- Umpire: Play ball! [upbeat brass music]
- Robert Ethun: This town is softball crazy.
It always has been.
But in those days, there was no softball.
It was all baseball.
They were all farm boys.
They milked cows, and then when they got the milking done,
they went and played baseball.
That was the only type of sport that they had.
They had an extra player, which was called a roving short.
And that happened to be my position.
He could play out in the outfield,
and sometimes he played right up into the diamond.
It was a different kind of ball game.
It was a good one.
We, a lot of times, had 800, 900 people
sitting there at a ball game.
And maybe at the seventh inning, they'd have a big drawing.
And if you got a winning ticket,
well, you got a dollar or two dollars.
It wasn't a big deal, but it was still enough
to make you want the ticket and want to be there.
[dreamy music]