. Tony Kubek was on for a after that they said they had an opening. Well, what position did you play? while. On the radio you could listen to The assistant PR director was going to I was third basemen because Eddie the St. Louis Cardinals. the army for 6 months and they asked me Matthews was our star player. That was Did you collect any baseball if I wanted to interview for the job. Lee my position of choice. memorabilia? Walburn, who was the publicity director, Matthews had a pretty colorful history Everybody collected baseball cards. We asked me if I knew how to write a press when he was in Atlanta. He was a 24/7 didn’t know that it would’ve been worth release. I said “absolutely I knew how to kind of guy, there’s no question about holding on to them. After a while I write one,” but I didn’t even know what it. think our moms threw them out. Part of one was. He asked if I knew how to do I could’ve probably gone my entire life growing up was having baseball cards in baseball statistics. I said “yes.” He said and never would’ve been in a bar brawl a shoe box. “well bring me some samples tomorrow.” if I didn’t know Eddie Matthews and Did you put your baseball cards on So I scrambled around. There was a guy since I was with Eddie Matthews, I’ve your bike? I went to school with named Richard been in several of them. My brother did. I think I wrecked my Hyatt who worked as a stringer for the I was talking with someone about bike too many times. Atlanta Constitution sports department, Eddie Matthews, who was a terrific I used to flip cards; it was sort of a so I called Richard. I told him “You’ve baseball player and an interesting gamble. You would flip them against got to help me write a press release and fellow, but he kept the lawyers busy the curb, see if they stood up or fell show me how to do baseball statistics.” when he was in Atlanta. I know that down. You could do pretty well with So we did it that night. I put it in a for a fact. some unsuspecting people. Did you manila folder and went in to see Lee the Well Eddie just had an active temper. I listen to or watch the games? Was next day. He looked at it and said “Well, would be sitting there watching Eddie either one your favorite? you did pretty well.” He hired me for and the conversation would be casual Probably watching the game on TV. The six months and fourteen years later I was and thoughtful. Then somebody at the game of the week was easy, because still there. next table would say something to him every Saturday you would turn it on Did they have much of an idea of what and chairs would start flying. It was just (obviously it was black and white). It they were doing? They were pretty the nature of his personality. He drank wasn’t as easy to follow baseball on the new. too much – there’s no question about radio. I would listen to the Crackers Well they were new but you know they that.