Gotcha

By Mike Hall, October 18, 2015

In the late fifties and sixties, it seemed as if The New York Yankees won The World Series almost every year.  In that era, many of the games were played as day games much to the chagrin of a die hard baseball fan named Tom Finholm.

We attended St. Anne’s grade school in Prairie Village, Kansas and had been friends since the second grade. It was our eighth grade year that I recall and that still haunts Tom to this day nearly fifty years later,

The Yankees were once again in The World Series and Tom decided to conceal a transistor radio under his sweater with an earpiece discreetly hidden so that 58 year old Sister Rose Agnes wouldn’t notice.  The plan was working to perfection and Tom would give hand signal updates of the score when the black robed nun would turn and write on the blackboard.

You need to understand that Tom was as excitable when it came to baseball as anyone in history.

In the ninth inning, Yankee star Mickey Mantle came to bat in a tied game and hit a home run.  Yankee fans everywhere went berserk and that included young Tom.  The curmudgeonly ‘Rosie,’ as we’d nicknamed her, was diagramming a sentence on the blackboard when Finholm screamed ‘Oh Yeah’ so loudly that kids three classrooms away were startled.

Rosie turned instantly and was not a happy camper.  Tom and his very young friend Mike can still see the scowl on her face today. She marched over to the now petrified youngster’s desk and confiscated the radio and earpiece.

‘You will be punished for this Mr. Finholm,’ she yelled as Tom sat quivering in his desk.  To the horror of his classmates, she then proceeded to slap him fourteen times across his once innocent face.  She marched him to the front of the classroom where the holy water fount was.  With the words ‘Satan be gone,’ she sent the boy with the wet pants to the church to do ten Our Father’s and ten Hail Mary’s as penance.

Tom and I still talk on the phone occasionally and laugh at Rosie…..still not believing she couldn’t appreciate Tom’s passion for baseball.  He still lives in Kansas City and his beloved Royals lead The Toronto Blue Jays 1-0 in the American League Championship Series.  Kansas City is abuzz with the same World Series fever Tom’s always had.

You would be justified in wondering if Tom recovered fully from his humiliation so many years ago.  I’m delighted to report that he’s happily married to Julie and has three wonderful kids.

The only negative side effect occurs every October when the World Series is played.  Poor Tom is beset by an incessant facial tic and a severe case of incontinence.