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How I grew up in St. Louis but became a SF Giants fan when I meet Willie Mays

Here is the story behind the baseballs and how I became a Giants fan.

When I was growing up my dad’s friend and bowling partner was a man named Murray Brown. He was one of the security guards for the clubhouse and dugout at Sportsman Park and Bush Stadium in St. Louis.
On weekends when my dad was not working or serving in the National Guard, and the Cardinals where playing home games we would go to the ballpark hours before game time. Murray would let us (and only us!) into the clubhouse to visit and play card games with the players like Stan Musial, Alex Grammas, Ken Boyer, Bill White, Julian Javier, etc. Sometimes Murray would already have a team signed ball for us. Other times my dad would give me a ball and my brother a pen and we would walk around and have the players sign the ball. In 1957 the All Star game was in St. Louis. It was a big deal and we were lucky to get to meet both the NL and AL stars. When we were visiting the AL side my dad put me and my brother on Casey Stengle’s lap. I was 3 and my brother was 2. When Casey talked with his deep, rusty voice my brother started to cry because he was afraid!
We got to meet all the great stars, like Koufax, Drysdale, Clemente, Pinson, Spahn, Mays , McCovey and my favorite Juan Marichal.

In 1963 I was 9 years old. We were in the Cardinals clubhouse and I went to talk to Bob Gibson to ask him if he was going to throw his nasty slider a lot in the game that day. He was probably hyped up and didn’t want to talk to a kid at that moment. He cussed me out and used his arm to push me away; I fell down backwards. I got up with tears in my eyes and was very disappointed! Dad and Murray helped me up and told me not to worry about it. Then I asked Murray if he would take me over to the visitors’ clubhouse/dugout to meet this guy I had heard about named Willie Mays. He did! The Giants were practicing on the field so Murray sat me on the dugout bench and called Willie to come over and meet me. He did! I remember I asked him about his ‘basket catch’ style he was getting famous for doing. He immediately told me “Son, you don’t do that! You are too young. You catch the ball with 2 hands above your head like your coaches teach you to do.” So I did! So that is how I grew up in St. Louis but became a S.F. Giants fan.