Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Oldest living former MLB player Bill Werber dies at 100


Werber is the last surviving teammate of Ruth and Gehrig. From the Charlotte Observer

Bill Werber, the oldest living former Major League Baseball player and the first basketball All-American at Duke, died Thursday in Charlotte.

He was 100.

Werber had lived in Charlotte since 1998 at the Carriage Club retirement community to be near daughter Pat Bryant, who closely supervised his day-to-day care.

(snip)

In the 2008 Observer interview, Werber also recalled a story about his first at-bat in the major leagues in 1930. He played for the New York Yankees then and drew a walk because, he said: “I was too scared to move.”

Ruth came up soon thereafter and slammed the ball to deep right field.

“I knew it was going into the right-field bleachers,” Werber said. “But I said to myself, ‘I'll show these Yankees how fast I can run.' So I put on a burst of speed and ran around the bases. The third-base coach was hollering for me to slow down, but I ran on in at full speed.

“I crossed home plate before Babe got to first base – he took those little mincing steps, you know. When Babe came in to the dugout, he sat on the bench beside me. He patted me on the head and said, ‘Son, you don't have to run like that when the Babe hits one.'”

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/knights/story/489924.html

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