{"id":307,"date":"2025-11-08T06:41:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T06:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rfscal.wp-spartans.com\/?p=307"},"modified":"2025-11-28T18:58:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T18:58:37","slug":"the-inspiration-behind-my-latest-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/08\/the-inspiration-behind-my-latest-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Read An Excerpt"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Read an Excerpt<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Sometime in the early \u201980s, Snuffy, real name James Olszanski, a neighborhood kid I went to grammar school with and spent countless hours in the park with, entered Comiskey Park with me one afternoon to see what kind of trouble we could get into or what we could steal.<\/p>

As we wandered through the park, we stumbled upon the hotheaded Jimmy Piersall, the White Sox broadcaster and former player. Jimmy was notorious for his volatile temper during his playing days, and that feistiness hadn\u2019t faded.<\/span><\/p><\/div>

Jimmy was wearing a neck brace on this day due to a recent altercation with a local beat reporter.<\/p><\/div>

Snuffy, famous for his smart-alecky mouth and sharp tongue, decided to harass Jimmy as we passed him near the players\u2019 locker room entrance.<\/p><\/div>

At the time, \u201cHow\u2019s your neck?\u201d was a running joke at Armour Park. I believe Johnny Tito started it. He didn\u2019t care how your neck felt; it was just something he always said. It became a ritual. Even today, if a bunch of Armour guys are together, you might hear it once or twice. Sometimes, it might come with a back slap.<\/p><\/div>

So, with a shit-eating grin, Snuffy asked the irritable Jimmy Piersall, \u201cHow\u2019s your neck?\u201d<\/p><\/div>

Jimmy must\u2019ve been having a miserable day. Seeing Snuffy\u2019s grin, he exploded, yelling and screaming at us. As we backpedaled away, Snuffy added, \u201cRelax, you\u2019re gonna strain your neck.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

Jimmy went ballistic, lunging toward us, reaching out to grab us as we scrambled away. We kept yelling, \u201cHow\u2019s your neck?\u201d as we ran, laughing uncontrollably.<\/p><\/div>

Suddenly, we heard footsteps behind us. Two security guards were rushing toward us.<\/p><\/div>

Snuffy and I took off. As we hit a maze of ramps, we unintentionally split up. The two security guards stayed with me.\u00a0 As I came down to the end of the ramp, another security guard was approaching from the opposite direction.\u00a0 I was standing on the concourse directly behind home plate.<\/p><\/div>

With limited options, an escape route suddenly hit me.\u00a0 I flipped a railing and jumped, falling 6-7 feet, landing on the netting behind home plate.\u00a0 The netting was for protecting the fans from foul balls, but it was my escape plan on that day.<\/p><\/div>

All three guards stood at the railing, looking at me in amazement as I scaled the netting down to the field.<\/p><\/div>

No time to think, I just ran until I found an open door. I bolted out and didn\u2019t stop until I reached the park.<\/p><\/div>

Some kids were playing baseball as I arrived, breathless and laughing at what had just happened. As I told them the story, we suddenly heard a voice over the Comiskey Park intercom:<\/p><\/div>

\u201cIno Calise, turn yourself in immediately. Ino Calise, this is a serious matter. Please turn yourself in.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

I wasn\u2019t sure if they were saying my name or mumbling gibberish. Either way, we laughed. Turning myself in was never a consideration, and never would be.<\/p><\/div>

About an hour later, while I was playing baseball with the other kids, Snuffy came walking into the park, freshly released by security. After all, what were they going to do? Charge a teenager with harassing Jimmy Piersall?<\/p><\/div>

As we laughed and recounted the story, I asked Snuffy why he snitched on me.<\/p><\/div>

With the same grin he had when he angered Piersall, Snuffy said with conviction, \u201cI didn\u2019t give them your real name.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

Technically, he was right.<\/p><\/div>

I\u2019m just glad we never robbed a bank together.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read an Excerpt Sometime in the early \u201980s, Snuffy, real name James Olszanski, a neighborhood kid I went to grammar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/White-Sox-Park.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":789,"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions\/789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/33rdandthetracks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}