One day last August, moody Willard Hershberger, second-string catcher for the Cincinnati Reds, slit his throat with a razor. Few weeks later, pounding down the homestretch in the National League pennant race, first-string Catcher Ernie Lombardi sprained his ankle. On the eve of the World Series, Manager Bill McKechnie was on a spot. Lombardi's understudy was too green to be put behind the slugging Detroit Tigers at the plate.
"I'll get back into harness," volunteered Jimmy Wilson, the Reds' piano-legged, 40-year-old coach. Coach Wilson, father of a 117-year-old son, had been a great...
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