Spring action more than Terry Park could contain

By Sam Cooke
Fort Myers News Press

Some of the best stories about Fort Myers' Terry Park — 100 years old this weekend — happened off the playing field.

Former The News-Press Sports Editor Len Harsh and ex-television sportscaster Chris Barnes had careers that overlapped spring trainings at Terry Park.

Harsh, 81, who worked for The News-Press from 1953-1976, covered the Pittsburgh Pirates and served as public address announcer for their spring training games from 1955-68.

Barnes, age untold, who worked for NBC's WBBH and ABC's WEVU for 10 years apiece, covered spring training games of the Kansas City Royals from 1969-1987. He became PA announcer in 1976.

Harsh and Barnes will be at Terry Park tonight when a three-day celebration begins.

Barnes says the wildest thing he saw was in his first year at the mike in a game between the Royals and manager Earl Weaver's Baltimore Orioles.

Barnes says the feisty Weaver went bonkers when KC manager Whitey Herzog subbed several players and didn't specify his team's new batting order.

Weaver challenged the umpire on the lack of order, but the ump told him it was only an exhibition game.

"Earl told the ump: 'I can't play against you guys unless you play by the rules,' " Barnes says. "He pulled his team off the field, put them on the bus and drove back to Miami."

Barnes says the Orioles returned to Terry Park later that spring and were dressing on a backup field.

"When I got to the field, all of the reporters and sportscasters were outside," Barnes says. "They were all chicken to ask Weaver about the incident."

Barnes says he approached Weaver about the forfeit, which cost the manager a $1,000 fine.

"Earl was laughing about it by then," Barnes says. "He thought it was funny."

The strangest thing Barnes saw was a media boycott by Royals outfielder Amos Otis.

"Amos built a wigwam in the clubhouse because he didn't want the reporters talking to him," Barnes says. "He didn't like something that was written in the paper. I looked in there and saw an Indian blanket. He was sitting on it like a chief."

Harsh says the strangest thing he saw at Terry Park was the appearance of legendary crooner and Pirates vice president Bing Crosby.

Harsh says one year the Pirates set up a special VIP press box for Crosby's pals.

"He's been out fishing all day and didn't have his toupee on," says Harsh, laughing. "Boy, his head was blistered. That bald head shocked me."

Harsh says snowbirds didn't clog roads in 1961, but were a nuisance after a 7-foot high concrete outfield wall was built to replace the chain-link fence.

"Snowbirds used to get there an hour or two early and sit behind the chain-link fence and watch the games for free," he says. "When they put up the wall, the snowbirds raised holy hell about not being able to see the games for free."

Harsh says he thinks general admission was only $1.50, but snowbirds had fishhooks in their pockets when it came to paying for spring games.

Harsh, who still lives in Fort Myers and closely follows sports, says he never chronicled the most thrilling conversation he heard from a pair of Hall of Famers — owner and manager Connie Mack and Branch Rickey, who broke the color barrier when he signed and played Jackie Robinson for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

"They were great greats," Harsh says. "We were standing in the parking lot and they talked for an hour," he says. "I was in awe. I never wrote about it because they asked me not to.

"Branch Rickey was saying, 'Boy, I lost a lot of money back in the Depression. Connie says: 'I lost a little bit, too.' "

Harsh says the crowning moment for Fort Myers came in 1960 when the Pirates defeated the New York Yankees to win the World Series.

Harsh says he covered two games in Pittsburgh and three games in New York before Editor Bill Spear squeezed the baseball travel budget.

"The boss we had then was a cheapskate," Harsh says. "In fact, he wanted me to write a social column about people from Fort Myers at the games."

Harsh watched Game 7 with 50 others on TV in an upstairs lobby of a downtown hotel.

"I walked out on the balcony about the fifth inning," he says. "You couldn't see anybody on First Street. No cars. Nothing."

Pittsburgh second baseman Bill Mazeroski hit a ninth-inning home run to win the game and set off celebrations in Pennsylvania and Fort Myers.

"People were riding on tops of cars and honking horns," Harsh says. "It usually took me five minutes to get home. That day it took me an hour.

"I had never seen anything like that in Fort Myers."