Billy O'Dell might be feeding the cows, or fishing for bass, or hunting the wild turkeys that scuttle about on the edge of his farm in South Carolina.
Then it hits him.
"I'll think, 'Did I really pitch against [Stan] Musial and [Willie] Mays and that crowd?' " O'Dell said. "'Was I really good enough to play with those guys?'
"Sometimes it feels like a dream."
The bronze plaque hanging on the wall of his den says otherwise:
"Billy O'Dell, Baltimore Orioles, 1958 Major League All-Star Game Most Valuable Player."
Fifty years ago, O'Dell - a lithe young left-hander with a Southern drawl and a dang good slider - made baseball history. He pitched three perfect innings to preserve the American League's 4-3 victory. He retired nine straight National League batters, including five future Hall of Famers.
Moreover, he ran the table at home, in Memorial Stadium, in front of 49,000 jubilant fans and a national television audience. The performance earned O'Dell a save, newfound respect and the game's MVP award.
O'Dell set down Musial, Mays, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks and Bill Mazeroski - all bound for Cooperstown - plus Frank Thomas, Lee Walls, Del Crandall and Johnny Logan. Nine hitters. Twenty-seven pitches. Only one ball reached the outfield.
"You done splendid," AL Manager Casey Stengel of the New York Yankees told O'Dell afterward. "You made all them fellers look the same size."
O'Dell smiled sheepishly, shook hands, met reporters. Then, plaque in hand, he lit out for South Carolina and spent the next day fishing in a rowboat on Lake Murray.
"A country boy has to come home when he can," he said.
O'Dell would pitch 13 years in the big leagues, and for four teams, but never again in a groove the likes of which he found himself in on that hot, sticky afternoon of July 8, 1958. A half-century later, he can still tick off the names of those NL hitters - and, in some cases, the stuff with which he fooled them.
"Musial hit a slider, off the end of the bat, to the shortstop," he said. "Mays hit a slider, off his fists, also to short. I can still see him shaking his hands while running to first base."
Nor have fans forgotten. The mail keeps coming, about 60 pieces a month these days, asking for autographs and recollections. How did you strike out Mazeroski? Fastball, down the pipe. What about Banks? Back-door slider.
O'Dell answers each letter, signs each card. Gratis.
