Rounding third and heading for home
Klonie JORDAN

I remember a corner in our kitchen where, when I was a youngster, if you laid down on the floor and held the transistor radio just right, you could pick up WLW out of Cincinnati.

I had discovered this broadcasting "hot spot" experimentally. I had carried that little transistor radio all over the house trying to pick up the Cincinnati Reds games. There were no ESPNs or mega-powerful sports broadcasting stations back then. There was, at least for me, this little radio

that I had purchased by collecting soda bottles - we called them "pop bottles" - out of ditches along the side of the road and selling them for two cents each.

I spent many spring and summer nights lying on the floor in our kitchen, listening to the Reds on radio. Every night at about 7 p.m. or so, I would gather a blanket and that little radio and lie there listening to Joe Nuxhall and his broadcast partners.

Nuxhall began his broadcast career in 1967 and spent 31 years side by side with Hall of Fame announcer Marty Brenneman. Every night I wouldn't go to sleep until I heard "Nuxy" end the broadcast night with his trademark, "This is the Ol' Lefthander rounding third and heading for home."

Joe Nuxhall holds the distinction of being the youngest player ever to appear in a major league game. He was 15 years, 10 months and 11 days old when he made his big league debut. That was on June 20, 1944 against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Reds were trailing 13-0 when manager Bill McKechnie put Nuxhall in the game. He walked a batter and got the next two hitters out. Some baseball historians say Nuxy got rattled when he saw - gulp - Stan Musial on deck. Whatever happened, he failed to retire another batter, giving up five runs.

He went on to have a stellar career, being named to the National League All-Star Team twice.

I had the opportunity to talk with Joe Nuxhall on a few occasions. He appeared to me to be a down-home country boy type, very modest and friendly. He would sit and talk with you as long as you wanted, his schedule permitting, of course. He was a huge presence at the stadium - on the field and in the broadcast booth.

You could tell Nuxy loved what he was doing, loved life and enjoyed being around people. He always had that big smile on his face, present in almost every photo ever taken of him. He loved Cincinnati, and Cincinnati - and all those Reds fans across the country - loved him.

The last time I talked with Joe Nuxhall … gosh, it's been years … he was sitting under the field-level stands at Riverfront Stadium just behind the batting cage prior to a game against the Dodgers. I had just talked with Tommy Lasorda and was heading to the press box when I saw him there and stopped to chat for a few minutes. I remember he got to talking about some of the minor league ballparks he had played in, grinning and laughing all the while. He was in his element here. He was the king. He was the mentor, the guy in charge. Nuxy was the man.

Nuxhall's trademark sign-off phrase is etched on the side of Great American Ballpark, the stadium that replaced Riverfront/Cinergy Field in 2003.

Joe Nuxhall passed away Thursday night at Mercy Hospital in the Cincinnati suburb of Fairfield. He had battled heart problems and cancer for the past few years.

I wept in front of my computer Friday morning when I learned of his death. I grew up with Joe Nuxhall, with that transistor radio glued to my ear.

Now he is gone, and with him a part of me. Nuxy has rounded third and headed for Heaven.

Baseball will never be the same.

Klonie Jordan (editor@gaffneyledger.com) is executive editor of The Gaffney Ledger.)