European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 10, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Conversation during the hot stove Leagus cruise in the Caribbean got pretty heated at Dan Gladden is table Over player gripes about candlestick Park. This lady could t understand Why we re always complaining about the cold and she s up there in a private Box with a  qe2 cruise makes boys of summer be ends Are forever Hugh a. Mulligan associated press it was opening Day of the season when the Queen Elizabeth ii dropped Anchor in Barbados and began discharging her cargo of san Francisco giants and Hall of Fame baseball stars. Down on the Dock a steel band As if primed by the commissioner s office greeted the passengers with the Calypso strains of hey Man Tell your children Don t take no  in the downtown duty free shops none of the natives recognized Stan Musial Monte Irvin Brooks Robinson or giants manager Roger Craig the tall one in the pith helmet but they swarmed All Over right hander Joel Garner begging for autographs. Garner you see is a world class Bowler and Captain of the Barbados team which was hosting bitter rival Trinadad before a sellout crowd. This alas was opening Day of the Cricket not the baseball season although you could t Tell from the antics of the 1,500-Odd passengers reliving their childhood fantasies aboard the flagship of the Cunard line. You d have thought candlestick Park was just off the  and the season opener on the ship s daily programme spelled her majesty s Way on the qe2somewhere Between aerobic dancing and Bingo. Baseball was in the air night and Day at sea or in port on All 13 decks around the four swimming pools and in All six bars even at the Captain s Black tie cocktail party where Commodore Douglas Ridley in an Eton accent right out of an old titanic movie allowed that he had been a keen Follower of the grand old game of rounders since first witnessing a match on Houston s astroturf As master of a cargo  for 10 Days stolen from Winter in the sunny Caribbean passengers participating in this most bizarre of All hot stove leagues argued baseball watched old world series movies played trivia games who invented the curve ballot the Hall of Farmers and giants players to autograph baseballs and dinner menus traded baseball cards programs and other collectables attended baseball seminars swapped memories with some of the game s Best aired their gripes about the giants finishing last shared their Hopes and dreams for the coming season with the younger players unabashedly and sometimes quite loudly told giants owner Bob Lurie How to run his team where to locate his new stadium and what to do with his franchise and in general waking or dozing in a deck chair brought Back the dear depression Days of Beer and pretzels peanuts and Cracker jacks. What it was was a baseball cruise the latest phenomenon on the travel Market and Alan King the comic on Board probably found enough flotsam i n the ship s 4,000-mile Wake for a 10-Day gig in Las vegas. Where else but on a baseball cruise would you find Roger Craig swinging his lady at a Square dance in the main ballroom with the same High kick cellar dwelling managers use for kicking dirt on an Umpire or demolishing a dugout water cooler. Stan Musial on stage in the ship s theater demonstrating the famous peekaboo batting stance that reminded Pitcher Ted Lyons of a kid peeking around the Corner to see if the cops were  the seven time National league batting Champion confided his preference for daytime baseball nights Are for drinking and underlined his Choice by playing his Harmonica with the ship s combo Long after several midnights. His repertoire honed on bus rides deep in the Bushes of class c Ball included Wabash Cannonball and comin hound the Mountain. Affluent season Box holders venting their indignation about today s $2 million salaries at a players news conference then hurrying Down to the next deck to hear Jack Klein vice president of Shearson Lehman bros., lecture on common Stock investments through Mutual  giants Center fielder Dan Gladden trapshooting on the Lido deck comparing the erratic flight of the Clay pigeons to getting under a Fly Ball in draft candlestick Park you can t Tell whether the wind is Gonna take it up or  owner Bob Lurie with an anti motion sickness Patch under his right ear getting in line just like everyone else for hamburgers cooked by a kid from Edinburgh whom the players threatened to option out to Mcdonald a if he did t shape up and put More than a couple on the Grill at a time. A Macho Yuppie in a velvet jogging suit buying drinks for the House in the amidships bar because he just beat Brooks Robinson the american league s most valuable player in 1964, at pingpong on a rolling deck in a wind blown companionway. Pitcher Atlee Hammaker who made the 1983 All Star team jumping ship in Barbados because he could t find any Relief from Mal de Mer. His teammates suggested he tip the waiters double because he had six meals a Day three up and three  giants fans going ashore at St. Maarten a few weeks too late for the world series played just before Christmas Between top teams from the dutch and French sides of the Island. The Only thing bigger around Here is the new year s Day cockfight enthused dutch cab Driver Gaston Halley whose son Cloudy pitches for the Mullet Bay giants manager Craig and pitching coach Norm Sherry the old dodger Catcher setting an example for their players by working out in the gym deep in the bowels of the ship among the Cerise coiffure ladies in Lavender leotards. Craig had his giants weigh in at the end of the season a lesson he Learned from Detroit tigers manager Sparky Anderson who imposes a $100 Fine for every extra Pound of flesh recorded on opening Day of Spring training. 1985 All Star Pitcher Scott Garrelts and infielder Brad Wellman filing into the tables of the world the most plebeian of the qe2 s four dining salons which prompted a White dinner jacketed Habitude of the posh Queens Grill to remark last place restaurant for a last place  at teatime the Rich baritone of Ernie Harwell voice of the Detroit tigers intoning the tale of How he broke into major league broadcasting when Brooklyn s Branch Rickey traded Catcher Cliff Dapper to the Atlanta crackers for his contract. Myron Coppini a Young bar Steward out of Southampton the ship s Home port cornering Brooks Robinson and the living legends of Cooperstown for autographs without quite knowing Why. I be heard these blokes Are famous in America so i had to add them to my collection. I be got Gloria Swanson Frank Sinatra Richard Burton Elizabeth Taylor Lynn Redgrave and lots of others who be been on the  Monte Irvin Over cocktails in the Commodore s quarters recounting earlier travels in the negro leagues when you passed the hat after a game and Learned to drive the team bus so As not to be Cut from the  the most he Ever made Monte allowed was $25,000 in 1951 when the giants won that Miracle Pennant and he led the league in runs batted in. This someone noted was $3,000 less than Cunard charged for a suite on the boat deck for the 10-Day cruise. By Block the old cubs infielder spooning up the caviar at the Midnight Buffet in Sweet revenge for his class d Days at Paragould ark., where the pay was $65 a month the meal allowance 50 cents a Day and the manager camped out in the hotel lobby enforcing the Midnight  this personal item in the qe2 times the ship s newspaper to Stan the Man Musial you never could hit the right Field Wall in ebbets Field. If you could hit that Abe Stark suit sign you would t be buying your own  at dinner a fan told Musial that among his souvenirs was the famous new yorker cartoon showing the Brooklyn Clothier poised with a baseball Glove in front of the Outfield signboard that promised a free suit to any Batter who hit it. That the original Cunard brochure for this cruise already is a collector s item because it pictured under the caption meet your giants hosts executive vice president Tom Haller and manager Jimmy Davenport both of whom walked the Plank before the season ended which is How Roger Craig came aboard. In the Cathedral hush of the ship s wardroom two Page 14 the stars and stripes refugees from Coogan s Bluff in old giants Caps unsettling the Bridge players by bidding a Bubble gum hand of two Stan Hacks one Walt Dropo a torn Ewell Blackwell and a badly faded Bob Herb against a pair of Ferris Fains a Van Lingle Mungo in mint condition Ted Kluszewski in his Rookie year and a slightly soiled Marv  and where else but on a baseball cruise could you learn from a Memorabilia expert like Stew Sadowsky of fort Lee n.j., that Honus Wagner on a Sweet Cap orals cigarette card is the most valuable of All baseball cards Worth maybe $50,000, because Wagner did t smoke and sued the american tobacco company to take it out of circulation for isolators of the National pastime a baseball cruise is a Way of hurrying the Vernal Equinox of filling in the Dull to Days Between the super bowl and the opening presidential pitch when the few surviving grass diamonds glitter with Frost and the drone of the Sno plow is heard in the land. It beats the creamed Chicken circuit admitted Brooks Robinson who since being voted into the Hall of Fame has had to meet the fans face to face on numerous occasions but never before Over breakfast dinner and supper. Most of those on Board Are pretty knowledgeable and really Nice although late in the evening they forget How Many Gold gloves you won and remember when you made three errors in one inning like i did against Oakland in 1971." by Day the fans might recall that Roger Craig owner of four world series rings All from different teams was a pretty Good Pitcher with the dodgers. When the Moon gets Over the smokestack they re Apt to Needle him about the Back to Back 10-24 and 6-22 seasons he had with the mets. But Brooks confided that in confronting the Public sex major leagues had one unvarying statistic going for them the longer you re out the better you  at Dan Gladden s table the conversation got pretty heated Over player gripes about candlestick Park. This lady could t understand Why we re always complaining about the cold and she s up there in a private Box with a Heater Dan said As he reviewed the argument. That first night i thought they were going to have to separate me and. Of Well forget her name we became Good friends later. You find out that fans on a cruise Are True fans the kind that stick with you through thick and thin first place or  at first Gladden found it a bit unsettling to sit at the table next to the team owner meal after meal. His wife and mine found lots to talk  but one night he grew so bold As to suggest giving up a year s salary if Bob Lurie would give me a 10 percent interest in building a new stadium in the Bay  among the most Rabid fans on Board was Eunice the players Call me mom Bull a season ticket Holder who was born in Jamaica and played Cricket As a child. In every port she proudly wore her giants Cap covered with yellow buttons Given to patrons who remain to wait out extra inning games no matter How the outcome affects the team standing. Mom Bull heckles the umpires from a Box behind Home plate goes to Spring training in Phoenix with her beloved giants and has her Home candlestick Park ii decorated with bats pennants autographed balls and other sacred relics. She broke into tears of Joy when the qe2 s Loudspeaker announced that Willie Mccovey had been voted into the Hall of Fame. Ann Johnson a travel consultant from Chicago who has organized a number of baseball cruises credits cubs marketing director Jeff Odenwald with founding the hot funnel league in 1983 when 250 cubs fans sailed to the Caribbean. This occasioned a historic players is. Passengers softball game on Tortual in the British virgins that featured a pair of septuagenarian designated hitters and at one Point during the Many lineup changes that gave everyone a Chance to play an All female Outfield. The idea really caught fire last year says Ann. Now some 15 teams including the Boston red sox the new York mets the Pittsburgh pirates and the new York Yankees have taken fans and players to sea but the cubs still dominate the Market. In november they took every Cabin on a cruise ship to Hawaii demonstrating the loyalty that moved Mike Royko to write your True cub fan was out there cheering when the Only thing to cheer about was when a Ball came off the screen and hit the Bat boy in the  Roger Craig regrets that Casey Stengel never got to go on a baseball cruise they would t have had to hire any nightclub acts for the ballroom. Can you imagine old Case taking on the fans at a press conference at shipboard seminars the fans seemed most concerned about High player salaries drug abuse the future of the designated hitter Rule and where the giants would play their future games. What about spitting asked a matronly looking fan in an authentic giants warm up jacket. It s Gross disgusting and  Brooks Robinson sputtered a defense of baseball s great expectoration. You sound just like my wife. Spitting is a lost Art the trouble is the to cameras Don t know enough to Lay off those dugout  of yeah Well what about scratching the lady in the fourth Row had the last word. To paraphrase Casey at the Bat everywhere in these fantasy Isles the Sun is shining Bright everywhere hearts Are Happy and everywhere cabbies shout but there is no Joy among the Cunard Crews because word has just gone out from Ann Johnson that the Chicago Blackhawk and their fans will be embarking on the world s first hockey cruise june 28 aboard the Cunard countess. Visions of stick fights in the grand Salon and vicious body checking in the line for Bingo cards have hovered Over the horizon since one of the giants fans quoted Rodney Dangerfield s line i went to the fights the other night and a hockey game broke  monday March 10, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 15