1966 Baltimore Orioles Batboy Picked up Bats and Balls with Metal Hooks

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WHATEVER HAPPENED TO … ? O’s batboy Jay Mazzone

Nearly 40 years ago, Jay Mazzone was the most famous batboy in the major leagues.

By Jacques Kelly (The Baltimore Sun, 7/28/2007)

As a 12-year-old, he joined the Orioles in that magical season of 1966 when they won their first World Series. He captured the attention of the national news media as he picked up bats and balls with metal hooks attached to his limbs. As a 2-year-old, he lost his hands after his snowsuit caught fire.

“I met presidents Eisenhower, Johnson and Nixon,” he said the other night from his Parkton home, where he lives with his wife, Bobbie.

The sportswriters liked what they saw. “He does everything that a boy his age with hands can do, and he does it better than most,” a Sun reporter wrote in 1966. As batboy for visiting teams, he worked Sandy Koufax’s last game.

Continue reading at The Baltimore Sun.

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Hooked Up

By Paul Lukas (Uni Watch, 1/15/2013)

“Reader Bruce Menard recently clued me in regarding a chapter from fairly recent MLB history that I hadn’t been aware of. It involves a guy named Jay Mazzone, who worked as a batboy for the Orioles in the late 1960s. The unusual thing about Mazzone is that he’d lost his hands when he was two years old after his snow suit caught on fire, so he used metal hooks in lieu of fingers. This certainly made him an unusual sight on the field.”

Continue reading and view more photos at Uni Watch.

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9 Responses to 1966 Baltimore Orioles Batboy Picked up Bats and Balls with Metal Hooks

  1. David T. Hall says:

    I first met Jay my Senior Year when a buddy and I played hookie and went to a game out on E. 33rd Street at the old Memorial Stadium. It was a Friday game in September of 1966. I know I wasn’t the only kid that September to slip school and watch the O-Birds that year.

    Anyway, the bus dropped us off early in the afternoon and Brian & I watched the players warm up. That’s when I met and talked with Jay who was out there hanging out and fielding stray balls. I remember we talked about a song the Stones just released. I’ll never forget that beautiful day…

  2. Gerard Demario says:

    I grew up in a small town in pleasantville,nj. There was a jfl football team called the mighty mites.Jay mazzone was the team mascot and he was a very nice kid who loved by all. I remember watching him on TV as a bat boy for the orioles. Now he is a heavy equipment operator and he’said probably a good one. He always had determination.God bless him.

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  4. "The Phantom" says:

    I knew and worked with Jay’s dad Frank back in the 1960’s. Jay is remarkable lad…and his father a remarkable man.

  5. William Dutcher says:

    I knew Jay when we both were on the swimming team at Northern High School. He was a great diver who when he entered the water, created very few ripples.

  6. Bill Fonte says:

    I went to junior high school with Jay and was always amazed at how well he did things, both physically, and mentally…

  7. WILLIE J BROADNAX SR says:

    I ONCE MET JAY, WHILE AT KERNAN HOSPITAL. NICE FRIENDLY KID

  8. Art OConnor says:

    I went to school in Pleasantville with a relative of Jay…Charles Mazzone was a good friend of mine and we used to go down to Baltimore a couple times a year to see the Orioles play and visit Jay….his Dad was a state trooper in Maryland who got us the tickets…haven’t been in touch with the family since then, always wondered where they were…

  9. John Fortunato says:

    Jay caught a ball on TV using one of his metal arms. Cant find the footage though I watched it as a kid.

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