CLEVELAND, Ohio -- John Krepop can still rattle off the name of nearly every player listed on the 1973 Cleveland Indians roster.
He remembers Charlie Spikes, George Hendrick, Frank Duffy and Gaylord Perry, and even Jack Brohamer and Walt Williams. Mike Kekich and John Lowenstein can't trip him up, either. Those were the guys he watched when he first occupied his press box perch at Cleveland Stadium.
At the time, Krepop was a few years removed from John Marshall High School, a baseball addict working as a laborer at a wastewater treatment plant. Now, the kind-hearted man known to many as "Popper," is retired and has relocated to Florida, with 44 seasons of assistance to Indians broadcasters, public relations staffers and reporters to his credit.