“Uncle Art” Pfander (right) relaxes in the Detroit Edison cafeteria with Detroit Red Wing stars Ted Lindsay and Gordie Howe.

October 8, 2024

By Patrick Kennedy

Canadian Baseball Network

As youngsters growing up north of Kingston in the village of Delta, if ever the three sports-minded Huddleston brothers, Dale, Lee and Gerry, were forced to choose their “favourite' uncle, it would've been a toss-up, a too-close-to-call decision. A “pick 'em,” as Vegas oddsmakers say.

On their father's side there was Arnold Huddleston, an impassioned baseball fan with deep pockets who became a friend of - through sheer happenstance – Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher “Lefty” Gomez, a mainstay of juggernaut New York Yankee teams in the 1930s and '40s. The two first met when Lefty, then a top national salesman for Wilson Sporting Goods, and Arnold had room at the same motel in Arizona. The old lefthander took a shine to the visitor from Canada, and he was soon inviting him along on desert drives to various baseball spring training camps. Arnold, in turn was treated to perks and inside peaks rarely glimpsed by even the most die-hard patrons of the game. Whenever an official asked what Arnold was doing in, say, a team's clubhouse or just hanging around, Arnold would play his trump card: “I'm with Lefty,” he'd say. Nuff said.

When Uncle “Arn” attended family reunions at the old Huddleston homestead near Smiths Falls, often he'd come bearing signed memorabilia: bats, hats, cards, spring training programs, autographed baseballs (including one signed by Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Jim “Catfish” Hunter, and the rest of the 1972 Oakland Athletics World Series champions), all courtesy of Vernon Lefty Gomez.

“You never knew what Uncle Arn might be bringing when he visited us,” says Gerry.

Huddleston grips a bat once used by A's outfielder Angel Mangual. He lays it next to a Vida Blue-signed baseball and a Bert Campaneris trading card. Nearby are two bottles of California Burgundy with a label that says: “Bottled for the Pleasure of Lefty Gomez For his 70th Birthday November 26, 1978.”

On their mother's side of the family was Arthur Pfander. “Uncle Art,” who came to head the Public Relations department at Detroit Edison, had a solid “in” with the great Detroit Red Wings team of the late 1940s and '50s. That explains, in part at least, the presence in Huddleston's flat of the late Hockey Hall of Fame netminder Terry Sawchuk's tan leather goalie pads. Ditto for the vintage black-and-white photo of Uncle Art, Ted Lindsay, and a youthful looking Gordie Howe relaxing in the Detroit Edison cafeteria. The Howes, by the way, lived next door to the Pfanders in the tony Detroit suburb of Livonia. The parents occasionally babysat each other's children.

“They were two really unique and interesting individuals,” Lee Huddleston, 70, says, referring to the uncles. “They had a great impact on the lives of three wide-eyed kids from the country. Every so often we got to live vicariously through the generosity and kindness of our Uncle Arn and Uncle Art.”

And that wasn't just in the world of sports. When the Beatles played Maple Leaf Gardens in 1964, Arnold and wife Nel hosted the Huddleston boys at their spacious Toronto apartment overlooking the back entrance to MLG – the entrance Arnold figured the Fab Four would use when they arrived on scene. While hordes of screaming teenagers waited in vain outside the building's main entrance on Carlton Street, from Uncle Arn's balcony on nearby Alexander Street the Huddleston lads enjoyed an unobstructed view of the band exiting a limousine and entering the old puck palace through the rear doors, just as Uncle Arn had predicted.

“One of my most vivid memories,” Lee continues, “is hanging on to my uncle's leg and peering into the Maple Leafs dressing room after a game and seeing Bobby Baun in a dirty old white T-shirt, cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other while he is being interviewed. I told that story to all my little friends in Delta, most of whom had likely never been farther than Brockville.”

Gerry Huddleston's memories of Lefty Gomez were rekindled by a recent column that yours truly wrote after a visit to Cooperstown, N.Y. In the piece I mentioned how 40 years earlier Gomez had been one of a host of Hall of Famers who signed a baseball for me at an informal press gathering during the 1984 Induction Weekend.

Uncle Arnold , an executive with Ontario Hydro, met Lefty in the late 1960s at Oakland's spring training camp in Arizona. The A's were building a dynasty that soon would win three straight World Series – the last team to pull off a “threepeat.”

For those unfamiliar with Gomez, here's a look at his stellar 14-year career, all but one game of which was spent in Yankee pinstripes. His 189-101 won-loss record produced a lofty .649 winning percentage. He chalked up four 20-win seasons, led the American League in strikeouts three times and twice in winning percentage and earned run average. In his finest season, in 1934, he posted a 26-5 record, topping the junior circuit in shutouts, strikeouts, complete games, innings pitched and earned-run average. He was at his best when it counted, a “money pitcher.” He compiled an unblemished 6-0 World Series record. He also appeared in five All-Star Games, winning three - including the first one in Chicago in 1933 .

Lefty also pitched one-liners from a seemingly endless arsenal of quips. The secret to his success? “Clean living and a fast outfield.” When luck played a part in a victory, he'd say, ''I'd rather be lucky than good.''

When Gomez retired, he had enough championship rings to fully decorate a hand ('32, '36, '37, '38, '39). The California native was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972 and passed away at age 80 in 1989.

As for the fellow who wore the aforementioned goalie pads on the job, Terry Sawchuk, like Gomez, was among the best of his era, and arguably the best ever. Named the NHL's top rookie in 1951, in his first five seasons with the Red Wings, the Winnipeg product posted a sub-2.00 goals-against average and earned three Vezina Trophy awards ('52, '53, '55) and added a fourth in '65 with Toronto. In Detroit's dominating 1952 play-off run, the mercurial netminder allowed only five goals in eight games – all Detroit triumphs – and recorded four shutouts. He played 21 NHL seasons, won four Stanley Cups, and died a troubled soul at age 40 in 1970.

Art Pfander's connection?

Aside from having “Blinky” Howe as a neighbour, Pfander also started a hockey house-league for Detroit Edison employees and visiting engineers from Canada, Britain, and the US. Art approached the Red Wings and asked for any spare equipment. Among the donated paraphernalia were Sawchuk's old goal pads.

Gerry Huddleston laughs in recalling the complete box of MLB hats that Gomez once mailed to him, in particular the San Francisco Giants hat that Gerry's father, Allan, later wore to a family reunion. Spotting the SF on the hat, a relative asked the senior Huddleston if San Francisco was his favourite team.

“No,” he replied “It stands for Smiths Falls.”

Patrick Kennedy is a retired Whig-Standard reporter. He can be reached at pjckennedy35@gmail.com