[Democrat and Chronicle, August 9th, 1974. [Courtesy Rochester Public Library with assistance from the Local History department] Baltimore’s Mark Belanger lounges in the Silver Stadium dugout before the game against the Red Wings]
Two Sundays ago, we read of the passing of Anna B. Silver, the matriarch of the Red Wings. An April chill notwithstanding, no doubt Anna would have cheerfully attended the home opener, this the Red Wings 20th season since leaving Silver Stadium for Frontier Field. ]
Anyone who enjoyed the old ballpark on Norton Street has their own most memorable recollection.

500 Norton Street, Former Ticket and Administrative Offices, Silver Stadium, Rochester NY from Deadballbaseball.com

A great moment before my time. Rochester’s future Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, then 22, striking out Miami Marlins’ future Hall of Famer Satchel Paige, then 49, August 3, 1958 From RochesterAreaBallparks.com
While I have several recent Frontier memories, including Andy Pettite’s rehab start, Stephen Strasburgh’s “Hat Gate” game and getting Bryce Harper’s autograph after his last minor league game , my most Silver memorable moment was on August 8th, 1974 at the Orioles-Red Wings Exhibition game when I was ten.

Democrat and Chronicle, August 9th, 1974. [Courtesy Rochester Public Library with assistance from the Local History department]

Democrat and Chronicle, August 9th, 1974. [Courtesy Rochester Public Library with assistance from the Local History department]
That moment remains etched — as history and baseball converged — because it was one of my earliest political memories.

At the game, we were treated to a home run by a future Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson and a semi-rehab start by future Hall of Famer Jim Palmer. Democrat and Chronicle, August 9th, 1974 . [Courtesy Rochester Public Library with assistance from the Local History department] Brooks Robinson slams a two-run homerun for Baltimore in the fourth inning

That August game was also special because 1974 was my full first season as a baseball fan. The previous Fall I had first fallen for the game when, with my father, I watched Willie Mays, Yogi Berra and the Mets comes so tantalizingly close in the World Series. And what a year 1974 was for first love: the Red Wings won the International League Governor’s Cup.

Frank “Shag” Shaughnessy, who served as International League President from 1936 until 1960, introduced his playoff system to the league in 1933 and the Governors’ Cup was born. [www.triple-abaseball.com]
The Wings would beat the Southern Division champion Memphis Blues in the pennant-deciding series 3 games to 2. The Governor’s Cup final against rival Syracuse Chiefs also went to a deciding game 7 as the Wings’ clinched the cup with a 5-1 victory at Silver. For me, 1974 will always be that championship season.
At the same time, the 1974 season — a little like this one will be — had a bittersweet touch. As described in On a Silver Diamond: The Story of Rochester Community Baseball:
[April brought] the devastating news that Morrie Silver had died. The 64-year-old baseball savior [Silver had made the Wings a community owned team] had passed away on April 26 — the day after the opener — of a massive heart attack at his retirement home in Miami Beach, Florida. He had been hospitalized since the 23rd after suffering the attack, his third. He died at 7:15 p.m., with his wife Anna B. “Bert” at his side. The game scheduled for April 29 was cancelled and the Wings announced the players would wear black armbands for the remainder of the season.
In retrospect, 1974 was most known for several players on the opposing teams. Before the era of free agency when players stayed longer in the minors, Fred Lynn and future Hall of Famer Jim Rice played almost the whole season for the Pawtucket Red Sox where Rice won the IL Triple Crown. (Still, the Pawsox ended with the worst record in the league.) The next year — as Lynn was MVP and Rookie of the Year — the two took Boston within one game of the world championship. On September 21st, Rice had broken his arm and I remember tv images of him looking forlorn sitting in street clothes near the Red Sox dugout.
And there was the future Hall of Famer Gary Carter of the Montreal Expos farm club Memphis Blues. The provincial Rochester press called Carter a “Hot Dog,” and during the playoffs fans booed him incessantly. Early in the season — after “the Kid,” as Carter would later be nicknamed, belted a line drive double off the center field wall — my father kept saying over and over, watch that guy; he’s the next Johnny Bench.
My favorite Red Wing was shortstop Tim Nordbrook. A good glove/no stick player so far in his career, Nordbrook’s bat came alive, batting .300 most of the season and ending at .287. I loved watching him sprawl, dust flying, snatching line drives in the infield.
That year my mother had gotten me my first glove with grocery store green stamps (back when they had green stamps). I threw and caught with the glove thousands of tennis balls against the wall facing the backyard, imagining on grounders I was Nordbrook.
I read a 2011 story about Nordbrook who later became a coach and teacher in his native Baltimore. He described playing alongside his boyhood idol, Brooks Robinson:
I wanted to tell him [Robinson] about watching him in ‘66 and ‘70 in the World Series, all the times I saw him at Memorial Stadium, all those memories. Finally (the ball) hit his glove, and everything went back to normal. But I remember having to compose myself and tell myself to relax. When Brooks Robinson says, ‘Great play,’ it threw me to the ground. He was the greatest I’ve ever seen, telling me I made a good play? Wow.

ROYLE STILLMAN – inducted in 2014 Royle Stillman was a .314 hitter over 387 career games with the Red Wings from 1973-76. The outfielder led the team in batting in both 1973 (.354) and 1975 (.313). Stillman was also an integral part of four playoff teams in Rochester – including Joe Altobelli’s 1974 Governors’ Cup championship team, when he hit .292 with 7 homers and 49 RBI over 111 games. Stillman, who would play in parts of three Major League seasons with Baltimore (1975-76) and Chicago-AL (1977), finished his Wings career with 27 home runs and 209 RBI. [Red Wings Hall of Fame website]
My father’s favorite player was Royle Stillman , a terrible fielder who my father saw possessed a pure left handed swing. I had forgotten that, according to the history, Stillman was a “major problem.”
First, in a time when players had few negotiating options, the “enigmatic” outfielder from California refused to sign a contract, demanding to be optioned or traded. Stillman and Altobelli did not hit it off during Royle’s rookie season in Rochester — complaints had surfaced about the outfielder’s lackadaisical play and “casual” [Californian?] clubhouse attitude: “An unnamed teammate called Stillman a “pest.'”
Often, it is enigmatic why one player does well in The Show, while others flounder after leaving AAA. Roughly Stillman’s age and also a sweet-swinging lefty, George Brett (see at end) said some guys are just scared of being at the highest level, maybe they even subconsciously self sabotage.
Like Nordbrook, Stillman never did much in the major leagues. His claim to fame was being the answer to a trivia question. In an odd tactic, in away games, Baltimore manager Earl Weaver would bat Stillman in the top of the first, officially starting him at shortstop, then promptly replacing Stillman with the real shortstop, the woeful hitting Mark Belanger, in the bottom of the inning. I don’t know if this strategy has ever been used again.

JIM FULLER – Inducted in 1994 One of the most renowned and feared sluggers in Rochester history, Jim Fuller crushed 91 home runs in parts of five seasons with the Red Wings from 1972 to 1976. He earned International League MVP honors with a league-high 39 roundtrippers and 108 RBI in 1973. A member of the Red Wings’ 1974 Governors’ Cup championship ballclub, Fuller again led the team in homers in 1975 and 1976. The Red Wings averaged 83 victories and made five post- season appearances during Fuller’s five seasons in a Rochester uniform. [from Red Wings Hall of Fame website]
Everybody’s favorite was Jim Fuller. Taking advantage of Silver’s dimension, in parts of seasons between 1972 and ’76 Fuller hit 91 homeruns, including an astounding 39 in 1973. Babe Ruth to a ten year old. Built more like a slow pitch softball player who could have played for the Rochester Express, in the Show, Fuller– like Nordbrook and Stillman — was casey at the bat.

CURT MOTTON – Inducted in 2006 Outfielder Curt Motton played parts of four seasons (1966, 1967, 1973 & 1974) with the Red Wings. He was the offensive catalyst for Earl Weaver’s 1967 Red Wings that finished second in the IL. Motton went on to play parts of eight seasons in the major leagues with the Orioles, Brewers and Angels. He was also Johnny Oates’ hitting coach when the Red Wings captured the 1988 Governors’ Cup. He endeared himself to fans at Silver Stadium as a coach by throwing candy into the stands on his way to the first base coaches’ box. [Red Wings Hall of Fame website

Glove signed by Curt Motton, Cal Ripken Jr. and Frank Robinson at the 1989 O’s-Wings exhibition game [Displayed in the Rochester Public Library; owned by David Kramer]
After the game, I asked the groundskeepers if I could quickly walk on the field to see what it felt like. They opened the gate. I ran over to first base, kicked it lightly like a tire on a new car, and hurried back across the spongy grass lest I overdo my privilege.
Looking back now, of course, it was no big deal. It was a cold night; the sparse crowd was almost gone. So what if they let a kid run onto the field. It wasn’t as if anyone was going to take pictures on their cell phone. But back then it felt like I could have been Tim Nordbrook.

(left to right) Gary Carter rookie card, Jim Fuller rookie card, Royle Stillman rookie card, Jim Rice with Pawtucket, K Mart Anniversary card of Fred Lynn’s 1975 MVP season, Curt Motton when Red Wing’s coach. The Carter card goes for 54.49 plus shipping on ebay. The slight dings on mine probably reduces its value to 20 dollars. [from David Kramer’s collection]
Street & Smith’s now defunct. Here is Kramer & Kramer’s Official 2016 Yearbook
MORE BASEBALL AND SOME ROCHESTER EXPRESS SLOW PITCH PROFESSIONAL SOFTBALL
On Yogi Berra and Dale Berra and the 1973 World Series and Willie Mays and my father
30 years ago when George Brett won the World Series (and Morganna the Kissing Bandit)
“An early-spring renewal of the spirit” over 10,000 fungos later
Royals 4 – Mets 3. An opening day World Series rematch with Eugene Kramer
On a Cal Ripken signed 1989 glove, prized possessions, and the Rundel Library
WHEN JACKIE ROBINSON PLAYED IN ROCHESTER