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A undated picture from about 1965 or '66.
What I remember:
That's me in the Cub Scout uniform sitting next to a Minnesota Twins ball player named Frank Quilici. He came over to our house after a fundraiser for the local Boys Club. I recall that he gave a speech about how he grew up in a really tough neighborhood called "The Bucket of Blood". That's the kind of detail that one remembers a half century later! The picture also shows my older and younger brothers and the rear end of our dog White Tip.
What I can figure out
Quilici had a long career with the Twins. He was a player, then a coach, then the manager for a while. He even did radio play by play for a few years after that. As to when this was taken it is a bit of a puzzler. I am guessing '65 or '66 based on my size as compared to other dated pictures. But Quilici was only called up in July of 1965 and then was sent down to the minors for all of '66. I guess it could have been in the off season following the Twins appearance in the 1965 World Series. It would be just like the notoriously cheap owner of the Twins, Calvin Griffith, to send a guy out on PR visits knowing he was not going to make the team again. Or perhaps it was taken in '67 when Quilici made it back to the Twins. I was always a skinny little kid.
What has changed, what has not
White Tip is long gone. She had a good life and passed away when I was off at college. Frank Quilici is still around although I understand he has had some health issues. His interviews seem more colored by the good times he had playing with great guys like Harmon Killebrew rather than by the frankly shoddy treatment he appears to have gotten from the organization. My two brothers are also still alive and kicking. I have about the same amount of hair. They.....not so much.
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