ONE OF THE THIRTEEN LIVING BOSTON BRAVES

       Over the years,I have traveled near and far to meet personalities that I have enjoyed and admired. But sometimes if one looks in their own backyard, You will find someone that You very well may respect even more.


     DICK MANVILLE is not a household name that many do not know but to those who do and maybe after this blog is a gift to us all.
 

Dick went to Harvard and then graduated from YALE University with a degree in Finance. His coach at Yale , RED ROLFE, had scouts from the Major Leagues observe his star Pitcher and  recieved a signing bonus for 15,000 dollars with the BOSTON BRAVES in 1947. He is now one of only 13 living BOSTON BRAVES which makes him more than a celebrity than this humble man wants to believe. In 1950 he was sold to the CUBS and later retired to work in a Cotton Bussiness in Nevada. After stays in different parts of the country he retired to Florida in 1987. He is a proud man who loves his 2 sons and wonderful grandchildren that visit him quite often.

      Though he receives almost daily mail with pictures from his heyday for his autograph, Mr Manville never feels that he is a special personality though the letters want to remember him as one of the fading eras of the Boston Brave Franchise. I stop by and chat with him usually over a Diet Coke once a week and we discuss Baseball, Golf and even Politics. Though his hearing is not what it once was, his mind is as sharp as his once great fastball.All the time I have never looked at him being somewhat of a special personality but as a true friend whose friendship means the world to me.

    So look around and maybe a neighbor or an old friend may be somewhat famous some years back and You may realize that People like DICK MANVILLE are few and far between