Cardinals/Browns: Former batboy shares a little bit of baseball heaven

My mother-###### threw them out.

Jack Houston suited up for three World Series at old Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis—1942, ‘43 and ‘44.

“I’ve been around at least a hundred Hall of Famers,” said Jack, now 85 and living in Collinsville. “Played with a bunch of them.”

Ted Williams. “I idolized him. He was a pure hitter. A nice man.”

Jimmy Foxx. “He hit the longest ball ever off of me. It hit the top right of the big scoreboard out in left center. They told me it had to be more than 500 feet.”

Stan Musial. “Stan was a prince of a man. I knew him when he was a rookie. When you threw a ball to him, you knew where he was going to hit it.”

...“I worked for the Browns. The Cardinals were cheap. They only wanted to give me a dollar a day,” Jack said, shaking his head. “I got four-fifty for Browns games.

...Jack kept typewritten letters from minor league teams and some Association of Professional Baseball Players cards. But just a couple of photos.

“I used to have a whole mess of photos and memorabilia. But when I got a divorce, my wife got rid of all of them. She didn’t like me. This is all I have left.”