Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Taking Care of Business:Harry Saferight

Recently, I wrote about Harry Saferight, a former catcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Saferight sent me a very nice letter after I sent him some extras of his card for him to keep.
A few weeks ago, I came across a few more of his cards and sent them to him, along with a request for him to appear here and answer a few questions.
I asked Saferight about his Topps baseball card. Saferight said, "It was nice to get on a Topps card after spending all of those years in the minors."
Saferight played with some big stars, including the 1979 World Champion Pirates. I wondered if he had any memorabilia from baseball. Saferight said, "I did start a collection at the end and wished I had started sooner. I've got about 30 balls signed by Hall of Famers. Also, I started a bat collection and boy did Hooley, our clubhouse guy in Pittsburgh, get a little tight when I would get him to pack them to go back to Pittsburgh."
Saferight retired after the 1982 season with the Toledo Mud Hens. Saferight told me, "I worked for Waste Management for 13 years after baseball. My father got sick so I took early retirement and stayed with him until he passed. Took another year off and a friend at the bank suggested I try Mortgage with them. So I spent 8 years with BB&T. Got tired of the corporate bull and now I work when I want with a friend at a smaller bank. Went from Baseball to Trash to Banking. It's funny, after my first meeting with the Bank, my manager asked what I thought. The answer was that the meeting was no different than any other meeting I had been in. You have people producing, people complaining."
I also asked Saferight if baseball played any role in his post-baseball career. Saferight stated, "It sure got me interviews and it was nice for each business that I worked in. People would recognize my name and that helped to get in the door."
It was a lot of fun following Saferight's career. It has been a lot more fun reconnecting a bit and writing about it here.
By all accounts Saferight is successful and happy in his post-baseball career. It is great to hear that things have worked out for him. He really seems like a nice guy.
I was happy to be able to get some of his cards to him. It's always nice to give back to the players. I really appreciate Saferight taking time to answer my questions.
Harry Saferight's 1980 Topps baseball card.

10 comments:

Steve Gierman said...

Very cool!

Unknown said...

Hey Jonhgy, my name is Scott from Pawtucket R.I., home of the Pawsox and in 1979 I went to the see 2 or maybe even 3 games in Pittsburg during the world series, i was taking some pictures and i had one of Harry catching Kent Tekulve in the bullpen, then a couple years later i noticed Harry Playing for a minor league team playing against the Pawsox and got to talking to him after the game when he was signing autographs, very cool guy. I actually showed him, Reid Nichols,Sam Bowen and some others around the city because I grew up there. I havent talked to Harry in years but would like it if you could just tell him i said hello for me please....I`m pretty sure he will remember me, he actually paid a cabbie to drive us around to do my paper route so we wouldnt be late for their game that night i believe

thank you
Scott

p.s. i will check back periodically for any response

Johngy said...

Scott-
That is a great story. I'll share it with Harry.
Shoot an email to me when you get a chance.
Johngy1@aol.com

Connie Gregory said...

I was a friend of Harry's in College when he played for Florida State during a very winning year. I still go to games at FSU and always think about him and his buddy Ron Cash. They were both sweet guys and I just came across a neat bracelet that he brought back for me from the Panama Games. Glad to hear he is still his old happy self. Connie Bay Gregory

Johngy said...

Connie-
Thanks for stopping by. If you have any pictures with Harry, I
d love to run them on this site.
I appreciate your comments.
John

Anonymous said...

Hey Johngy, Harry Saferight here. My son copied this recently and gave it to me. Brought back some great memories. Scotty from Pawtucket, Great kid. He would come to my Room and wake me up and we would go to Lunch. I really enjoyed his company. I believe he got married and joined the Fire Department. Would love to know how he is doing. Just recently I had a young fan (I believe 8 yrs old) when I was in Reading Pa. with the Phillies stop by my House with his 17 yr old son. Talk about memories and feeling Old. He's 48 now.

Connie Bay, talk about a name from the past. What a sweet, pretty young lady. Signed with the Phillies, left Fla St but often wondered how she was doing. She wanted to be a stewardess.

April 1st 2012, 2:15

Johngy said...

Harry-
Thanks for stopping by. Hopefully, some day I will meet you, too!
Take care and if you are ever in the Chicago area, contact me.

Unknown said...

Jonhgy, hello. i stumbled upon your blog today when looking for info on harry. i was a kid in the richmond area who really dug the fact that a pirate from '79 was playing for the richmond braves. i'd love to mail him a letter. do you know if he lives in midlothian? i have an old address, but didn't know if it was correct...Randy

Johngy said...

Randy-Shoot me an email at Johngy1@aol.com or a Facebook message.

Unknown said...

Johngy, Scott from Pawtucket here, I just saw the reply by Harry from my earlier post. Harry, I have since retired from the Pawtucket Fire Dept. Ironically i spent many years working in the station right outside the gates from where the Braves played the Pawsox. Harry if you see this it would be great to hear from you, just google me and my contact info will come up

Thank you
Scott Gagan