No record-setting performances, but a couple of memorable sightings:

In December of 1962, when we were both high-school sophomores, I got to see Lew Alcindor (later known as Kareen Abdul-Jabbar) play in the championship game of a basketball tournament at the National Guard Armory in Jersey City, NJ. Lew had not yet grown over seven feet, but even at 6'10" he was already attracting national attention. His Power Memorial Academy team, from Manhattan, was matched against St. Francis of Brooklyn, led by 6'7" senior center Sonny Dove, who would go on to a solid college career at St. John's. Young Lew was not being used as a scorer ~ no jump-hook in his repertoire yet, and his coach had a couple of nifty guards to put the ball in the hoop ~ but his rebounding, defense, and awe-inspiring presence were major factors in Power's victory. There was just something about his graceful movement, even as a gawky oversized 15-year-old, that seemed to assure his future as one of the greatest ever to pick up a basketball.

A few years earlier ~ sometime after 1957, when the NY (baseball) Giants followed the Dodgers out to the West Coast, but before 1962, when the Mets were established to replace the Jints and the Bums as National League representatives in New York ~ my father and I took the train from New Brunswick, NJ, to North Philadephia, where we disemnbarked and walked to Connie Mack Stadium, nee Shibe Park, where our beloved Gaints were scheduled to play the Phillies.

We followed the team religiously on the radio and, whenever possible, on TV, but had never spent the time or money to visit any National League city to see our team in person. What motivated us to finally make the trip at this particular time was the spectacular emergence of a young slugger just called up from the minor leagues to fill in at first base for the injured young star Orlando Cepeda.

Willie McCovey has been in the major leagues for no more than about a week when we saw him play in Philly. Big-league pitchers had not yet managed to find any weakness in his swing, and he was hitting well over .400 with TONS of power ~ I think he was hitting homers at about every nine at-bats, which is absolutely unheard of. (I believe the homers-per-AB record still belongs to Babe Ruth, and the number is eleven-point-something.)

We didn't see a home run, but we did witness the two hardest-hit baseballs either my Dad or I had ever seen. Willie Mack went 2-for-3 with a couple of walks ~ the two hits were both triples off the center field wall.

If you know anything about McCovey, you know that he was not noted for speed afoot, which is normally a basic requirement for a three-base hit. Twice he hit the ball so hard, on absolutely straight flat trajectories, that infielders jumped up in hopes of catching line drives (once the shortstop, on a hit just left of second base, the other time the second baseman a few feet over on the other side). Both times, the ball continued to fly straight to the center field wall, neither rising nor falling, and bounced back so hard that Richie Ashburn missed the rebound and misplayed the hit into a triple ~ twice! Keep in mind that Ashburn was not only a fabulous center fielder, perhaps the very best gloveman of his era, but he was playing at home, where he knew the walls and the angles and had played thousands of hits rebounding off the fences. He never encountered any baseballs hit quite this hard, though!

Also, I got to see Willie Mays in person for the first time. He was great as always, memorable enough in his own right, and I'm pretty sure that he scored a critical run in front of one of those McCovey triples (or mayube both). But neither he nor anyone else I ever saw ever hit a baseball as viciously as young McCovey did on two occassions that Saturday afternoon. I doubt that even Wille Mack himself ever did so for the rest of his career, after the pitchers more-or-less caught up to him and learned his few relative weaknesses. Of course, he became a Hall-of-Fame player, hitting about .280-.290 or so with outstanding power, but neither he nor anyone else could have sustained the level of performance he showed during those first few weeks of him major league career, when he was hitting .400-.500, with virtually all his hits for extra bases.

And, oh yeah, the Giants won. Jack Sanford was the starting pitcher and probably got the win.