By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune Managing Editor
A chance encounter with Pete Rose by a friend’s mother led to a Western Hills youngster becoming a bat boy for the Cincinnati Reds during the historic 1970 season.
Memories of that special summer came flooding back for Ric Gross, who now lives in Cold Spring, as he talked to his fiancé, Rosie Deckert, about this year’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Cincinnati.
In 1970, the Reds also hosted the All-Star game, moved from Crosley Field to Riverfront Stadium and advanced to the World Series with some core members of what would become the Big Red Machine.
“Pete Rose went to the doctor and mentioned to my friend Warren Brown’s mom, who worked there, that the Reds just lost the visiting team bat boy and they needed somebody right away,” Gross recalls. “She phones home and Warren calls me and asks if I wanted to be a bat boy.”
Rose had also helped Brown get a job working in the clubhouse and it didn’t hurt that Gross went to Western Hills High School, Charlie Hustle’s alma mater.
“I said heck yeah, when do I start and he said, ‘tonight,’ which was fine with me” Gross said. “We got five dollars a game and I don’t even think I got anything extra for the All Star Game, but that was one of the times that I got a few tips.”
In his first game at Crosley Field, Gross, who was 16 at the time, was thrown right in without any training and his tenure as a bat boy was almost short-lived.
“I remember in the first inning, whichever team was in town, somebody was scoring and I ran out to get the bat because there was going to be a play at the plate,” Gross said. “As I ran behind Johnny Bench and the umpire, the ball got through and went right between my legs and hit the backstop.”
Gross continued around to grab the bat, and the umpire said, “Son, from now on, wait until the play is over, then come out and get the bat.”
“I said, ‘I’m very sorry sir, it’s my first game and no one told me what to do,” Gross said. “He laughed about it and it was fine, but it was all just on-the-job training.”
Gross had plenty of great experiences that season, but being the American League bat boy at the All-Star Game, which was one of the most memorable in history, was definitely a highlight.
“Some of these guys, like Frank Robinson and Tommy Harper were former Reds, so that was a big thrill,” Gross said. “I was into the game because you are watching superstars so everything that happens is exciting. Even the players were excited because trades didn’t happen as much and there was no free agency, so even they didn’t get to see each other that often.”
The biggest thrill, of course was the game itself, especially the ending.
The American League led 4-1 entering the bottom of the ninth and the National League tied the score and sent the game into extra innings.
That was the year that Rose bowled over American League catcher Ray Fosse and scored from second base on a single by Jim Hickman to win the game in the bottom of the 12th inning.
Gross remembers the game in great detail, especially that ending.
“Watching the National League come back and tie the game in the ninth and then win it in extra innings would have been a thrill for any baseball fan,” Gross said. “But it was really special to actually be there and see Pete score the game winner.”
Not only was Gross there, but he was about 40 feet away, watching the final play from the dugout.
“The Pete Rose play was the greatest I’ve ever seen in my life,” Gross said. “I’m a National League guy and I remember screaming when that happened, then I apologized to whatever coach was nearby. He just said ‘that’s OK kid; that was a helluva play and everybody’s going to remember it forever.’”
He was right.
Gross regrets that he doesn’t have a lot of memorabilia from that season, but he did manage to save a few souvenirs from the All-Star Game.
He got to keep his uniform jersey, which is a size 40 and was way too big for him. He also has two baseballs, one signed by American League players and another with signatures of All-Stars from the National League.
Gross also collected some of the name plaques from the American League stars, which reads like a “who’s who” of the league. Fosse, Harmon Killebrew, Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell, Tony Oliva and former Reds manager Davey Johnson are among those in the collection.
“The ones I don’t have, I assume the players kept,” Gross said. “After we packed everything up, they were left on the lockers and I just took them.”
Gross has the uniform jersey framed, along with an All-Star Game program.
Probably the biggest disappointment for Gross was that then-President Richard Nixon who threw out the first pitch, skipped a scheduled visit to the dugouts.
“It was one thing to meet all of these baseball players, but this was the president and I was going to get to meet him, but it didn’t happen,” Gross said. “I got a presidential ink pen, but I think the players were pretty disappointed too.”
While the All-Star game was probably the biggest event of that season for Gross, it certainly wasn’t the only memorable moment.
He had just gotten his driver’s license a few months before the season and provided a taxi service for players after the games, using his mom’s station wagon. He remembers “The Barn,” a well-known restaurant located in an alley downtown, was a favorite spot of players because it was open late.
“I would probably pack five of them in the car, and after a while, it just became routine,” Gross said. “Looking back, I wish I had taken a camera with me and I didn’t understand the whole autograph thing. But the marketing of baseball is really something that has happened in our lifetime, so I wasn’t really thinking in that way.”
His favorite visiting teams were the Los Angeles Dodgers, a division rival at that time, and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“I have a lot of stories about the Dodgers because they had some of the nicest guys on that team, but they liked to pull pranks and get me in trouble,” Gross recalls. “At Crosley Field we were allowed to play pepper and they threw me a glove one time and said come on kid let’s play. Maury Wills came in from batting practice and went to get his glove and started screaming, where’s my glove and five guys pointed right at me.”
His favorite Pirate player was the late, great Roberto Clemente, who died in a plane crash during the 1972 offseason while on a humanitarian mission to Nicaragua.
“He’s the only person who ever let me bat when I played pepper,” Gross said. “I probably was up there for a good two or three minutes and he actually came over once and (gave me hitting advice) which was just fantastic.”
The Reds team that year included Rose and hall-of-famers Tony Perez and Bench, who was the league MVP, but Gross’s favorite player was Dave Concepcion.
“He was probably the skinniest guy on the Reds and I was skinny, too, so he and I bonded over that,” Gross said. “He would just call me ‘bones,’ which was pretty cool.
Unfortunately, Gross missed the Reds trip to the World Series that year. He played high school football, and when two-a-day workouts began in August he had to give up the bat boy gig.
“Football was really important to me at the time, and it would have been nice to be at the World Series, but I have no regrets,” Gross said.
Gross went on to get an accounting degree from the University of Cincinnati, worked for the U.S. Treasury Department for a time and started a successful computer consulting business.
He is semi-retired, but has also restored cars over the years and recently began a new career. He is an instructor with I-CAR which provides instruction for companies in the auto collision industry.
While he has had a career filled with memorable accomplishments, Gross said that summer of 1970 still ranks right up there.
“It’s every kid’s dream,” he said “and something I’ll never forget.”