After ten years, Charlie Digiovanna "The Brow",(seated on front row) finally becomes batboy at Ebbets Field. You wouldn't find his name in the scorecard and , of course, never in the box score, but Charlie's out there every day and night the Dodgers cavort at Ebbets Field, wearing his uniform as proudly as any member of the vaunted Flock.
Now one may think that becoming batboy at 21 is a rather belated honor, something along the order of the sub quarterback who gets in the last game of the schedule in the last quarter. No matter. For a full decade the boro boy had been pointing for this day after a full ten years spent in the darkness under the stands--as clubhouse boy, turnstile checker and aide in the dressing room. Only recently did he move up to become batboy for the visiting club, but that was hardly the port of last call for this Dodger worshiper.
The shift came about when Stan Strull was moved from batboy to the ticket office this Spring of 1952 and Charlie was traded from the third-base side to first. Off season, he works in a sporting goods store. Popular with home and visiting players, Charlie is an effervescent, chirping fellow who begins to breathe and live when the ball park opens. He's all over the place, wheeling out the big sticks, warming up the players in a pepper game, fielding rollers, chasing fly balls or running errands.
Short and stocky, with a shock of dark wavy hair, DiGiovanna is affectionately called "The Brow" by the Dodgers. " I guess the nickname speaks for itself" he said goodnaturedly. He has no illusions of being a great--even a fair--ball player, but he accepts his limitations philosophically. For, after all, he is batboy of the Dodgers, a position coveted by thousands of youths, to judge from the letters that come in annually at the office.
And by the players themselves will be the first to admit that a handy batboy who knows his place and his job is a first-rate property man around the lot.( Charlie Digiovanno died at the age of 27 from a heart attack.)
April 18, 1952: by Paul Gould: Brooklyn Eagle
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