BRECKSVILLE, Ohio — If there's one thing to know about Ken Metti, it's that even at 85 years old, he still likes to throw his favorite pitch.
"The curve ball that no one could hit," Metti said.
He was a talented high school pitcher with baseball in his blood.
"I was nowhere near the athlete, the baseball player. I was a good one. I was nowhere near the level of my dad," Metti said.
His dad was Alex Metti: Humble as they come, hardworking, and a phenomenal athlete.
"He was an all-star basketball player at East Technical High School," Metti said. "He was almost a professional level golfer."
He was an all-star baseball player, too.
"He started playing for Fishers when he was about 19," Metti said.
Fisher Foods was part of the National Amateur Baseball Federation in the 1930s. Alex was Team Captain. In 1935, his talent led him across the world to Tokyo, Japan, as part of the Wheaties All-American Team.
"The manager, a big-league manager, who managed that team, said, 'Alex Metti today is the best shortstop in the United States, not in the big leagues,'" Metti remembered.
It's something that still amazes Ken Metti's daughter, Karen Valenza. And, how by just one year, her grandfather nearly played with legends.
"My grandfather missed traveling on that trip with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig," Valenza said.
It was a global goodwill mission to bring baseball to the Olympic Games.
"They went on an ocean liner, took two weeks to go from San Francisco to Tokyo," Metti recalled. "They gave each player and the staff a heavy jacket to wear on the ship because it was cold."
It's a memento that, decades later, would be hanging in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. In June, the Metti family made the trip to the Hall of Fame to deliver his jacket and a few other special items.
"The museum, they were just in awe of the condition," Valenza said. "You walk around the Baseball of Fame and you're like, 'Our grandfather was on the fringe of playing with some of these guys."
In 1940, the Great Depression forced Alex into baseball retirement, even after being recruited by the St. Louis Cardinals.
"He had to give it up. He couldn't afford to get there," Metti said.
So, Alex Metti became an all-star dad instead.
"He was a great guy, great guy," Metti said. "He ended up working at Eaton Axle."
He worked the nightshift, then would come home and play ball with Ken and his siblings.
"I had an unbelievable curve ball. My dad taught me that in our driveway," Metti said.
The gift of the game was passed down three generations.
"We played summer baseball, and my dad was always the coach," Valenza said. "When you're adolescent girls, of course you're rolling your eyes like, 'Dad, please will you stop?' He would give our friends advice, but sure enough, they change it up at the plate. They would change up the way that they're standing in the field and they had success. He was right."
Alex Metti was a man whose talents took him to the cusp of greatness. But he knew, the best victory was the family he built at home.
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