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Sports Then and Now



Boston Red Sox Dick Radatz: Having a Catch with The Monster’s Little Girl 4

Posted on July 03, 2010 by Todd Civin

Dick Radatz shares pitching tips with Boston's Cardinal Cushing

Both the calendar page and the greeting card companies dictate that the one day per year we are allowed to “honor thy father” (at least in this country) is the third Sunday of June. Since 1910, children around the globe have annually taken a mere 24 hours out of their busy lives to “celebrate fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society” by dousing Dads with a collection of humorous cards and never to be worn ties.

If nothing else, Father’s Day acts to provide a fitting and opposite book end to the prior months, Mother’s Day.

As a father of five, who, like most Dad’s, has regrets about not spending enough time with my quintet of off-spring, I like to take every opportunity, whether on Father’s Day or not, to bring to the forefront each loving relationship I stumble across that holds the Daddy-Daughter relationship in the brightest of lights.

I recently had the pleasure of catching up with Leigh Radatz, daughter of the Boston Red Sox late great pitcher, Dick “The Monster” Radatz. After losing her larger than life Dad to an in home accident in 2005, Ms. Radatz admits, “That there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t wish he was here with us. He was loving, caring, understanding, funny and a role model in so many ways.” Read the rest of this entry →

  • Vintage Athlete of the Month

    • Rusty Staub: A Man For All Ages
      April 8, 2024 | 1:26 pm
      Rusty Staub

      The Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month is a former major league baseball player who came into the game as a teenager and stayed until he was in his 40s. In between, Rusty Staub put up a solid career that was primarily spent on expansion or rebuilding teams.

      Originally signed by the Colt .45s at age 17, he made his major league debut as a 19-year old rookie and became only the second player in the modern era to play in more than 150 games as a teenager.

      Though he hit only .224 splitting time between first base and rightfield, Staub did start building a foundation that would turn him into an All-Star by 1967 when he finished fifth in the league with a .333 batting average.

      Read more »

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