My brother Ralph had been the Yankee batboy from 1946 to 1949 and the Yankee management, was open to us maintaining the family tradition. They contacted Brother Columbo, the principal at St. Jerome's Grammar School, about their willingness to offer me the position. Brother Columbo brought me into his office to give me the scoop. The bad news is that I called the Board of Education today and they told me that is was against the rules to let you leave school early, regardless of the reason. The good news is that I'm going to use experience to teach you a lesson.
Rules are just guidelines, they can be bent when it's the right thing to do.
I'll let you be a batboy as long as you meet two conditions. One, you've got to maintain your grades. Two, you've got to learn what makes the Yankees succeed and what makes Joe DiMaggio such a great player. I got to meet and hang around with all the great players, during the period when they established an unprecedented five consecutive World Series. I saw DiMaggio and Mantle overlap their major league careers and had a birds eye view of some of the greatest players and rivalries in the history of baseball.