I love stories from players who played on some of those great old teams that are no longer around, or that have changed significantly. For some reason, there is something especially fun about the Browns.
Ned played for the Browns, and he put out this easy to read book about his playing days.
Some of the tales could only come out of the 40s and 50s. For instance, his brother is in the military, and years of Ned playing pro ball through a paper with an article about Ned's success.
Ned also gets ripped off by the Mud Hens, who ship him to another team for a few days towards the end of the season so they don't have to pay him his bonus money for staying with the team the entire season. Ned writes a note to protest, but he does not get a response.
He has similar issues with the Browns later, as they lead him to believe he will get a call up to end a season with the big league club, and make more money, but then they don't call him up. He writes another letter of protest, again, not getting a response. Later, the Browns inform him that they got a copy of the letter he wrote.
Ned talks a lot about feeling flattered that he still gets asked for autographs, saying that he must get a fan letter each day still. He even says that, during his playing days, the players would encourage each other to sign autographs.
Speaking of autographs, Ned meets Cy Young once, and mentions that he was so amazed that he forgot to ask him for an autograph!
Of course, Ned's biggest accomplishment in baseball was winning 20 games for a struggling Browns team. Ned talks about this and his other accomplishments.
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