To understand their love of baseball, look no further than their grandfathers.
Allie Utley’s grandfather, the late Dick Davis, would watch Kansas City Royals games with his granddaughter when she was still a toddler. He’d share nuggets about his favorite players, and his favorite sport.
Her grandfather’s life “was a tapestry of dedication, passion and an unwavering love for the game of baseball, especially for one of its greatest legends, Walter Johnson,” Utley said.
Likewise, Hank Thomas, Winchester, Va., learned a thing or three about baseball because his grandfather, Walter Johnson of Humboldt, was inarguably one of the greatest pitchers the sport has ever produced.
Thomas’s infatuation and admiration grew to the point he authored a biography on his grandfather in 1998: “Walter Johnson: Baseball’s Big Train.” It helped that he had as his source material a generation’s worth of scrapbooks his grandmother had put together through the years, filled with photos, clippings and other baseball artifacts.
As fate would have it, the book was released about the same time Davis was at the forefront of several local projects to honor Johnson locally, including placing a monument noting his birthplace north of town, and erecting a billboard along U.S. 169, touting Humboldt’s connection to the baseball legend.
The dual efforts inevitably connected Davis and Thomas, “and we became the dearest of friends,” Thomas recalled.
Fast forward more than 20 years, when Utley noted her grandfather’s billboard had begun to show signs of age.
She spearheaded a project, which was finished last summer, to replace the billboard with a gleaming new display, complete with a photo of Johnson, arranged to look like a vintage baseball card.
Utley also found Thomas’s phone number while looking through some of her grandfather’s old files, and figured she’d give him a call, partly to get his blessing on the effort, but just as much to keep in touch.
As “the most visible family member” of Johnson, Thomas has fielded calls like hers before, usually asking for some form of licensing approval.
But Utley’s call was different, he quickly realized.
“Oh my gosh,” Thomas said. “She has ‘the bug,’” as he described Utley’s inherited, inherent love of baseball.
“I liked her immediately,” he said. “At 22 years old, and of course her connection with Dick Davis, cemented it. I knew she was for real.”
Thomas, age 78, then said he was hit with an epiphany.
