Jack Crist called the other day and asked me why everyone in recent stories was referring to the building on the corner of Winchester Avenue and 17th Street as the Sears Building.

I told him the obvious answer: Because it used to be where Sears did business.

But Mr. Crist, and I’m sure many others in the area, remember it before it was the Sears Building. Way back when, it was the Field Furniture Co., one of Kentucky’s leading furniture stores. Jack Crist lived across the street from the building when he was growing up.

You learn something new every day.

Upon further investigation, as is often the case, I found that Jack Crist was a great story himself. And like many others, he had a story about the old Armco baseball field, where he saw his share of baseball games.

Crist, who is 85, never paid to get in to watch games either.

His father, Jim, was the radio announcer for the home games on WCMI and his brother, Bob, played shortstop for the Ashland Colonels.

So Jack got a free pass.

“I went down there regularly,” he said. “I remember watching when Stan Musial and Del Crandall played for the Williamson Redbirds.”

Crist also recalled the Bluefield Bluejays, the Logan Giants and the Welch Minors as teams in the Mountain State Class D semi-pro league with Williamson and the Ashland Colonels.

He was another one who watched the Yankee-Dodger exhibition game in 1940.

“I went to the Yankees game when that poor old right fielder hit the wall so hard they had to take him the hospital,” Crist said.

Crist is also friends with Bun Wilson, who played football at the old Armco Field before the Tomcats moved into Putnam Stadium in 1937. Wilson, who is still a practicing attorney in Ashland, is one of three surviving members of that first Tomcat team to play in Putnam, the others being Ralph Felty and Glenn Stanley.

“Bun always said ‘That was the best grass I ever put a cleat in,’’’ Crist said of his lifelong friend. “Bun said he raised me and my wife, Anne. She said he didn’t do a very good job with me. We’ve been married 63 years; I don’t think it’s going to last,” he deadpanned.

Crist played football for the Tomcats, too. He graduated in 1942 and played in 1940 and 1941. He also played basketball and baseball. His first baseball game came in Central Park when he happened down to watch a game and was drafted into playing because nobody else wanted to catch pitcher Buck Rogers.

Crist’s brother, Bill, was drafted by the Red Sox, went to Paducah and played and then came back to Ashland before entering the Navy.

Jack Crist was in the Marines from 1942-46. He took advantage of the GI Bill upon returning home, went to Ashland Junior College for two years and then finished his degree at UCLA.

He worked for several construction companies in Richland, Wash., before returning to Ashland in 1964. He left again to work for a company that built both units at Three Mile Island. “We had to give somebody something to talk about,” he said.

Jack Crist is a terrific guy. He tells me he used to put his name down on waiting lists at restaurants but they always come back with “Table for Christ!”

“They never could get the name right,” he said. “It was embarrassing.”

So he started giving them his middle name, Carlton, which made things a lot easier.

I’m glad Jack called me the other day. The more I’m talking with these guys, the more I learn about the place I’ve lived for 51 years.

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.