Memories of the game Nancy Willey of Cherryfield cherishes the recollections

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CHERRYFIELD – Not many women in Maine can say they met Major League Baseball stars such as Hank Aaron and Joe Torre and socialized with Bud Selig, the current commissioner of the game.

Meet Nancy Willey. The ex-wife of Carlton Willey, a Cherryfield native who pitched in the big leagues in the late 1950s and early ’60s, still keeps her home as a veritable baseball museum, full of memorabilia from a time when the national pastime ruled and players were not multimillion-dollar stars.

Willey, 75, remembers the days when she used to sit in the stands with the other baseball players’ wives, first in Milwaukee and later in New York after Carlton was traded from the Braves to the Mets.

The Cherryfield woman’s eyes sparkled as she recently talked about the past.

It was 1958, when a seat in the bleachers in Milwaukee County Stadium cost 25 cents and vendors hawked hot dogs for a dime. Kids sat next to their moms and dads under the scorching summer sun, their Braves baseball caps pulled tightly down on their foreheads, their shabby leather baseball gloves flipping tensely in their laps as they waited for that foul ball or long home run.

Carlton Willey was popular with kids who had visions of being a star pitcher. He was the National League’s Rookie of the Year in 1958.

The pitcher was born in 1931 in Cherryfield. The couple met there. “We were high school sweethearts,” she said, laughing. They maintained their year-round home there even after Willey made it to the big leagues.

He was signed to play baseball right out of high school by Boston Braves scouts after a tryout in Brewer in 1949 and spent seven years in the minor leagues as well as a two-year hitch in the Army. “So we didn’t get up to Milwaukee until 1958,” she said.

They lived in Wauwatosa, Wis., a suburb of the city made famous not only by its baseball team, the Milwaukee Braves, but also by the beer it produced at local breweries.

The Willeys had two children, Richie and Jill. Nancy Willey traveled with her husband until their children started school. After that, the family stayed behind in Cherryfield.

Although that time is now a scattered collection of memories, Nancy Willey does recall moments such as the first time she met Joe Torre, now the manager of the New York Yankees. She and her son, Richie, were walking across the parking lot at the stadium in Milwaukee.

“This young Joe Torre, 18 years old, came bounding across the parking lot. He said ‘I didn’t think I’d ever get here.’ He’d been down in the minor league,” she said.

Willey said she already knew Torre’s brother Frank. “We had a furnished apartment, Frank lived up over us,” she said, her laugh warm.

“He was a catcher. He was single, of course. I used to hear these high heels clicking across the ceiling. Nice kid, and Joe, too.”

Willey ticked off the players her husband played with while in Milwaukee: Eddie Matthews, Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette, Bob Buhl, Juan Pizarro, Joey Jay, Joe Adcock, Red Schoendienst and Hank Aaron. “Carlton used to room with [pitcher] Warren Spahn,” she said.

Willey recently held up a cream-colored jersey with the number 44 on it and smiled. It belonged to “Hammering Hank” Aaron. “Hank probably gave it to Carlton in the locker room,” she said looking at the jersey.

Nancy Willey is a Hank Aaron fan so be prepared to get an earful if you bring up the name of the new home-run king, Barry Bonds.

“Our kids played with [Hank’s] kids and you can put this in the newspaper too. I don’t care if Barry Bonds did break the home-run record. To me Hank Aaron will always be the greatest. There was no controversy. It was pure natural talent. Hank had big wrists and he was tall and skinny. Look at this Barry Bonds when he was playing for Pittsburgh, he was skinny; look at him now,” she said. “Hank Aaron will always hold the record for me.”

Willey pointed to a collection of memorabilia tucked around her house. The railing on her staircase to the second floor is made out of baseball bats, some from All-Star Games of the past. In between the mounted bats are baseballs, signed by the players.

“I have Eddie Matthews and Red Schoendienst. I have quite a lineup of bats on my stairs. Stan Musial is at the top of the stairs,” she said pointing at his bat. “We did this years ago when we bought the house.” Willey said they got the idea to use the balls and bats from a restaurant in New York.

While Carlton Willey was on the team, the Milwaukee Braves won the National League Championship in 1957 and 1958. They faced off against the New York Yankees twice and lost – the 1957 World Series a nail-biter as the Yankees came from behind to win.

Carlton Willey pitched only one inning in the 1958 World Series, passed over by manager Fred Haney in game three of that series. Haney decided to start veteran pitcher Bob Rush. New York won.

One of Carlton Willey’s fans was Cuba’s President Fidel Castro. “Fidel Castro wanted to know why they didn’t pitch Willey in the third game of the series. I got that newspaper clipping somewhere,” she said, looking around. “That’s the only reason I ever liked Fidel Castro.”

Willey fondly recalled a game in 1963. “Shea Stadium had not been built. Carlton was pitching in the Polo Grounds. They walked the catcher to get to him, the bases were loaded, and of course pitchers aren’t expected to hit, but he hit a grand slam. And they went out into the bleachers and brought the ball in and gave it to my son, Richie, and he was on television,” she said.

Nancy Willey says she has seen it all. She said she was always nervous sitting in the stands watching the game. “I’ve seen the first pitch go out of the ballpark and the next one being bunted. I’ve seen them clear the dugout and get into fights,” she said with a laugh. “I really feel fortunate of having that experience.”

Willey said she still has friends from those days including the wives of former baseball players. “I have a very dear friend in Lois Jay and Darlene McMann. Don McMann was a relief pitcher,” she said. She also knows Selig, the baseball commissioner. The Seligs used to invite the Willeys to their home in Mequon, Wis., she said.

Selig used to own a Ford dealership. “We used to have Fords during the summer,” she said. “One of the nights we were out to Donna and Bud Selig’s home along with Don and Darlene McMann. We all went out to watch Sputnik,” she said, referring to the Soviet satellite that first orbited Earth. “I will always remember that.”

In 1963, Willey was sold to the New York Mets. Nancy Willey proudly showed a picture of then-Manager Casey Stengel holding her 4-month old daughter, Jill, during the father-son baseball game. “I’ve always said to Jill, ‘How many babies do you think Casey Stengel held?'” she asked. “He and his wife didn’t have any children.”

In 1964, a good pitch by Carlton Willey turned into a devastating hit. “He got hit [in the face] with a line drive at Florida spring training and that just ruined his career,” she said of her former husband.

Carlton Willey’s baseball career ended soon after that. Their marriage ended in divorce recently. But Nancy Willey remains a lifelong fan of the game.