Mantle and Maris Both Homered at Our 1961 Family Reunion

Photo by Jim LaBate

Each summer when I was growing up, my father’s extended family held a reunion picnic in July at a state park about an hour from our home. Since my dad had seven brothers and three sisters, you can imagine the collection of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, usually well over 50 of us. And we held that reunion for well over 50 years until many of the aunts and uncles became too frail to…