Amazing Baseball Story

Last year during a Rangers game, Frank Robinson went up into the booth with announcers Steve Busby & Tom Grieve. The announcers welcomed Frank, and he immediately asked Steve Busby to tell him about his (Busby's) pick-off move back in his playing days.

Steve Busby then told of a game back when Frank was managing the Indians and Busby was pitching for the Royals. It seems Charlie Spikes hit a triple; then Busby promptly picked him off third base.

Later in that same game, Spikes hit a double and was subsequently moved along to third base where, Busby said, he picked Charlie Spikes off again! twice in the same game. Busby related how Charlie Spikes never spoke to him again after that.

Now I've watched baseball since 1969, and I can't recall ever seeing anyone picked off third base, let alone twice in the same game; and for it to happen to the same player twice in one game, well that may never happen again.

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Bunt happy in Cincy

The Cincinnati Reds are said to have gone bunt loco last night. This might lead to speculation about the best bunter of all time. (Hmm ... spell checker assuring me "bunter" is not a word.)

I submit for your approval Hall of Famer Nellie Fox. I make this selection just due to stats, because I never saw the old devil play. I got to see him while he was a coach for the Texas Rangers. He always had a serious chaw of tobacco in his jaw. Dang! he always looked about 106, but he died at the young age of 47. Don't let his deer in the headlights expression in the card above fool you; Nelson Fox could really lay one down on you. And you better stay out of the line of fire of his tobacco juice!

I leave you with one of the greatest lines from literature: "Terwilliger bunts one." (Annie Dillard?)

The card is a 1961 Topps

My luxurious home

Gotta love this guy!

Put me down in the Adam Rosales camp when, hitting next to nothing, he smoked a long homer & then raced around the bases like he was legging out an inside-the-parker, a big smile on his mug all the way. Not one to rest on his laurels, he later added a SAC fly. This guy will be fun to watch.

Contrast the fleet-footed Adam with lumbering, slow-footed Hall of Famer Ernie Lombardi, shown at top. Old Ernie led the league grounding into double plays four times & was right in there pitching for that title in other years. The card depicted is a 1934 Goudey.

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Houston Astros rookie pulls HUGE boner!

Houston Astros rookie Max Stassi fell victim to one of the oldest tricks in the book: the old hidden ball trick, & this was right after collecting his first major league hit. Veteran 2nd-sacker Ian Kinsler orchestrated it all. (View it here.)

I'm just having some fun with the young man. After all, he banged out 2 base hits & could retire today with a .667 batting average. Good job, Stassi!

Pic shows 1972 Topps Texas Rangers team card, & what a sorry lot they were.

Rico Carty - "The Beeg Boy"

Rico Carty was one of the great personalities of the game. He did some time with my Texas Rangers in 1973 when I was eleven. Hopes were high because he had hit an astounding .366 to lead the league with Atlanta just a couple years previous.

I recall an interview of him, either on TV or in print, in which he was asked about his mediocre start that year for Texas. He assured the reporter that there was no need to fear because, "When the weather gets hot, the 'Beeg Boy' will get hot too," he always did . . . Hmm.

Well, the weather got hot--after all, this is Texas, but Rico, the Old Beeg Boy himself, never really did, managing only three home runs & the lowest batting average of his career up to that point, a paltry .232.

Maybe it just hadn't gotten hot enough for Rico, for he was sold to the Cubs by August 13, so there were still a couple good months of Texas heat awaiting him. Oh, well, you never know; you never know what might have been . . .

Funny what an eleven-year-old remembers. And don't get me wrong. Rico Carty is one of my all-time faves. And wouldn't you know it, the old devil went on to have some more great years . . . out of this miserable Texas heat.

Card is a 1973 Topps

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Hey, who was that guy?

My suggestion on how to increase interest during a baseball game is to, between pitches, have the announcers give the old base coaches a big send-up by telling a little about them.

Back when I started watching games, I always enjoyed identifying who the old coaches were, often recalling them from old baseball cards or my Dad's memories of them.

Since I watch the Texas Rangers games, color man Tom Grieve might say, for instance, how former catcher, Jocko Backstop, who is now loitering in the first base box for the opposing team, could really peg them out at second base back in the day. That would be interesting to learn instead of thinking that old guy's just standing around, counting the crowd while wishing he was thirty years younger when he sees a pretty girl in the stands.

So come on, guys, tell us a little something about those old base coaches . . .

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Texas Rangers Easing Nolan Ryan out of the Picture?

Are the Texas Rangers Easing Nolan Ryan out of the Picture? Reporter Gil Lebreton's take on it Now please answer my Nolan question in the right-hand column . . .

Nolan 44 years ago when he was still green as a gourd

Sexy Mara Corday shrine

Old Baseball Card Nightmare #2

It was at an old-timers game in the mid-1970's at Arlington Stadium, then home of the hapless Texas Rangers. The old-timer teams were to be the old St. Louis Cardinals VS. old American League stars.

Before the game, many of the old-timers signed autographs. My family were seated some rows behind the first base dugout, so I had a good chance to get some signatures because guys were signing just below us.

I had seen a roster in the newspaper of the players who would be involved, so I had had the foresight to bring along some of my best cards, and had crammed them in a rigid plastic container.

Oh, there's Stan Musial! I hurried down to where Stan stood signing, lots of kids reaching over the rail to him w/ their programs, etc. I reached into my plastic container & pulled out my boffo 1953 Bowman color card of Stan & eagerly held it out to him.

Reaching past my card to snag some other kid's lousy 3x5 index card to sign, Stan wrecked my card with a clumsy elbow, leaving a permanent wrinkle. "CURSES!," I thought, as I reeled back my arm and examined the card . . . which never got signed; nor was Stan ever aware of what he had so carelessly done.

Well, the evening wasn't a total loss. Though I got none of my cards signed, for I was then shy of exposing any more of them to clumsy baseballers, I got many signatures on my program of old Cardinals & ALers. Also, Billy Martin, who may have been managing the Rangers at the time, took ground balls at second base and would, with tremendous coordination for a man his age, skim his glove up in the air and knock down line drives that were out of his reach, which I thought was quite cool.

Anyhow, I don't hold any real, nagging grudge against Stan the Man; but I will say he sure had a funny way of wagging his rear end when he was at bat . . .

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