Former Arizona baseball standout Gile back in town
Arizona reached its first two College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1954 and 1955, and the most imposing player on the club was 6-5, 220-pound first baseman Don Gile. He went on to become one of the first ex-Wildcats to play in the big leagues. In his final MLB game, Sept. 30, 1962, he hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning at Fenway Park to give the Red Sox a 3-1 win over Washington. It was his last MLB at-bat. Gile, 79, is in Tucson this week, visiting ex-teammates. After his baseball career, Gile became national sales manager for Oral B and now lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma. I can imagine the stories he can tell about ex-Red Sox teammates Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski.