1949: when Don Zimmer broke into pro baseball. (Turn Back The Clock).(Brief Article)

BALLPLAYERS ARE OFTEN ASKED about their biggest thrill in baseball, their first or last major league at-bat or pitching start.

An equally interesting but seldom reported story is the adventure of breaking into professional baseball in the minor leagues.

In June 1949, Don Zimmer signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers after graduating from high school in Cincinnati. More than 50 years later, he sat in a dugout in Legends Field in Tampa and called up his memories of breaking in.

"I got on a train and went to Cambridge, Maryland in the Class D Eastern Shore League. I was 18, scared to death and away from home for the first time.

"It was hot when I got there. They had told me to go to the hotel in town, an old white building. I checked in, called the ballpark, and got hold of the general manager. I told him where I was and he said, `Be out in front and I'll pick you up in 20 minutes.'

"The first thing I always did, from that day on, whenever I went into a town, would be to go to the local newspaper office and I had the paper sent to my father.

"About four o'clock, the general manager pulls up in a pickup truck and I got in this truck. We go to the ballpark and he introduces me to the players.