Luck has seemed to follow Jack Hamlin like a shadow. He was born on Oct. 15, 1921, in Springfield, Missouri. Over the past 100 years, his life has been full of providential moments, even when it seemed otherwise at the time.
Hamlin is a product of interesting and tumultuous times for the nation and the world, having grown up as a child in the Roaring ’20s and becoming a teenager during the Depression years. Just as he exited his teenage years, he enlisted in the military, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
But before the war, Hamlin’s focus was on two things: girls and baseball. In his Model A, he was busy going to the movies at the Princess Theater and enjoying double-dates with friends, like the eventual longtime host of “The Price Is Right,” Bob Barker. His baseball days had begun when he was very young and continued throughout high school….