Frederick J. Nachman

One of my prized memorabilia arrived by very special delivery, one that no doubt will never be replicated.

On what was probably July 27, 1958, our father told my twin brother Frank and me we would be going for a short drive after dinner. Arriving some 6 miles west at the then Northbrook Milwaukee Road station, Dad told us to watch for the next southbound train.

Some ten minutes later, we spotted the train slowly progressing down the track. Reaching us at a crawl, the conductor, hanging over a low door at the back of the engine, handed our father two small red-white-and-blue boxes as the train continued on to Chicago Union Station.

The prizes: personalized autographed baseballs from Chicago Cubs star Ernie Banks. Although we never received the official explanation, we gathered Dad’s accounting client Chicago American reporter and Cubs Official Scorer Jim Enright somehow arranged for the Milwaukee Road conductor to deliver the goods during the Cubs’ return trip from Milwaukee after a Sunday afternoon 4-1 loss against the Braves.

The ball sits next to a signed 1960 Kansas City Athletics baseball in a bedroom wall-unit drawer, most likely from A’s owner Arnold Johnson to Dad’s cousin Rosalie (Johnson and her husband were in the hotel business) to me. I’m still trying to find Don Larsen, Hank Bauer and Marv Throneberry among the fading signatures.