CLEVELAND, Ohio - Often a former player will make their way to Progressive Field, with fanfare, his walk to a seat delayed by fans wanting to say hi or ask for an autograph. Sometimes media will seek interviews on the field, offering a chance for the player to reminisce about his glory days in Cleveland.
Sometimes, though, that appearance is quiet, under the radar, and not about attention. It might just be about a 90 year-old man seeking to take in a ballgame with his wife and family.
Like when Hal Naragon visited recently.
Naragon played 10 seasons in the Majors before moving on to become a well-respected coach. This year marks the 50th since he left baseball.
He was part of three World Series teams - as a player with Cleveland in 1954, and as a coach with Minnesota in 1965 and coach with Detroit in 1968. Raised in Barberton, he formed a battery in high school with Bo Schembechler and remembers a famous handshake with Indians owner and baseball pioneer Bill Veeck.
"We made it to the finals, and got beat in the last inning," he said of his high school team. (The team had been undefeated and lost in extra innings.) "He (Schembechler) was a pretty good pitcher, a left-handed thrower. He loved the game of baseball, he really wanted to be a baseball player. He liked it very much."
Naragon, too, wanted to be a baseball player. While his teammate would eventually find fame as the University of Michigan football coach, Naragon saw a chance to play baseball.
"They were having a tryout, and I wanted to come up," he said. "I was playing with a team in the Barberton-Akron area. Most of those kids were college graduates, people who thought they could play Major League ball. I came up, and I found out that you had to be graduated from high school. I wasn't. I worked out, and after I worked out they approached me about wanting to play ball, and of course I said yes. Then I got a little scared because I knew I shouldn't be there. I didn't say anything until we got to the scout, who said 'We'd like you and your dad to come up. We'd like to talk to you.'
"I didn’t really want to come because I knew what I did. My did told Mr. Veeck in his office that I always wanted to be a ballplayer and this was a good time to see if I had the ability to play professional baseball. Right then Veeck knew I shouldn’t have been there. But Veeck said 'I'll sign him', and my dad said 'Will a handshake do?' Veeck say 'Yes.' They shook hands and that was it."
That handshake launched a career that would be interrupted briefly by a stint in the Marines, a time that - according to his Society for American Baseball Research biography - he never complained about, knowing others had it tougher.
In 1951, Hank Greenberg, then general manager of the Indians, called him up late in the season. Naragon played three games and collected a couple of hits.
"He thought I could get a good chance to play the following year," he said. "He called and told me to keep in good shape. I said 'I'm gonna be drafted into the service.' It would have to be the Marine Corp. It worked out.
Naragon was stationed at Quantico, Virginia, for two years and played ball during his time in uniform.
"They liked athletes, and they liked to entertain the troops," he said.
In 1954, he backed up Jim Hegan behind the plate. His caught an inning against the New York Giants in Game 3 of the World Series but didn't get an at-bat. On the mound that day was rookie Don Mossi, who just died July 19 at age 90.
Naragon played parts of seven seasons with Cleveland, finishing with Washington and then Minnesota. He retired in 1962.
His post-season career saw him move a few hundred feet, from behind home plate to the bullpen. He was good friends with pitcher Johnny Sain, and the two would form a coaching duo in Minnesota and Detroit.
In 1968, longtime Detroit sportswriter Watson Spoelstra (grandfather of Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra) described Naragon as "The quiet man who ran the bullpen," his SABR bio says.
When reminded of the compliment, he shrugs it off. He just wanted to keep the team loose.
"We had a lot of fun. I always felt the players, if they were a little anxious, wondering if they were going to pitch or not - I decided to have a lot of fun. I always had fun. It was a good group; we talked baseball a lot."
In 1974, he would take over a sporting-goods store in Barberton. Over the years, he would make appearances and speak at Indians functions. He'll turn 91 on Tuesday, Oct. 1. On Thursday, Oct. 10, he and Joanne will celebrate 71 years of marriage.
"He's one of our all-time favorites. He put the magic in Barberton," said Bob DiBiasio, Indians senior vice president of public affairs, referring to the city's slogan and high-school nickname.
Today, the Indians open a three-game series at Detroit, where Naragon coached during his final stop in baseball. He looks back fondly, and while he was referring to his time with the Marines it could just as easily have been about baseball.
“I was very fortunate,” he said.