Carl Erskine: A boy of summer

“The Erskines took Jimmy to the grocery store, to church, and to restaurants. They took him everywhere they went. “They let him fly,” the paper said.” And fly he did.

He outlived his Down syndrome prognosis by decades and, along the way, became the face of the Special Olympics and he held down a steady restaurant job  at the local Applebees. Dad took him to work and brought him home daily. He was 63 years old.

Erskine’s death brought sadness and sorrow to family and friends, but there was also joy in the victory of his long life, a life that was a true testament to “the power of love,” said family friend Ted Green.

When Jimmy Erskine was born on April 1, 1960, the youngest child of Carl Erskine and his wife, doctors told his parents they should send Jimmy to a mental institution. At the time, the average life expectancy for babies born with Down syndrome was 10 years old.

There was no thought of a home or other kind of facility. Caring for one’s child was a dad’s job and he did it. After retirement, though he had an active life in business and the community. According to the LA Times, “Erskine couldn’t get baseball out of his system and he wound up coaching at Anderson University, a small private Christian college, for 12 seasons, winning four conference championships. He also was a founding member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. In 1971, Erskine Street in Brooklyn, not far from the former site of Ebbets Field, was named for the former pitcher.” Yet he always lived his life as a father outliving Jimmy by one year. Pneumonia had taken Jimmy down.

We can’t close without a quick look at Erskine the ball player. Being a nice guy doesn’t keep you on a contender for 12 years. Erskine did his part to help. In Game 5 in 1952 — on Oct. 5, his fifth anniversary — he gave up five runs in the fifth. But that was all the Yankees got, and Erskine went the distance in an 11-inning, 6-5 victory. No pitcher has worked 11 innings in a…