When I made my first “friend” in professional baseball, he was on crutches, sitting in a snow-tainted box seat watching his teammates-to-be. His name was Ellie Hendricks and Winnipeg was the furthest he’d been from his native Virgin Islands, in both miles and degrees.
How the baseball equivalent of a “rink rat” and a minor-league catcher struck up a friendship is still a mystery. The rink rat, who was 15, wound up watching games in those Winnipeg Stadium box seats, listening to and learning from the injured catcher, who was sidelined by his broken leg for three weeks or until the snow melted on the seats, whichever came first. It was one of “six or seven times” Hendricks broke/cracked a bone in his leg.
Such was the happy demeanour of Ellie Hendricks that it’s likely everybody he met became his friend. For a season and a half, I was one of the lucky ones to have a ballpark friendship with this warm giant of a man — anybody over six feet was a giant then. After recovering, Hendricks played part-time for the Winnipeg Goldeyes, hitting an unimpressive .211. The next season, with his batting average an impressive .280, he was released. He was on pace for a modest 400 at-bats, and 24 home runs.
I was devastated.
At 22, Hendricks was unwanted. He went off to Mexico (Jalisco) for three seasons — forgotten, and forgetting about his dream. Then he hit enough home runs one season (41) and they called him the Babe Ruth of Mexico. He continued to play winter ball in Puerto Rico, where one of his managers was Earl Weaver, a coach an soon-to-be manager in Baltimore. Weaver convinced the Orioles to draft him so he could platoon with Baltimore catcher Andy Etchebarren.
And…seven years after Ellie Hendricks was cut in Winnipeg, he became a World Series hero.
It was 1970, Baltimore won the first two games, both in Cincinnati, and “Elrod” Hendricks was the batting star. He hit a home run in the first game and broke open the second game with a two-run double, and hit .364 in the the five-game series. A year later, the Orioles lost to Pittsburgh in seven games with Hendricks as their starting catcher (.263).
In baseball, Ellie was as lucky as he was talented. Hank Aaron convinced him to come out of the stands in Puerto Rico during a hitting exhibition, and Hendricks hit a three-run double. Trader Frank Lane, an Orioles’ scout, spotted him while in Mexico — on vacation. Teammate Frank Robinson, two years before his Series heroics, convinced Hendricks to keep playing when a possible career-ending injury had him thinking of retiring.
We met once more, at his home in Baltimore, where he became a legend. He wore Orioles uniforms, in 11 seasons as a player and 28 as a coach, more than Cl Ripken Jr. and Brooks Robinson — combined. Fans who revered him as their bullpen coach, he was much beloved…just as he was by that 15-year-old in the snowy box seats.
Right now, ballplayers are winding up their minor-league seasons, perhaps hitting .211 and wondering if dreams can still become a reality.
They happen. For Ellie Hendricks, they did.
