April 4, 1993|By GORDON EDES, Staff Writer SunSentinel
He strides across the third-base line, a windbreaker hanging loosely on his broad shoulders. The nub of a cigarette is glowing in his right hand against the deepening night sky, this middle-aged man in beige knit pants revisiting the green fields of his youth.
``This is it,`` Richard Hough said. ``Hialeah Municipal Park. Looks a little bit newer, a little better kept. Look at the clay. There`s even better dirt.``
This is only minutes from his Miami Springs home, the place where most nights he drops a fishing line into the canal outside, but he has not been in this place for at least 25 years, he said. He is here this night only because he has been asked to come, because he is the brother of Charlie Hough, the Marlins` pitcher, and this is part of the tapestry of Charlie Hough`s homecoming.
He has driven past the Immaculate Conception Church, where Charlie Hough married Sharon O`Brien, to come here, this place to which brothers 15 months apart in age had been bonded together so long ago.
Charlie had been groomed to play baseball. But so had his brother, Richard. Old Dick Hough had seen to that, had given his soul to that. And so they had played. And so this was home.
``You would think after this long a time some things would change,`` Richard said. ``But they`ve put up a screen. That`s about it.
``At least it`s not a parking lot or a development. It`s a ballfield.``
Now, Richard is standing behind the backstop, watching a young Cuban teenager pitching baseballs to his girlfriend. He is throwing hard. She fills the night air with the metallic rhythms of bat hitting ball, her swing sure, her face glistening.
``We used to hit where she`s standing right now,`` Richard said. ``Long time, baby.
``We lived right over there, on 48th Street, one or two houses in. Morning, noon and night, we were here. We used to play two-man ball, three-man ball, whatever.
``Baseball, that`s all. Baseball.``
Richard crosses the street in search of the house that was their home. In the space normally occupied by two bungalows, a new sprawling ranch-style house sits.
``I think that`s where my house used to be,`` Richard said, standing in front of the newness. ``Sure it is. They tore down my house. It`s gone.``
The ballfield remains. Like his brother Charlie, who on Monday will take the mound at another ballfield, Joe Robbie Stadium, for the first game the Marlins will ever play. Richard has been away a long time.
He likes how it feels to be back. Perhaps because enough time has passed.
``I wish Charlie were here,`` Richard said. ``I think he`d enjoy this.
``I`m going to get him over here. I think I will.``
-- Martin Frady lives in Davie now. He`s been retired since 1985. But when he was baseball coaches at Hialeah High, back in the mid-60s, he had the Hough brothers. Richard for one year, Charlie for three. The one year the brothers played together, 1964, Richard would pitch and Charlie would play first base one game, then Charlie would pitch and Richard would play first.
``The two Hough boys were so far ahead of the other high school boys,`` Frady said, ``in how to play baseball.``
Both were terrific hitters. Richard caught the eye of the scouts first.
``I remember one day a scout was working me out,`` Richard said, ``and Charlie made me look like a fool.
``I was really jacking them out, thinking to myself, `Here we go, baby,` and the scout says to Charlie, `Can he hit like this off you?`
``Charlie says, `Hell, no.` Pretty soon, he starts turning them over on me (throwing curves), and the next thing I know, instead of jacking the ball out, I`m hitting these little grounders.``
Charlie was the better all-around athlete, according to Frady. He was All- County in basketball, a 6-foot-2 point guard who played with Ted Hendricks, the pro football player, and took the Miami Beach team of 7-foot Neal Walk, the future NBA center, to the final seconds of the championship game before losing by a point.
He could have been an outstanding football player, too, said Paul Tripp, the Hialeah football coach, if old Dick Hough had let him.
``He could throw a football 65 yards flat-footed like a snake,`` Tripp said. ``And he could really punt, too.``
But Richard may have been a better hitter than Charlie. That`s what Frady said.
``Baseball was their life,`` he said. ``Nothing else.``
Dick Hough would have it no other way. Dick Hough had been a ballplayer, too, a third baseman with a good bat. ``How I Hit `Em`` Hough, that`s what they called him.
Mostly he played semipro ball around New England. But he had his chance, he told his boys, in the St. Louis Cardinals` organization.
``I remember as a kid,`` Richard said, ``him telling us about the Gashouse Gang, about how he either played ball with them or worked out with them.``
Richard thought his dad might actually have spent a week or so in the big leagues. If he did, the record books never showed it.
``He played ball well into his `40s,`` Richard said.
Richard made it to the big leagues: http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.cgi?id=hough-001ric.
Vince "Vinny" Rusinak
A Hough And A Puff Smoke Clears For Richard Hough
He Recalls Travels With Charlie.
April 4, 1993|By GORDON EDES, Staff Writer SunSentinel
He strides across the third-base line, a windbreaker hanging loosely on his broad shoulders. The nub of a cigarette is glowing in his right hand against the deepening night sky, this middle-aged man in beige knit pants revisiting the green fields of his youth.
``This is it,`` Richard Hough said. ``Hialeah Municipal Park. Looks a little bit newer, a little better kept. Look at the clay. There`s even better dirt.``
This is only minutes from his Miami Springs home, the place where most nights he drops a fishing line into the canal outside, but he has not been in this place for at least 25 years, he said. He is here this night only because he has been asked to come, because he is the brother of Charlie Hough, the Marlins` pitcher, and this is part of the tapestry of Charlie Hough`s homecoming.
He has driven past the Immaculate Conception Church, where Charlie Hough married Sharon O`Brien, to come here, this place to which brothers 15 months apart in age had been bonded together so long ago.
Charlie had been groomed to play baseball. But so had his brother, Richard. Old Dick Hough had seen to that, had given his soul to that. And so they had played. And so this was home.
``You would think after this long a time some things would change,`` Richard said. ``But they`ve put up a screen. That`s about it.
``At least it`s not a parking lot or a development. It`s a ballfield.``
Now, Richard is standing behind the backstop, watching a young Cuban teenager pitching baseballs to his girlfriend. He is throwing hard. She fills the night air with the metallic rhythms of bat hitting ball, her swing sure, her face glistening.
``We used to hit where she`s standing right now,`` Richard said. ``Long time, baby.
``We lived right over there, on 48th Street, one or two houses in. Morning, noon and night, we were here. We used to play two-man ball, three-man ball, whatever.
``Baseball, that`s all. Baseball.``
Richard crosses the street in search of the house that was their home. In the space normally occupied by two bungalows, a new sprawling ranch-style house sits.
``I think that`s where my house used to be,`` Richard said, standing in front of the newness. ``Sure it is. They tore down my house. It`s gone.``
The ballfield remains. Like his brother Charlie, who on Monday will take the mound at another ballfield, Joe Robbie Stadium, for the first game the Marlins will ever play. Richard has been away a long time.
He likes how it feels to be back. Perhaps because enough time has passed.
``I wish Charlie were here,`` Richard said. ``I think he`d enjoy this.
``I`m going to get him over here. I think I will.``
-- Martin Frady lives in Davie now. He`s been retired since 1985. But when he was baseball coaches at Hialeah High, back in the mid-60s, he had the Hough brothers. Richard for one year, Charlie for three. The one year the brothers played together, 1964, Richard would pitch and Charlie would play first base one game, then Charlie would pitch and Richard would play first.
``The two Hough boys were so far ahead of the other high school boys,`` Frady said, ``in how to play baseball.``
Both were terrific hitters. Richard caught the eye of the scouts first.
``I remember one day a scout was working me out,`` Richard said, ``and Charlie made me look like a fool.
``I was really jacking them out, thinking to myself, `Here we go, baby,` and the scout says to Charlie, `Can he hit like this off you?`
``Charlie says, `Hell, no.` Pretty soon, he starts turning them over on me (throwing curves), and the next thing I know, instead of jacking the ball out, I`m hitting these little grounders.``
Charlie was the better all-around athlete, according to Frady. He was All- County in basketball, a 6-foot-2 point guard who played with Ted Hendricks, the pro football player, and took the Miami Beach team of 7-foot Neal Walk, the future NBA center, to the final seconds of the championship game before losing by a point.
He could have been an outstanding football player, too, said Paul Tripp, the Hialeah football coach, if old Dick Hough had let him.
``He could throw a football 65 yards flat-footed like a snake,`` Tripp said. ``And he could really punt, too.``
But Richard may have been a better hitter than Charlie. That`s what Frady said.
``Baseball was their life,`` he said. ``Nothing else.``
Dick Hough would have it no other way. Dick Hough had been a ballplayer, too, a third baseman with a good bat. ``How I Hit `Em`` Hough, that`s what they called him.
Mostly he played semipro ball around New England. But he had his chance, he told his boys, in the St. Louis Cardinals` organization.
``I remember as a kid,`` Richard said, ``him telling us about the Gashouse Gang, about how he either played ball with them or worked out with them.``
Richard thought his dad might actually have spent a week or so in the big leagues. If he did, the record books never showed it.
``He played ball well into his `40s,`` Richard said.
Richard made it to the big leagues: http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.cgi?id=hough-001ric.