Man, 70, With Alzheimer’s Is Feared Lost

A man with Alzheimer’s disease, who onced played with the Boston Red Sox in the 1946 World Series, was reported missing after he drove away from his Fountain Valley home and did not return Sunday.

George (Catfish) Metkovich, 70, told his wife that he “wanted to go home,” when he left his house, at 18191 Devonwood Circle, at 1:30 p.m., his wife, Peggy, said.

“He was very irritated, and he said, ‘I have to go home,’ ” Peggy Metkovich, 70, said Tuesday. “I said, ‘You are home,’ but he said, ‘No, I’m not.’ ”

In the past several months, Metkovich, whose condition was diagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease--a memory loss disorder--had periodically insisted that “he has to go home,” his family said. However, before Sunday, he could always be calmed down by his son, David, after such outbursts, the family said.

“He’s had (similar) episodes in the past,” said the son, David Metkovich, 38, of Costa Mesa.

David Metkovich, who spent three hours with his father Sunday, thought he had succeeded in calming him down. But, 10 minutes after he left, George Metkovich got into his car and drove away, the son said.

“I feel that he’s out there . . . but how far can $60 and two gas cards get you?” David Metkovich said.

George Metkovich didn’t drive often, his family said, and when he did, it was to the Meadowlark Golf Club in Huntington Beach.

“He used to come up to the golf club almost every day,” said Chis Carbone, who met Metkovich four years ago at the course.

“There were so many people who would come up and talk baseball with him, and I would just sit and listen to him talk,” said Carbone, 69, of Huntington Beach.

Metkovich played in the major leagues between 1943 and 1954, seeing duty both in the outfield and at first base for the Boston Red Sox, the Cleveland Indians, the Chicago White Sox, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Milwaukee Braves.

Metkovich made it into one World Series, in 1946, getting one hit in two at-bats and scoring a run for the Red Sox against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Metkovich is 6-foot-2 and 170 pounds. He was last seen in a beige and white stripe golf shirt, brown slacks and brown moccasins. He wore a gold wrist watch and his 1946 World Series ring. He drove away in his 1984 brown and beige Olds Toronado with license plate number AJ22.