Michael Arace: With Memorial weekend upon us, thoughts of local heroes of years ago – The Columbus Dispatch

Here in the heartland, we know summer is here when Memorial weekend brings the Indianapolis 500, and then Memorial Day kick-startsMemorial week at Jacks place, and thenit rains.

Drivers, start your engines!

In 1911,Eddie Rickenbacker competed in the firstIndianapolis500.He was a street-smart kid who grew up on Livingston Avenueon the East Side. Hemade himself into a mechanic,racedcarsas a teenagerduringthe early, hairy days of thesportand went on to reinvent his own legend.

At the outset of World War I,Rickenbackerwas "volunteered"to drive members of Gen. John Blackjack Pershings staff all over the Western Front.Long story short: Rickenbacker didnt likechauffeuring he wanted to fly.

He becamea pilot and,after a scant few hours of flight training,joined the 94thAero Squadron (The Hat-in-the-Ring Gang). He shot downmore enemy aircraft (26) than any otherAmericanfighter pilot. TheAce of Aces,whose mother admonished him to shuck his apprenticeship as a stone mason, because the dust was dangerous, becameone of the most famous men of his time.

When Memorial Day weekend rolls around andthe green flag drops at Indy,I like to roll past Rickenbackers boyhood home, now lovingly restored as a museum,on Livingston Avenue. His namefades a little bit every day, and such is the nature of time, but it should still ring a bell.Theres an airporthere named for him.

John Glenns name is everywhere, of course. The pride of New Concord was a fighter pilot in World War IIand Korea, a Mercury astronaut, the first man to orbit the earth and alongtimeU.S. senator, among many other things.Glenn died in 2016 at the age of95.

The National VeteransMemorialMuseum,housed in a distinctive building that corkscrews up on a Downtown bank of the Scioto River, was among Glenns lastprojects.What an incredible footnote.

This used to be a wider-known fact, but it is fading as generations pass: One of Glenns wingmen in Korea was Ted Williams.If you are among a younger generation and have not heard the name Ted Williams, well, he mightve been exactly what he aspired to be. And that isthe greatest hitter who ever lived.

To use the modern argot:Williams had a WAR of 121.9 and an OPS+ of 191. Plus,he was the reason the shift was invented.The damned shift.

Williams baseball career was twice interrupted when he served, as a pilot,in WW II and Korea. In Korea,on at least on occasion, Glenn saved Williams life: Williams plane was on fire when Glenn pulled up next to him and pointed upward; Williamsmade a steep climb tothinner air, which extinguished the fire.

Much as I appreciate baseball, Ted will always be a Marine fighter pilot to me, Glenn said.

Williamssaid Glenn known as Magnet Ass because he twice returned from missions with more than 250 bullet holes in his plane was the greatest pilot he ever saw.

Hank Gowdy is a name that should not fade. Of course,the slow fade is inevitable, given that he was born in 1889, graduated from Columbus North High School in 1908 and was buried in UnionCemeteryin 1966.

Every so often, Gowdys name gets a rinsein the pages of The Dispatch. His life has been the subject of work done by the local chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). He deserves any memorials that might come his way.

Gowdy, a rangy, strong-armed catcher,tended tofamouslyappear on baseballs biggest stage.

In the 1914World Series, he hit .545 with three doubles, a triple and a home run to lead theMiracleBostonBraves to a sweep of the mighty PhiladelphiaAthletics. Columbus threw a parade for Gowdy after the World Series.

In the 1924 World Series, Gowdy, playing for theNew YorkGiants, committed one of the more infamous gaffes in baseball history:

In the bottom of the 12thinningof Game 7, Gowdyflipped off his mask and sidledinto foul territory to catch whatshould have been the last out of the season but he tripped over his mask. The game was extended and the Washington Senators went on to win it, and the Series.(This is why, for the past97 years, catchers have been taught to chuck their masks well out of harms way when trackingfoul popups.)

Military historians are more familiar with Gowdy, who wasthe only major league player to serve in both World Wars. He was the first MLB playerto volunteer inWW I and he was in the middle ofsome brutal fighting, sometimes hand-to-hand, before the war drew to a close in 1918.

Happy Memorial Day, and Memorial week. Summer is here.

marace@dispatch.com

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Michael Arace: With Memorial weekend upon us, thoughts of local heroes of years ago - The Columbus Dispatch