Our family moved from Bangor to Brewer in 1955. I loved growing up in “The City That’s Growing Places.”

As a young boy, there was ample opportunity to play sports, to wander in nearby fields, pastures and woods and explore the banks of the Penobscot River.

There were many athletes who were special to me, including a kid who grew up with my older sister Jane in the late 1950s and 1960.

Danny Coombs graduated from Brewer in 1960 and was one of the best basketball players in the state. He also played baseball.

One of the last times I saw Danny play basketball was in the state Class A championship game at the Portland Expo. Coach Larry Mahaney’s Brewer Witches lost that game to Lewiston, but Danny was voted the game’s MVP.

Fast-forward 48 years. I’m on my way to Alaska for some fishing, stuck in Houston for 33 hours waiting for a standby flight to Anchorage.

It’s Wednesday, July 9. I call Jimmy in Bangor, who has Danny’s phone number. Jimmy was Danny’s catcher on the baseball team coached by Charlie Heddericg their senior year at Brewer.

Phone numbers are shared, and soon Danny is agreeing to have breakfast with an old Brewer fan. At a little restaurant called Kadi’s, we both ask questions. Danny wants to know, “Did you know Bud Leavitt?”

I ask how he came to play professional baseball after going to Seton Hall on a basketball scholarship.

“It’s a different kind of story,” he said. “I’m not bragging, but how many pro baseball players do you think went to college on a basketball scholarship, never played baseball or even met the college baseball coach and then went on to the Big Leagues? Well, I did.

“You see, Seton Hall’s only major sports at the varsity level were basketball and baseball,” he said, “and all the athletes stayed in the same dorm. Some of the baseball players played in the New Jersey semipro league. They play good baseball there – it’s comparable to the Cape [Cod] league in Massachusetts.

“Well, the summer after my first basketball season, they were a few players short in their baseball league,” Coombs said. “Some of our baseball guys played in this league and the coach asked them if they knew of anyone who might like to try out. This coach just loved baseball.

“Someone had heard that I played some baseball in high school in Maine and asked if I was interested, so I said OK, since I planned to stay in New Jersey [that summer] anyway.

“I played in the league a couple of years and something happened,” he said. “I started to throw bullets – 95 miles per hour. Scouts took notice. I was especially attractive to them because I was a lefty.”

The Phillies gave him a tryout, “and it went pretty well,” he said. “I eventually signed with the Astros for $40,000. I wanted $50,000, but in those days nobody had an agent and $40,000 was pretty good money. I played for five years in the National League, from 1966 to 1970.”

In four decades, salaries for ballplayers have changed immensely.

“In 1970, the minimum salary was $14,000,” Danny said. “The average was $28,000. I was paid the average. Now the minimum is $390,000, and average is $3 million. A player can play for the bare minimum for five years now, and earn nearly $2 million.”

Playing professional baseball was “quite an experience,” he said. “I also played winter ball in Venezuela, Costa Rica, Mexico and Honduras. That was a great experience.”

National League players he met over the years included Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax, who won three Cy Young Awards and owned a place in Hancock County for several years.

“The thing I remember most about Koufax was his build,” Coombs said. “He had long arms and long legs. He was only 6 foot or 6 foot 1, but his fingers were very long, approximately 7 inches. He could palm seven baseballs at the same time. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.

“Koufax was and is a very private man,” he added. “You didn’t see or hear much of him. He didn’t crave the spotlight.”

Fans from Maine often want to know whether Danny got to meet any of the Red Sox, who play in the American League.

“It was a preseason exhibition of three games in the [Astro]-Dome. Curt Blefary played for us, I think the year was 1967,” Coombs recalled. “Blefary was Rookie of the Year for the Orioles and eventually was obtained by the Astros.

“Curt and I went out to dinner one night with [Carl Yastrzemski], just the three of us. This was when Yaz was in his prime. We spent two or three hours together over dinner talking about baseball.

“The one thing I remember Yaz conveying was how much affection he had for Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey. Of course, we talked baseball, but the one thing I remember most distinctly was how Yaz spoke of Yawkey.”

Coombs has no regrets about the decisions he made early in life. “I had some talent and I worked hard to develop it.”

After pro ball, he went on to graduate from the University of Houston, and to teach and coach in the Houston area.

Earlier in the summer he threw out the first pitch at a Yankees game in Houston.

“[The Astros] were just recognizing a few of us old guys from the ’60s,” he said.

I was, too. Thanks for the memories, Danny. And the update.