WEBVTT - Everything I Needed to Know About Work, I Learned Selling Hot Dogs at Twins Games 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.919 This is our American Stories, and our next story is 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:23.840 brought to us by a listener, Jim Johnson, who is 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:28.280 a longtime pastor who lives in Rogers, Minnesota. Pastor Jim 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:32.960 wowed our listeners with his story Everett's Last Christmas Carol. 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:35.680 We asked if he had another story to share with 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:37.640 our listeners, and here he is again. 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:43.200 Here's Pastor Jim, somewhere around Row twenty two, section three 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:46.800 in the left field bleachers in Bloomington, Minnesota, at the 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:50.879 now leveled Metropolitan Stadium, the old met as we called it, 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:54.120 where the Twins used to play between nineteen sixty one 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:57.800 and nineteen eighty one. There was that I learned a harsh, 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:02.200 cruel lesson about life. I learned a lot of lessons 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:06.479 about life, but that day culminated them all together. It's 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:10.400 been forty one years since then, August of nineteen seventy nine. 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:15.440 Back then, I was involved in professional organized baseball. I 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:18.320 even made it to the major leagues. It was big 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:21.560 money for me, surrounded by fans, people trying to get 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:25.760 my attention. The Twins owner signed my checks and it 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:29.160 was more cash than I could fathom. But it was, however, 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:32.280 not as a left fielder that I made my name 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:36.000 for the Minnesota Twins. I did play baseball, but not 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:39.000 for the Twins. I was only a high school player 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:42.200 for the Kennedy Eagles. No, my place in the majors 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:45.240 was as a seller of hot dogs at the game. 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:50.280 I started with soda and popcorn, then worked my way 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:55.240 up to frosty malts and snow cones. But my highest 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:59.160 levels were reached as a hot dog vendor. That was 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:03.400 big time for me, selling Schweigrit tender bite hot dogs. 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:08.040 Those sumptuous tubes I sold for a dollar, served up 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.080 by a kid who would one day become Sports illustrated writer, 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:14.840 Steve Russian. He was then just a fourteen year old 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:17.800 kid who forked boiled wieners and put him on buns 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:21.360 for me, stuffed him in a wax paper package, and 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:23.960 once in a while, the gifted SI journalists to be 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.079 would fling one hot dog to me, seeing how hungry 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:30.760 and sweaty I was. Every time I scrambled down the 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:34.919 steps to Russian's post in the commissary in center field 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:38.840 behind the fence next to the scoreboard, Steve Russian would 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:41.640 fling a hot dog to keep me going. I will 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:46.639 never forget him for that gift. Baseball is good because 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:50.240 of people like Steve Russian, and because it's slow and 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.959 dramatic and there's time to learn how to live life well. 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:58.959 Baseball is played in a crowd in an artificially made 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:02.480 city park, with people sitting on top of each other, 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:06.200 crowding into you, elbows and kneecaps a little too tight. 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:09.800 You see baseball in the stadium with twenty thousand or 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:13.880 thirty thousand or forty five thousand people puts you in 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:18.040 a different world. The smells, the sounds, the echoing crack 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:21.480 of a Louisville slugger, the force of a Bob Casey 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:25.400 announcer saying, now batting for the Twins, number twenty nine. 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:29.560 The second basement rod carew or how he used to 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:33.800 say in that buzzsaw voice, no smoking in the Metrodome, 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:38.320 no smoking. And there you would see Ken Hurbeck at 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:43.400 first base, well Casey kroon that anti nicotine sung. There 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:47.320 was my Kennedy High school mate, our varsity eagle, first 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:52.280 basement pitcher, pretending to smoke while mister Casey yelled no smoking, 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.680 and her Beck would wave his arm saying no, no, 0:03:55.840 --> 0:04:00.280 you can't do that, and we loved it. That's what 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:03.320 happens when you put twenty somethings in a stadium, tucked 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:07.040 inside a place with twenty five hundred fans or twenty 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:10.760 five thousand fans, and the noises and hot dogs and vendors, 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:15.840 the players, all blending together with the pa man a 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:20.880 symphony of sports and people and life. Something better happens 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:23.080 when you give a seventeen year old a cooler of 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.080 hot dogs and you point to the crowd and say, 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:30.000 go sell these. You learn about the world selling hot 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:33.359 dogs at a ballgame. So now, when I'm living with 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:37.040 the rest of you during this global pandemic, I pine 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.840 for the crowds in those days at the Old Met. 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.719 I think about August first, nineteen seventy nine, when I 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.600 learned about crowds and humility and revenge and hot dogs. 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:55.040 The Old Met was a hodgepodge patchwork of a sports venue, 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:59.480 almost modular. The infield was made of black soil, like 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.040 it was from the Red River Valley of the North. 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:04.800 It was a small stadium that could hold up to 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:08.599 forty five thousand people, even more for the Vikings games, 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:13.320 but it was well a little backward but we loved 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:17.280 it because it was ours. It was not New York, 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.080 it was not La it was not Chicago, it was 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:25.440 not Wrigly, it was not Saint Louis, just Old Metz 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:30.160 Stadium built in Bloomington, Minnesota, on an onion field next 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:33.960 to the Minnesota River. Now it's the mall of America, 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.760 but then it was just a training ground for life. 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:44.360 That day, I muttered hot dogs. I was mad hot dogs. 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:47.159 It was a hot day, so I would sell about 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:50.000 thirty six, maybe seventy two hot dogs. That was it, 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.880 while my friends during that hot not whole afternoon game 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:57.520 would be making twenty percent commission on snow cones or 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:02.240 malt cups by the hundred. I asked our commissary manager, 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:07.400 mister Dylan, the cigar smoking vendor boss, if maybe, just maybe, 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.960 just for a Wednesday day game with eighty three degree heat, 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:14.760 for a twins game against the Oakland A's, if I 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:18.640 could sell seventy five cent malt cups or snow cones 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:23.800 instead of hot, hot hot dogs. Dylan, to my incredulity, 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:28.000 said no, sell hot dogs. What I said, come on, 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:32.240 I'm a hot dog vendor, I'm an upper class sales rep. 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.520 It was not quite beer vendor level, but way above 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:40.320 the soda hawkers and the lads selling popcorn. Hot dog 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:43.560 vendors had status. We could cry out with our throats 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.640 wide open, the veteran first team Major League Schweigert vendors, 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:52.400 hot dogs, get your hot dogs here. It was the 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:56.359 rookies who had no choices peanuts. Yes, they had clout, 0:06:56.400 --> 0:06:59.080 but hot dog vendors are supposed to get their way. 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:01.400 So I asked Dylan and if I could sell snow cones, 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:05.479 but he said no, We're not gonna do that on 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:09.119 an that whole Wednesday at three pm, with only five 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:12.320 thoy seven hundred and eleven fans in the park that day, 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:15.920 selling for a team that would draw the fewest fans 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:18.960 of any team in the American League that year, an 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:23.559 average of nine thou nine hundred fans per game. Those 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:28.320 poorly middling Twins were letting go of all their stars 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:31.680 because mister Griffith was too tight to pay them, and 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:35.480 the fans stayed away in droves. We, in turn, were 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:39.240 destined to watch players like Rick Sofield and Willie Norwood 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:42.960 instead of Larry Heiseel and Greg Nuttles and Lyman Bostock 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:46.880 and Rod Carew. The crowds were so thin, so we 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:49.680 figured if we showed up on a sweltering eighty three 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:51.960 day to sell hot dogs, we could at least sell 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:56.400 something cold. But Dylan said no chance, and that ticked 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:01.400 me off. So my co working underlings one through two 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.760 hundred and ninety nine were selling cold items and making 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:08.600 big fat coin and I would be selling steaming hot 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.280 dogs to little children who did not want to eat 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.600 something hot, and maybe make fourteen dollars for the day. 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:19.840 That was wrong hot dogs, I growled. To top it off, 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:24.480 Section three was filled with little children, tiny humans with 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:28.520 small coins and no desire to eat hot Schweigert tender bites. 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:31.560 They crowded the aisles in such a way that I 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.880 couldn't get to my spot. Had the old met the 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:38.360 high school vendors all staked their claim this guy in 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:41.600 the third base seats, that guy in the second deck 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:45.600 behind home. But I and my gentle giant friend Gunner, 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.720 that six foot four first base back up to Kent 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:52.319 Hrbeck at Kennedy High School. Gunner and I would claim 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:55.480 the first deck of left field. We owned it. It 0:08:55.559 --> 0:09:00.360 was ours. It was our unquestioned capitalistic domain. But those 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:02.800 not hole kids got in for free with an adult 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.080 who paid three dollars for a ticket, and any old 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:10.520 guy who paid that little for a ticket was not 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.400 going to spend a dollar for the junior not hole kids. 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.760 He crowded into his Ford Galaxy for a free not 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:19.960 hole game on an eighty three degree day in Minnesota. 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:23.840 So that was my mindset going into Row thirty two 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.600 that August first day. During the middle of the first inning, 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:30.560 then and there, I decided I was going to have 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:36.160 my way. I decided to break vendors code rules. Yes 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:39.400 I was mad, so I could do it. Rule number 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:42.960 one for vendors was always never walk on the bleacher 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:43.840 seat backs. 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:47.440 And you're listening to Jim Johnson. When we return, Jim 0:09:47.559 --> 0:10:09.600 Johnson's story continues here on our American Stories. And we're 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:14.280 back with our American stories, and with Jim Johnson, let's 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:16.120 pick up where he last left off. 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:19.040 During the middle of the first inning, then and there 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:22.600 I decided I was going to have my way. I 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:27.680 decided to break vendors code rules. Yes I was mad, 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.840 so I could do it. Rule number one for vendors 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:36.000 was always never walk on the bleacher seat backs. Unthinkable, 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.520 you have to walk down the aisle. But no, I said, 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.440 like Herbie Brooks, the passionate Minnesota born Saint Paul's side 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:47.880 coach of the Gophers and Team USA Hockey, not today, 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:52.200 not tonight. I was sick and tired of kids and crowds, 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:54.920 and sick and tired of hearing how people had to 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:58.800 follow the rules. So I was cruising down those bleacher 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:04.360 back steps, Row twenty two, Row twenty one, and I 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:07.360 was carrying my thirty six hot dogs in a candy 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:12.920 Apple plastic tub, my Vendor number three eleven button flapping 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:16.760 on my hat, my crisp Linen Vendor shirt, my coin 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:20.080 apron clanking and clinking down the aisle with me. And 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:23.520 I was feeling good. I was feeling right All the 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:27.280 way down Row twenty five, twenty four, twenty three. I 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:31.320 was going great, my athletic poise carrying the day, not 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:35.319 a worry. But then came Row twenty two, and there 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:38.840 my ankle turned on the top of that bleacher. My 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:43.199 Nike high top twisted, and my left knee wrenched itself 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:47.320 between seats fourteen and fifteen. My chest heaved into Row 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.960 twenty one, and my hot dog cooler popped and bounced 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:55.520 onto rows nineteen and twenty. My wax paper baggies spilled 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:59.440 out Schweigert tender bites, and they slinkied and wobbled between 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:03.560 seats two, twelve and thirteen and fifteen. Coins from my 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:08.000 apron sprinkled and hinkled and rolled, and little, not whole children. 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:13.280 Those thieves pounced on my quarters, four dollars worth of them, 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:18.080 and liberated them from my care. One waiter splunged underneath 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.400 my foot, and a teenage kid, some gear head with 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:24.800 orange hair, pointed and stared and said, ah, look at that, 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.920 Look at that kid. His friends laughed hard, and they 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.120 pointed at me with their fingers, at my vulnerable position, 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:37.240 and laughed like mockers and scoffers. Some hot dogs escaped 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:41.240 while I picked up my coins, my red face with anger, 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:45.840 looking back at them, and watching those pre adolescent pirates 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:50.040 scooping up my change, and it was all gone. It 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:53.760 was there I realized, yes, you have to pay for 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:59.000 your misdeeds. Some people get away for their disorder, but 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:02.560 not me. It was there that I realized there is 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:06.320 no true justice in this world, in this dark, dark planet, 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:10.280 unlike what I learned in elementary school in Bloomington, Minnesota, 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:13.440 in the lower class suburbs, or in Sunday school at 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:17.000 the Lutheran Church. I learned that we are not all family. 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:20.280 We are not all brothers and sisters. Are we We 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:25.920 are not like Neil Diamonds saying hands touching hands, reaching out, 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:31.440 touching me, touching you. That's not true, is it, sweet Caroline. No, 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:34.840 my friends, we are cheaters and thieves and out to 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:37.400 get the goods. And no, we are not going to 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:41.000 all wear masks and stay home and ride the coronavirus out. 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.040 We are going to take what is ours in point 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:46.959 and laugh at the man with the hot dogs stumbling 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:51.480 over Rote twenty two and twenty one at the Met Stadium. 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:57.000 You know, such cold, hard truths you can only learn personally, 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.040 And I learned them at the old Met Stadium. Now 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.200 I'm a Lutheran pastor, the father of nine children, the 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:08.640 grandfather of seven. I've pastored souls in northern Minnesota, and 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:12.640 I have cared for parishioners in southern California too. Now 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:15.360 I'm a coach and advisor to twenty pastors of new 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:18.640 churches all across America. And I'm a friend and father 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:22.560 to his seven adult children and two teenagers. And what 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.320 I really want to tell them is summarized in five words, 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:31.160 guard your hot dogs. Bub a Scandinavian American Anglo guy 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:35.040 can have heroes. And they were people of all races 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:41.920 and all creeds, every class. We respected Muhammad Ali from Kentucky, 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.640 but he really was from the whole world. We wished 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:49.560 we were Tony Oliva the Cuban, and Ken Landrew the 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:54.720 Angelino from La We adored Kirby Puckett, and we loved 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:58.360 Ozzie Smith from Watts and Rod carew was from New York. 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:01.600 But they were all ours. They were Minnesota twins. They 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:05.640 were baseball players, and they belonged to us. We imitated them, 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:10.280 We swung like them, and that's good because it's baseball 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:14.160 in a crowd in an artificially made city park with 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:18.200 people sitting on top of each other during the COVID season. 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:20.680 You think about times like that and you wish we 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:23.880 could learn to get along better. We could learn to 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.640 get along and follow the rules and put on a 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:30.160 mask or watch from home and don't sing in front 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:32.680 of a big crowd of people, and spread your germs 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.600 for Pete's sake, don't smoke, not in the Metrodome or 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.640 anywhere else. But now I'm living with the rest of 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:41.600 you during this global pandemic, and I pine for those 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.840 simpler days and the crowds and everything I learned from 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:49.600 what I'm missing today. I remember one day selling hot 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:51.480 dogs on the other side of the stadium when the 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:53.960 Yankees were playing the Twins in a night game at 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:57.440 the Old Met. I wandered away from left field and 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:02.440 was selling on the second deck side infield by first base. 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:06.880 Everybody stopped selling, and the fans stood up when Yankees 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:10.840 slugger Reggie Jackson stepped into the box. When the Yankees 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:13.280 came to the met it was always a sellout, or 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:17.520 nearly so. The usually empty seats would fill with over 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:22.400 forty thousand fans. They came to see mostly Reggie Jackson 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:26.880 or to jeer him. Doug Corbett was the reliever. Twenty 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:31.760 thousand voices yelled hoping Doug Corbett would strike Reggie Jackson out. 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:36.480 Jackson was controversial and lovable and hateable all at once 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.960 because he enjoyed himself and loved to hit that little 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:43.880 round ball as far and hard as he could. Like 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:46.640 Muhammad Ali, he was the straw that stirred the drink, 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.760 or like I would tell my little grandchildren, the popsicle 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:54.320 stick that stirs the hot chocolate. Once Jackson said I 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.400 don't come to New York to become a star. I 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:01.280 brought my star with me him for saying that, and 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:05.480 we knew it was true. He also famously said, after 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:09.200 Jackie Robinson, referring to the first black player to break 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:13.720 into the major leagues, after Jackie Robinson, the most important 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:17.800 black player in baseball is Reggie Jackson, and he added, 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.000 I really mean that. But my favorite quote of all 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:25.120 time from mister October is how he described dealing with defeat. 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:30.600 I was reminded Jackson said, when I lose a strikeout, 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:35.640 a billion people in China don't care. I think that's 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:39.120 about the way it is. That day at the Old 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:41.320 Met I put down my hot dog cooler and just 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:44.520 watched Jackson with two men on bass and the Yankees 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:48.520 down by two, facing Corbett and the forty thousand Minnesotans 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:52.080 in the eighth inning, he turned and twisted on the 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.760 first pitch, missing wildly, and we all laughed as the 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:59.879 umpire called strike one. He swung with as much gust 0:17:59.880 --> 0:18:02.440 Of was that redheaded boso who laughed at me when 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:05.760 I tripped on row twenty two. Yes, we yelled strike 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:09.560 him out, get him. The second pitch was a curveball, 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:13.840 and Jackson flailed again, spinning on his heels, falling on 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:18.959 his ripe hip, sprawling into the dirt. Oh, how we jeered. 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:23.800 Victory was so sweet. We thought two strikes on Reggie Jackson, 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:28.000 and then came three wasted pitches, and Jackson watched them 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.240 all and waited for the three to two pitch. 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:34.000 And you're listening to Jim Johnson, and in Minneapolis. He's 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:37.440 also a pastor, as he mentioned. And by the way 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.920 to hear his story, then he lasted with us. Everett's 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:44.720 last Christmas, Carol, go to our American Stories dot com 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.280 and in the search bar, just put in his name. 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:51.560 But my goodness, I love that term pre adolescent pirates 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:55.119 because you could see those kids just scurring around, stealing 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:59.359 every last order nickel and dime. Yes, you do pay 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:02.920 for your mist he learned when we come back more 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:06.040 of this terrific storyteller. And my goodness, we have so 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.080 many across our country, so many of you, the listeners, 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:13.199 are actually our very best storytellers, right up there with 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:16.560 the best authors and the most famous storytellers in this 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:22.080 great country. Jim Johnson's story continues here on our American stories, 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:43.080 and we continue with our American stories and Jim Johnson's story. 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:45.920 Let's pick up where we last left off. 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:50.800 When it came, Jackson spun and the bat cracked, and 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:54.800 the ball sailed into the ether. It became as small 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:58.320 in the sky as a tiny aspirin. It soared into 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:03.400 the right field bleachers, and strangely, we all cheered for him, 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:08.280 even the Twins fans, to watch a man love adversity 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:11.600 stand up there and swing at all his enemies. Devil 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:16.600 may care. He sends a baseball into obscurity, and he 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:19.720 trots around the bases with a half smile and a 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:24.520 victor's jog. Oh, how we loved him. Jackson once said, 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:28.359 he prays before Homer, and he tells the Lord. He says, 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:32.399 please God, let me hit one. I'll tell everyone you 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:37.600 did it. That suits me just about fine. Back in 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:41.000 lower middle class Bloomington, I learned at the met that 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:45.240 there is no utopia. Nothing comes for free. There was 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:49.920 no room for everybody to worry about not getting treated right. 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:53.320 People on the bottom can rise up and learn. There's 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.000 room for the tall and the proud to fall, and 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.640 there's room for the lower bottom feeders to rise up. 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:03.760 Those are the low down truths. If they say to 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:06.760 sell hot dogs, sell hot dogs and smile. If you 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.160 spill some mustard, rub it on your pants and wash 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:12.879 your hands and keep going. My favorite vendor was an 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:18.520 aging black man named Paps. He sold beer, which I 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:21.359 did not do or drink to this day, but I 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:25.679 admired how Pap sold it. He was at least seventy 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:28.199 five years old, and he smoked a pipe while he sold. 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:32.399 He weighed about two hundred and fifty pounds, and he 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:36.760 sweat and smiled and carried his forty pound boxes of 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:40.640 Schlitz or grain belt or Paps blue ribbon. And when 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:44.320 he sold, he did not yell. He confidently smiled a 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:48.879 half smile like Reggie Jackson, and often sat down with 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:53.440 the fans took a break. He wore this rainbow colored 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:57.280 umbrella type hat, and he talked, and he spoke really soft, 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:05.200 saying hey cold, He said so refreshing. Paps was living 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:09.320 life and enjoying it, and everybody loved him. He was 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:13.080 a laid back man of confidence and love, and oh 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:16.560 how I wish I had those gifts. Fans loved to 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:20.959 buy from paps. Also at the met there was a 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:24.880 score book vendor named Donnie. He had down syndrome. As 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:28.320 I recall, his glasses were usually crooked, and his shirt 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:31.679 usually rode up too high up his back. His pants 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:34.159 were loose, so you saw the top of his sweaty 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:37.640 behind above the band of his underwear. We didn't look 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:40.320 too close over there, but I learned to look really 0:22:40.320 --> 0:22:43.679 close at his face. Donnie was into it and he 0:22:43.800 --> 0:22:48.800 loved his job. Twin scorecard, Here, get your scorecard. He 0:22:48.920 --> 0:22:51.720 drooled a little, but that was okay. We learned to 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:55.600 accept it. There is dignity in work, and showing up 0:22:55.640 --> 0:23:00.320 to sell programs was Donnie's work. Hi, Donnie learned to 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:02.879 say to him. I learned to treat him with honor. 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:06.920 I learned everybody counts. I learned God loves them all, 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:10.760 and he loves you too. I also learned as a 0:23:10.840 --> 0:23:15.600 vendor about competition. One day, during a Vikings game, Tom 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:18.879 van Dervoort, Vendor number three twenty two, got too close 0:23:18.920 --> 0:23:23.399 to Doug Janzig Vendor three forty six. At halftime, we 0:23:23.480 --> 0:23:26.520 learned to order a double or a triple load of 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:29.520 seventy two hot dogs or one hundred and eight, cramming 0:23:29.520 --> 0:23:32.240 them into our cooler, and then we would stand at 0:23:32.240 --> 0:23:34.359 the back of the line where the fans waited at 0:23:34.359 --> 0:23:38.959 the concession stand, maybe eight or nine people deep. We 0:23:39.040 --> 0:23:43.280 opened up the cooler, let the smell just waffed out, 0:23:43.480 --> 0:23:45.159 and then we looked at the people waiting in the 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:49.040 back and we would coop to them, hot dogs here, 0:23:49.720 --> 0:23:52.439 get your hot dogs. And on a cold day you 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:55.560 could sell about ninety hot dogs in about five minutes. 0:23:56.160 --> 0:23:58.480 But you had to stake your claim and take your 0:23:58.520 --> 0:24:02.080 spot at the back of that concent ushion stand. On 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:05.199 one fateful Saturday night, Vendor three twenty two placed his 0:24:05.320 --> 0:24:10.960 cooler adjacent to Janzig Vendor three forty six. A turf 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:14.200 war ensued. Hey, get out of my spot, said Doug. 0:24:14.800 --> 0:24:18.560 Forget it, said Tom, Move out of here, said Doug, No, 0:24:18.720 --> 0:24:22.560 you move, said Tom. Hard words grew into curses, and 0:24:22.640 --> 0:24:26.320 curses became threats, and then came the ultimate. The yellow 0:24:26.440 --> 0:24:31.520 mustard bottle was pointed, get out of here, squortsquirt. Tom responded, 0:24:31.520 --> 0:24:34.480 what are you doing squartgs, squarre squirt. Before it was 0:24:34.520 --> 0:24:40.120 over all two hundred dogs were unsold and two vendors 0:24:40.119 --> 0:24:43.800 were covered with mustard. It was like a moment of 0:24:43.840 --> 0:24:49.080 eminent domain against free markets, competition against first come, first served, 0:24:49.640 --> 0:24:53.399 And in the end two vendors battled it out and 0:24:53.560 --> 0:24:59.240 both lost. Two competitors that day were done selling. You know, 0:24:59.320 --> 0:25:03.320 in this world, at the old met and in this life, 0:25:03.400 --> 0:25:06.680 you've got to learn to get along. Isn't that part 0:25:06.720 --> 0:25:10.399 of what we're learning today? During this crisis. We have 0:25:10.480 --> 0:25:15.040 the mask people and the non maskers, the closer downs 0:25:15.080 --> 0:25:18.400 against the let it be and live your lifers. It's 0:25:18.480 --> 0:25:21.639 us against them. It's the halves versus the have nots. 0:25:22.320 --> 0:25:25.840 It's the rioters against law and order. It's sometimes deadly 0:25:26.320 --> 0:25:31.040 and it's sometimes just fine. But somehow, some way, we 0:25:31.119 --> 0:25:35.239 have to learn to get along. Like Reggie Jackson prayed it, 0:25:35.960 --> 0:25:41.080 please God, let me hit this one out. Let's get 0:25:41.119 --> 0:25:43.960 through this with love and patience and confidence and joy. 0:25:44.320 --> 0:25:47.520 We'll do our best and learn not to fight. We'll 0:25:47.560 --> 0:25:50.200 try to get along. We'll sell our hot dogs, we'll 0:25:50.240 --> 0:25:53.960 learn to love the poor man selling scorecards, and we'll 0:25:54.000 --> 0:25:58.320 try to keep the mustard bottles to ourselves during this 0:25:58.680 --> 0:26:02.720 COVID crisis, this lockdown, the sports shut down. I listened 0:26:02.720 --> 0:26:06.080 to WCCO, the Good Neighbor to the Great Northwest, and 0:26:06.119 --> 0:26:08.960 I listen to the old games. I hear Corey Provis 0:26:08.960 --> 0:26:12.320 and Dan Gladden, and I smile. Or I tune in 0:26:12.359 --> 0:26:15.760 and hear Tim Gordon or Herb Carneil from days before, 0:26:16.600 --> 0:26:19.520 and I wish man, I wish I was selling hot 0:26:19.520 --> 0:26:23.720 dogs again. They're starting up the baseball season again. But 0:26:23.760 --> 0:26:27.520 what's baseball without the crowds? Well, it's still baseball. I 0:26:27.560 --> 0:26:31.119 suppose my mom would have been watching it. She was 0:26:31.160 --> 0:26:37.240