Joe Barrett had a pretty good vantage point for three games of the 1948 World Series — upper deck of the old Cleveland Stadium, toward the outfield.
Only trouble is, he had to work during the games.
Barrett was 26 then, working part time as a stadium usher while attending John Carroll University on the GI Bill. He spent a season leading people to their rows and wiping off their seats for tips of a nickel or a dime, which added up back then.
He can still tick off the Indians’ roster: Dale Mitchell in left field, Larry Doby in center, Bob Kennedy in right and so on. And even though he didn’t get to see the decisive sixth game in person because it was played in Boston, he remembers how the town went crazy when the Indians took the series with a 4-3 victory over the Boston Braves.
His seat for Tuesday night’s game wasn’t quite so close to the action. The 94-year-old was planning to watch from his room at Summa Akron City Hospital, where a day earlier he became the oldest patient at Summa Health to have a heart valve replaced through catheterization.
Still, he was hoping to repeat the thrill of experiencing a sixth-game clincher.
“I’ll jump for joy,” he predicted — that is, as long as he doesn’t fall asleep, he joked to a group of journalists who clustered in his hospital room Tuesday.
His doctor, Eric Espinal, figured Barrett was up for the excitement.
Espinal said he knew his patient was unusually sharp when he conducted a neurological exam on Barrett in preparation for the surgery. Barrett started reciting the Indians’ lineup for the ’48 series, Espinal said. “So clearly he passed the test with flying colors.”
Barrett is a longtime Akron resident, but he grew up on Cleveland’s East Side. He remembers playing street ball with his friends in a field they created near what is now the 105th Street bridge to Bratenahl and seeing Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig play with the visiting Yankees at the old League Park.
Once during the Depression, he had the good fortune to find a $5 bill when he and a buddy were pondering how they could get in to see a doubleheader against Detroit.
“We had box seats on the third base line, and hot dogs and that. And I came home with three dollars and fifty cents,” he said with a grin, a borrowed ball cap on his head.
It wasn’t his greatest stroke of luck. When he was in the Army during World War II, he said, he was transferred out of his unit in the 35th Infantry Division just before it headed overseas. The outfit was destined for the bloody Battle of the Bulge.
That experience was far behind him, though, as he prepared for the excitement of Tuesday night’s game.
He laughed about how nervous he gets when the pitch count gets to three balls and two strikes. He remembers the excitement and ultimate disappointment of the 1995 and 1997 World Series, and he was ready for the team to end its 68-year championship drought.
He is tired, he said, of hearing “wait till next year.”
“Next year just arrived,” he said.
Mary Beth Breckenridge can be reached at 330-996-3756 or mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com. You can also become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MBBreckABJ, follow her on Twitter @MBBreckABJ and read her blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/mary-beth.