Caught part of an Antiques Roadshow episode on PBS which included a guy from Hawaii getting a photo appraised. The photo featured him as a 10-year-old between Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella, and the photo was taken when the Dodgers were touring Hawaii. The appraiser said it had to be one of the last photos of Jackie taken wearing a Dodger uniform as a player.
Anyway, I popped over to the Wikipedia entry on Campanella, and I noticed this section about the benefit game held in LA after Roy's car accident:
Interesting to have the Yankees traveling out to LA mid-season for the exhibition game that had massive attendance. Also, the newspaper story cited by Wikipedia includes this detail that predates stadium rock concerts by a decade or two:
Anyway, I popped over to the Wikipedia entry on Campanella, and I noticed this section about the benefit game held in LA after Roy's car accident:
On May 7, 1959, the Dodgers, then playing their second season in Los Angeles, honored him with Roy Campanella Night at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The New York Yankees agreed to make a special visit to Los Angeles (between road series in Kansas City and Chicago) to play an exhibition game against the Dodgers for the occasion. The Yankees won the Thursday night game 6–2, with an attendance of 93,103, setting a record at that time for the largest crowd to attend a Major League Baseball game. The proceeds from the game went to defray Campanella's medical bills.
Interesting to have the Yankees traveling out to LA mid-season for the exhibition game that had massive attendance. Also, the newspaper story cited by Wikipedia includes this detail that predates stadium rock concerts by a decade or two:
Fans gave him another treat between the fifth and sixth innings, when all the lights in the huge arena were turned off and the spectators lit matches and cigarette lighters. It filled the Coliseum with a spectacular, glittering glow.
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