Tim "Shoe" Sullivan. (Contributed)

Shoe Column: The Roy Campanella figurine

By Tim “Shoe” Sullivan

It had to be over 10 years ago. I was talking to a bartender in a tavern on the Square in Stevens Point. Her name was Liz, and the bar was JL’s Pub.

I said: “You know, I used to bartend, and one of my favorite things to do was to ask a customer if he or she ever met a famous person or had a celebrity as a hero.”

Liz answered: “Well, that one is easy for me. My father met someone famous, and that someone became my hero.”

I asked Liz: “Was it a movie star? Or a Green Bay Packer? Or a Milwaukee Brewer?”

“Nope,” she replied. “It was Roy Campanella.”

(Courtesy Tim “Shoe” Sullivan)

Here’s what happened:

In about 1956, Liz’s dad and her grandfather were fans in the stands at Milwaukee County Stadium for a game with the Milwaukee Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers. The Brooklyn catcher, Roy Campanella, hit a line drive foul down the line. Liz’s grandfather, who wasn’t wearing a glove, reached out and caught the ball!

After the game, Liz’s dad and grandfather spotted the Dodgers’ team bus in the parking lot. They approached the bus and asked someone if Roy Campanella was on it. He was.

To their total surprise, Campanella walked off the bus and started chatting with them. He was awesome! Roy talked with them for maybe ten minutes, signed the baseball, and introduced them to a few other Dodgers. A total class act!

A little background on Roy Campanella:

“Campy” was born in 1921 and died in 1993. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1948 through 1957. He was an All-Star catcher in 1949 through 1956. He was named National League “MVP” in 1951, 1953, and 1955.

Roy was in a car crash in 1958 and was paralyzed, never to walk again.

He was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969 as one of the greatest catchers in major league history.

On May 7, 1959, it was “Roy Campanella Night” at the Los Angeles Coliseum. An exhibition game between the Dodgers and the New York Yankees. New York won, 6-2. The crowd at the event was 93,103, the largest crowd ever for a major league baseball game.

Now let’s fast forward to Liz.

When Liz and I had our talk, I had a big collection of “Starting Lineup” figurines. Boxes and boxes of them.

I also knew I had a Roy Campanella figurine in one of them.

I told Liz she could have it if she came to my house and helped me find it.

We looked for it that night.

We searched 20 of those long white cardboard boxes. With no luck. It took over an hour.

Finally, it came down to the very last box.

And there, at the bottom of the boxes, was my Ted Williams figurine!

That was good, because I remembered when I came across Williams, Campanella was there too.

The figurine cost me $2.98.

Liz went home with it. And Christmas was rapidly approaching.

Liz said: “My grandfather had a beautiful fireplace in his house. And the only thing he put up on the mantle was the Campanella signed baseball. He had it in a wonderful holder.”

A week after Christmas, there was a knock on my front door.

It was Liz.

She said: “We had our Christmas gathering. My father opened one of his presents, and it was from me. My father cried. He said it was the best Christmas present he ever had. He put it up on the fireplace mantle next to the baseball. It was the Roy Campanella figurine.”

Cost me $2.98.

But to her father …

Priceless.