But with the game well in hand, Hansen got a base hit and then went on to steal second. But the stolen bases tally was tied heading into the final game of the season.Īs usual, Hansen and Meier’s team won in a rout. As Hansen recalls, Meier was hitting around.
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Meier talked Hansen into returning for the last few games of the season, and the competition was in full force. Before he did, though, Meier and Hansen had made a bet about who would have the highest batting average and who would steal the most bases. Toward the end of his high school days, much to Meier’s disdain, Hansen quit baseball. “The greatest third baseman to ever play the game,” Hansen said.
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Batters didn’t make much contact, but on the rare occasion he heard the crack of the bat, his first thought was always hoping the ball was headed to third base. Their squad at Logan High School was dominant. He played third base about 75-80 feet down the line because he knew if he played the normal third base position, they’d just bunt and we’d never get anybody out so he would stand 10 feet inside the bag.” “He was incredible, I mean, just incredible. He hit the ball so hard and he was so slow that the right fielder would literally pick it up and throw him out. 500 and the right fielder threw him out a dozen times. 500, like most great hitters in high school do, but he hit like. “He was the slowest man on the Planet Earth,” Hansen said, his tone shifting from somber remembrance to youthful joy. Before he ever dreamed of making a career out of sports, it was sports that provided Hansen one of his most impactful friendships. Hansen and Meier were best friends from the start, right around the age of 5. Six weeks into Meier’s service in Vietnam, he was shot and killed. We’ll be back.’ He looked right at me, and that was the last thing he said: ‘If I can’t outrun a base hit to right field, I sure as hell can’t outrun a bullet in Vietnam.’” You’ll be the hitting coach and I’ll be the manager. He said, ‘This is it for us.’ I was kind of like, ‘Oh, hell, we’ll come back and we’ll manage the Little League baseball team. “And he told me, he said he’d never see me again. ‘If I can’t outrun a base hit to right field, I sure as hell can’t outrun a bullet in Vietnam.’
“The last thing he said to me, I’ll never forget it. He taps on my window and we were going to sit in the driveway and drink beer,” Hansen recalled. “The last night I saw him, he came to my house, knocked on my window of the basement bedroom. He unabashedly admits it brought him to tears.īut it’s their final conversation in their shared hometown of Logan, Ia. One of them is a painting presented to him by Collin County Jail employee and part-time artist Colin Kimball on the WFAA set last year. When he does, he always looks up and touches Meier’s face. I sure as hell partied twice as hard because I had to party for him.”ĭown the hall in Hansen’s man cave, he has multiple pictures of Meier that he still takes in on a daily basis. I worked twice as hard as some people did for a long time. “I used to say - it was somewhat true but it was probably somewhat to justify my own lifestyle - I really do feel that I lived two lives. “I’ve never gotten over that,” Hansen said, his eyes welling up. His overall experience in the military was pretty tame, especially compared to that of his best friend, Carroll Meier, who was drafted to the Army and killed in Vietnam. Hansen ended up in Patuxent River, Md., on a ship bound for the Caribbean. In fact, he joined the Navy in hopes that he wouldn’t have to go to Vietnam because he was strongly opposed to the war. He did clear up a common misconception, though: He wasn’t actually in Vietnam during the war. Hansen has alluded to being in the Navy during the Vietnam War, something that was just part of the American obligation during his young adult years.
It’s a recurring theme throughout his 71 years of life thus far, full of highs and lows and, most of all, stories. Maybe it didn’t make sense, but that didn’t stop Hansen. “I’m allergic to dog hair, and we have five dogs,” Hansen said. Hansen started talking, interrupted every now and then by a cough. We made the short trip to the living room and sat on the couch. Immediately, we were swarmed by three dogs. ❤Tap here👉 Likes, TikTok video from asheric9208 "❤Tap original sound - asheric9208.He greeted me with a smile as I made my way up the porch, and then he opened the door.
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