Last week, I mentioned that Tracyite Janet Greenhow responded to a brief item in the Twice Told Tales reporting Baer had stopped in Tracy in 1934 en route to a personal appearance. She recalled Baer, a friend of her father’s, carrying her on his shoulders from downtown Tracy to the family home at what is now Schulte Road and Central Avenue.
Janet’s comments generated another response from a Tracy resident, Jenny “Brown” Masquelier. She wrote:
“It was a nice surprise to wake up Saturday morning to see your brief article on Max Baer. I live here in Tracy, and Max was my great-uncle. My mom was Max Baer’s niece, and her mom was Frances Baer Santucci, Max’s sister.
“My mom grew up in Livermore, and my life was filled with stories about my great-uncle Max. From his generous spirit to his great sense of humor, he was truly a gentle giant and was taken from his world far too soon.
“I never went to see the movie ‘Cinderella Man,’ because I heard that his personality was highly distorted from the truth of who Max was in real life. I don’t know why Ron Howard chose to paint him in such a light and truly wish he had taken the time to speak with family members.
“There are still plenty of them around who knew Max in person, including his son, Max Junior; and daughter Maudie. Jimmie, his other son, recently passed away.”
Wow. It was great to hear from Jenny about her ties to the Baer family.
She wasn’t alone in criticizing the way Baer was portrayed — as a loud-mouth, crude, drunken braggart — in “Cinderella Man,” the movie that focused on James Braddock’s upset of Max for the world heavyweight title.
From near Stockton came an e-mail from former Tracyite Miles Ugarkovich. Miles wrote:
“The movie ‘Cinderella Man’ was very factual, except for the alleged comments that Max supposedly made against James Braddock. If I remember correctly, it was a restaurant scene in the movie. Baer was not that type of person.”
Also from Tracy came a message from Steve Kaiser, former partner in K&L Farms and now water-allocation manager for the West Side Irrigation District.
Steve wrote:
“May dad (A.M. “Tiny” Kaiser) boxed Max Baer as reported in an old Tracy Press article.” But the article was lost in a robbery of his home, Steve reported.
Tiny, or Bud, Kaiser was a big, jovial native of Switzerland who operated Alaska Dairy in Tracy. He was famous among the Swiss of the West Coast for wrestling in the annual Swiss-style wrestling contests at the Ripon Swiss Hall and other locations in California, Oregon and Washington.
I didn’t know he had been a boxer, too, but with his size, it’s not totally surprising. I’ll have to check our files to see if I can find the item about him boxing Baer.
Always ‘Hot Rod’
A story in today’s Press sports section reports on former Tracy High basketball standout Greg Reed’s induction in the Hornet Basketball Hall of Fame at California State University, Sacramento.
Near the end of the story, it was reported that Greg was sometimes called Greg “Hot Rod” Reed in the 1960s by a young Press sportswriter. I’ll have to confess that writer is the guy writing this column.
I recall that Greg was playing basketball for the McKinley Panthers, and he was an energetic, enthusiastic player who gave everything he had to win. It was about this time that a famous college and pro basketball star was named Rodney “Hot Rod” Huntley. The “Hot Rod” label seemed to fit Greg, so I tagged him with it.
A short time ago, a Twice Told Tales item of 50 years ago told of Greg “Hot Rod” Reed scoring 14 points for McKinley.
A friend sent Greg a copy of the item, and he immediately e-mailed me to say how much that brief item brought a rush of memories of growing up and playing sports in Tracy.
I called Greg on the phone and said, “Hi, Hot Rod.”
He knew exactly who was on the line.
Errata
A couple of corrections from last week: Max Baer lost a bout to Joe Louis, not Joe Lewis. And West High would have defeated Edison if a successful field goal, not a point-after-touchdown, had been counted.
• Sam Matthews, Tracy Press publisher emeritus, can be reached at 830-4234 or by e-mail at shm@tracypress.com.
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