PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Joe Vogel Jr. doesn't remember when he suffered the three strokes that robbed him of his speech and hearing, but he knows he was 4 when his father took him to his first Pirates game at Three Rivers Stadium.
Unable to afford tickets, they listened to the game on a radio outside until officials opened the gates in the seventh inning, a practice that ended a decade ago. His first game in 1974 was the start of a lifelong love of the team and the game for a man people call "Baseball Joe."
Describing himself as the Pirates' biggest fan, "Baseball Joe" Vogel Jr. says he tries to make it to as many games as possible, despite having suffered three strokes.
Keith Hodan Tribune-Review
Vogel, 40, who earned his nickname because he's "baseball 365," overcame his loss of hearing and speech by reading lips and typing responses onto a keypad with a small screen he carries.
"So hard to communicate," he types in the kind of broken sentences that characterize his "speech."
He may be the Pirates' biggest fan, despite 18 straight losing seasons.
"He's a Pirates fan to the Nth degree," said Joe Elinich of Ross, who has known Vogel for about 10 years.
"Joe Vogel is a great Pirates fan whose passion for the club and knowledge of and respect for its rich history is unsurpassed," team President Frank Coonelly said.
The past two decades have been tough for Vogel, who lives alone in a Downtown apartment.
"Pirates lousy. My mom, dad die. The strokes. ... I see how people look at me and treat me like I'm retarded," he writes. "It hurts so much."
He says people have taken advantage of him, including a Florida dealer who he said cheated him when he sold some of his extensive collection of baseball cards. He hopes an attorney will take the case.
His lifelong dream is to visit Fenway Park, Cooperstown, Wrigley Field and Yankees stadium. Despite leg pains, he walks to PNC Park from his apartment. He travels by bus to doctor's appointments and lives on Social Security disability income.
Former Pirates pitcher Bob Walk remembers the 15-year-old kid who used to walk to Three Rivers. They talked a lot of baseball back then, said Walk, who met Vogel in 1985.
"I liked him. I thought he was a good kid, one of the good people you meet in this game," Walk said.
On a hot, sunny September afternoon, the pain fades away as Vogel settles into a seat at PNC Park to watch his beloved Pirates play the Cardinals, the team he saw them play at Three Rivers Stadium in 1974. He points out holes in the defense and rattles off stats as fast as he could type.
But he misses the father who taught him to love the game and managed, on a window washer's salary, to take his son to the ballpark now and then.
"I wished my dad could have sat this close," said Vogel, who grew up in Mt. Washington and estimates he has been to more than 1,000 games during the past 36 years.
They would get a bus to Downtown and grab a hamburger at Raywell's at Forbes and Wood, where Vogel said Roberto Clemente and Manny Sanguillen were known to eat.
They used to sit with a gang of "old time, hard core fans. Guys in their 70s, 80s and 90s." It was there he met the cigar chomping owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Art Rooney Sr., who Vogel said liked to talk about baseball.
"I loved it ... soaked everything up like a sponge," he types.
His father and the others would trade stories about Forbes Field, and "it felt like I was there," he said.
"Baseball is a big part of history. It connects father and son."
When the Pirates took the wraps off the Bill Mazeroski statue outside PNC Park a couple of weeks ago, Vogel was there at 4 a.m. He makes an annual pilgrimage to Oakland on Oct. 13 to relive Game Seven of the 1960 World Series with a couple hundred other fans.
Vogel would like to see a Ralph Kiner statue at PNC Park and a hall of fame at the stadium. The Pirates said they have no immediate plans for either proposal.
1 comment:
Joe, You are what makes baseball great!
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