The Villages - January 2018 - 45

Jack Hayes
Major League
BaseBaLL Bat Boy

FAA regulations state
that you cannot work
more than 10 hours a day
and need at least eight hours
between shifts. Air traffic controllers also must be at least
30 years old and must retire
by 56.
Even with the notoriously high stress levels,
Petrucelli learned how to
manage. The level of autonomy and high pay
rate gave him everything
he could ask for in a career - a career based on
a simple answer given in a
Navy mess hall.
"It's an amazing story to me,
because this old Navy chief probably did not know he set me on
a career," Petrucelli said. "He
never realized he changed my
whole life." - By Mark Anderson

As America's pastime, baseball has a long and
rich history that spans more than a century. Jack
Hayes got to experience some of that history firsthand
as a bat boy for the Washington Senators in the early 1950s
- meeting professional baseball legends such as Ted Williams, Mickey
Mantle and Satchel Paige, among numerous others.
Hayes was a teenager when he saw Mickey Mantle hit a home run
in the World Series on television. After the home run, a bat boy ran
onto the field to pick up a bat, and that sparked Hayes' imagination.
"I guess that's the first time it ever dawned on me about being a
bat boy," Hayes said.
How Hayes took that inspiration to become a bat boy is a story
that likely would not work today. He looked up the phone number of
the Senators' owner in the phone book and called him to ask about
being a bat boy for the team. Even though some games would conflict
with school, Hayes still was able to land the bat boy job for visiting
teams at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., where the Senators
played.
Hayes was required to clean the locker rooms, shine players'
shoes and other tasks around the stadium before and after games
in addition to his in-game duties. He didn't receive a uniform
from the Senators, but as the bat boy for the visiting team, he often wore an extra uniform belonging to that team.
Being a bat boy meant Hayes had access to the field
while the Senators and any visiting teams were
warming up before games. This gave him the opportunity to practice or play a round of catch with
baseball superstars from around the nation.
"(My supervisor) told me as long as I did my
work, I could go out and practice with them,"
Hayes said. "I'd get to the park early and get
my work done, then I'd go out on the field and
practice with the guys."
Hayes was a bat boy for two seasons before
moving on to other careers, including a stint in
the FBI and opening his own business consulting
firm. He also wrote a book about his time as a bat boy,
"Baseball's Finest Moments," along with other nonfiction books about baseball and business fraud.
Through it all, Hayes lives his life by one mantra.
"I have a saying, and I truly believe this," Hayes
said. "If you don't swing the bat, you can't hit the ball."
- By Mark Anderson

MAGAZINE

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Villages - January 2018