THE WILBER CONNECTION: Okay now, pull up a chair and I will tell you a story about an old major league baseball scorebook given to me by a kind neighbor lady in 1954.

In appreciaction of good neighbor lady
Florence Myers, gone but not forgotten

When growing up in the town of Dresden there were three or four dear ladies who took me under their grandmotherly wings. It was just the way it used to be in small towns during the l940s and '50s. A kid did not have to be a relative to be the lucky recipient of love and affection from a kind matronly heart with a cookie treat to share.

One of those dear souls was a Sydenham Street neighbor, Florence Myers, the widow of Dresden industrialist Frank Myers. Childless, they owned a winter home in St. Petersburg, Florida. She always sent me post cards during her stays in Florida, but she topped it all the spring of 1954.

Knowing of my passion for the game of baseball, Florence saved for me a souvenir scorebook she purchased while attending a Florida Grapefruit League exhibition baseball game between Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees at Al Lang Field in St. Petersburg (a baseball toss from the Myers' home). Making the scorebook even more special was the fact that Florence had managed to get autographs from three Boston players, catchers Del Wilber (highlighted for a reason to be explained later) and Sammy White, in addition to outfielder/firstbaseman Bob Broone. Still in mint condition, the scorebook remains a prized item in my sports memorabilia file and list of fond memories from days gone by.

But wait! That's only half of the story...Now, turn the clock calendar ahead some 70 years.

A couple of months ago I was approached by a publisher's agent familiar with my work on Wrights Lane, asking me if I might be interested in a new book written by a chap by the name of Robert Wilber.

"Wilber", there's that name surfacing again after so many years.  Could there possibly be a connection to the Major League baseball player Del Wilber whose signature is so prominently displayed at the top of the front cover of that 1954 scorebook given to me by good old Florence Myers?

I responded affirmatively to the agent's request and within hours I was hearing directly from "Bob" Wilber himself offering me a review copy of his book "How Far? A Tale of Determination, DNA and Drama." We exchanged pleasantries and briefly shared our coincidentally similar backgrounds in media and public relations.

And yes, you guessed it. Bob is indeed the son of Del Wilber a jouneyman catcher with St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox (1946-54) who also served professionally as minor league manger and coach for may years before retiring from the game.

Del spent perhaps five of his prime baseball years in the American military, signing up for service during WW2 in 1942. He attained the rank of captain with the Army Air Force and was discharged Feb., 1946. He made his major league debut with the Cardinals in April of that year.

It was only natural that Wilber's young son Bob would grow up with aspirations of following in his dad's footsteps, as did older brother Del Jr.  

"In the Wilber family, my father was always traveling thanks to his lifelong employment in baseball. My childhood was filled with annual trips to Spring Training (either on a train or in the family car) or towns where he was managing or coaching (dad's MLB playing career was over by the time I was born, so I never got to experience that"), Bob explains in a blog site he established a year ago.

Bob Wilber, How Far?

To his credit, young Wilber earned a full scholarship from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism. He then went on to play several seasons of minor league baseball in the Detroit Tigers and the Oakland A’s farm systems. When his playing days were over, he spent time as a regional scouting supervisor for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Thanks to his mother Taffy Wilber, a broadcast celebrity in her own right, Bob also grew up with a talent for writing, and ended up journeying through the world of international sports marketing before he became a senior executive for three professional indoor soccer franchises. An interest in NHRA drag racing led to his 22 years as a public relations representative and team manager for professional racers. He published his autobiography Bats, Balls, & Burnouts in 2017.

"How Far?" is his first work of fiction bringing to life a "surfer dude" baseball player from Southern California and an over-achieving hockey player from Minnesota, both aiming for greatness but unaware of the pitfalls ahead of them. It is a cleverly creative story that is just as much about life as it is about sports, written in distinct first-person voices of the two main star-crossed characters. "There's a lot of me in each one of them," author Bob adds.

Once I have done reading justice to all 560 pages of small print, no less, (really two stories in one) I may attempt to publish a formal review of How Far? For the moment though, I will not go That Far. Meantime, it may be better if my readers simply obtain their own copy of How Far? Publisher: Outskirts Press

ISBN-10: 1977250394

ISBN-13: 978-1977250391

Available from Amazon.com

So there you have it...a small and coincidental world coming together after 70 years by means of a story within a story, within a story. 

I only wish there was some way I could tell Florence Myers all about it. She's been gone now for at least 50 years and I never got to sufficiently tell her how much I appreciated the thoughtfulness she bestowed on that shy kid from across the street who was never without his right hand stuffed into a weather-beaten baseball glove.

Such is life!

*NOTE FROM DICK: I found it interesting to discover that brothers Bob and Del Wilber Jr. have established "The Perfect Game Foundation" in honor of their parents. Through the non-profit foundation they facilitate internships for young men and women who want to get a foothold in the business of sports.