Last week’s death of an old friend, Dell Bethel, reminds us that independence carries a high price tag.
It cost Bob Feller 100 victories while he was serving on a destroyer in World War II. It cost Ted Williams 100 homers while he was flying fighters off carriers in World War II and again in Korea.
It cost Bethel his entire Major League Baseball career. At least he was still alive when they carried him off Old Baldy in July 1952, wounded by a Chinese artillery round. Almost his entire Ranger platoon was killed in one of the bloodiest battles of the Korean War.
We can only speculate what Bethel would have accomplished had he not been drafted into the Army back in 1951. He was one of the New York Giants’ top farmhands, a tall, powerful intimidator of a pitcher whose fastball left contrails in the air. The Giants expected him to step into their starting rotation in 1952, joining Sal Maglie, Larry Jansen and Jim Hearn.
Five years after World War II ended, however, we got ourselves involved in a civil war in Korea and, before you knew it, American industry was working double shifts making bullets and bandages.
Bethel’s next contract was a two-year deal with the Rangers — the U. S. Army Rangers. They gave him a .50-caliber machine gun and an extra pair of dry socks. See you in two years.
When he got out of the hospital and they sent him home with two bronze stars and a purple heart, some of the mustard was gone from his fastball. The Giants sent him to their AAA farm club in Minneapolis, but his pitching career was over.
The Giants were decent about it. They gave him a job scouting. Within a few years he turned to coaching baseball at City College of New York — CCNY. His star player was a guy who never played college baseball. In fact, he never put on a jock strap — Robert De Niro.
They were shooting the movie, “Bang the Drum Slowly,” which starred Michael Moriarty as a pitcher and De Niro as a second-string catcher, and it was obvious that De Niro knew nothing about baseball. He was not an athlete. He had never played anything except cards.
They were shooting the movie in New York in 1972. Bethel was available and Central Park was nearby. Dell was hired to work with De Niro.
“We’d go over to Central Park every day and practice,” Bethel once recalled.
If you remember the movie, De Niro did not look like much of a ballplayer. He threw more like a girl than the tough movie characters he usually plays.
“You should have seen him when we first got started,” said Bethel, who also landed a small part in the movie as the third base coach.
In 1974 Bethel moved from New York to North Ridgeville, where he taught and coached in high school. Later he became the athletic director at Lake Ridge Academy.
We would run into him often at Indians games, usually in the dugout during batting practice. His heroic background evidently was no secret. The old ballplayers, especially, greeted him with great respect.
He died last week at age 78. He was in good shape until a month ago when he came down with pneumonia and never bounced back. He is buried in the veterans’ cemetery in Rittman.
On this weekend, particularly, we must cherish our old heroes who sacrificed so much.
In 1952 Lou Brissie was pitching relief for the Indians one Sunday afternoon when he walked the bases full and then walked in a run.
“Anybody who can’t get the ball over the plate doesn’t belong in the major leagues,” said Bob Neal, who was announcing the game on WXEL television.
The storm of protest almost drove Neal back to his native Canada.
Brissie was wounded fighting the Nazis in World War II. His leg was shattered and he had to wear a steel brace in order to limp out to the mound, which was a triumph of sorts in itself.
Fans knew that and respected him. Those of us living soft lives today should never forget the sacrifices made by so many that punctuate our 232 years of freedom.
Contact Dan Coughlin at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

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