He was inducted into the baseball hall of fame nearly two decades before it happened. Luke Appling was at bat against Warren Spahn, another Hall of Famer in a 1982 old-timer’s game at Washington, D.C.’s RFK Stadium. It had not seen baseball for more than ten years but that day it saw history.
A meatball over the plate by Spahn, then 61, was smashed into the left field bleachers, an estimated 300 feet. Spahn died on November 24, 2003. Appling passed away on January 3, 1991.
