Who in 1973 swapped families - wives and children - with teammate Mike Kekich.
I know it was a different (and hairier) time, but if their wives had killed them it would have been justifiable homicide.
I think the news story said Peterson remained married to the former Mrs Kekich since the trade, but the pairing of Kekich and the former Mrs Peterson did not last.
As a seven-year-old boy living in St Louis, the 1982 season cemented my baseball allegiance forever.
RIP.
speed, defense, and pitching, with the occasional Jack Clark 3 run bomb mixed in. I recall that stadium just being huge, and they certainly took advantage of that turf. Vince Coleman was a real weapon.
Great pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, 97 years old.
The "catching up with" Erskine part of Roger Kahn's classic is touching - Erskine and his wife devoting their lives to their son Jimmy who had Down Syndrome.
Jimmy died last fall. I'm going to guess these last six months were the only days in the last 60 years Carl did not worry how his son would be after he died.
He seemed like one great guy, as you allude.
Now I have to check the book out and yes, the NY Times obit calls him the last of The Boys of Summer.
and keep in mind that I hate the Dodgers with my entire being.
I agree that the Erskine part was compelling. I enjoyed the catching up part of the book more than the playing days part.
It had its moments, and I agree that that was a highlight of the book. But it’s two books melded together. And each was just okay to me. I try to read one baseball book every spring. I had fairly high hopes for this one. But this was down the list for me. I thought Summer of ‘49 to be much better storytelling as a more direct comparison of the first half of Kahn’s book. Otherwise, I’d take collections of Angel, Plimpton, and others as more compelling collections of vignettes. It’s perhaps unfair to compare it to Ball Four, but I would recommend that much before Kahn’s.
Next year I might pick up something by the Spaceman. That should be interesting.
I'd recommend "the Bronx Zoo" by Sparky Lyle about the 1978 Yankees.
I was never enamored of Peter Golenbock's writing. The guy couldn't even spell players' names correctly.
The second funniest baseball book ever written was "I'm Gald You Didn't Take it Personally".
there were just a lot of funny anecdotes in Bronx Zoo, which is made even funnier with some basic understanding of what a strange cat Lyle was in real life (sitting naked on birthday cakes, as an example).
The advice he shares about (and I paraphrase) chasing girls is actually kind of accurate, in a crude sense. "Every time you want to chase girls, jack off and throw a 5 dollar bill in the trunk of your car. At the end of the year, you'll have a lot of money and you'll have had a better year playing ball."
"Ball Four" to this day. I recall Lyle saying that Reggie went "oh for Anaheim," but I don't recall that much from his book. Some of that may be b/c I had a paper copy of "Ball Four" that I wore out, while I borrowed "Bronx Zoo" from a sectionmate who had it.
My favorite line about Lyle was Nettles saying that he went "From Cy Young to Sayonara" after the NYY acquired Gossage.
EDIT: I still recall Talbot reacting to getting roughed up by the '69 O's. He said: "We got no business scheduling these guys. This club sure can fluff up your ERA."
Talbot getting served w/ a (fake) paternity suit was another classic.
My buddy Murph and I often greet each other on the phone with "Hiya, Blondie, how's your old tomato?"
is topped by Doug Rader in "I'm Glad You Didn't Take it Personally".
I do agree, the Bronx Zoo was an entertaining book and it was also interesting to read Lyle's views on pitching.
I wish they made a movie of it, because Sam Elliott would be perfect casting for Lyle. Practically the same mustache, and if you ever heard Sparky talk, paractically the same voice. He used to do commercials for Levi Garrett chewing tobacco, fit perfectly.
got red in the face after reading the Rader birthday cake story. We were in a free reading period at the end of a school day. The teacher took notice and asked the guy to hand him the book and the passage that he found so hysterical.
It wasn't hard reading but as someone in grade school, there were some good adult lessons in the book. I'll never forget the part where, with his signing bonus, he paid off his dad's long-running tab at the general store/bar in rural North Carolina. It brought his dad to tears.
There's also great stories about him loading up.
The Boys of Summer isn’t really a baseball book - it’s a character study masquerading as a sports book.
the seasons better.
Well, that and the parts about young Roger watching the maid take a bath.
I think you have to have left a past of your own behind to appreciate the book's second half looking at their different ways of moving on.
I was 12 when I first read it in 1987. I found the stuff on Joe Black and Carl Furillo particularly interesting.
The “Reading Rifle” was a construction worker at the World Trade Center when Kahn interviewed him, and was kind of bitter, feeling forgotten.
completely bitter.
Sad tale, he brought a lot of it on himself.
Things I didn't know or forgot.
* Winningest Jewish pitcher of all-time.
* Homered in the 1974 World Series (the bat boy at the plate is apparently MC Hammer), picking up three rings with the A's.
The link below has a very good write-up on Holtzman.
The one vs the Braves, where as the article says is that last no-hitter to date with no strikeouts, was ended by a great catch by Billy Williams on a long fly ball by (I think) Hank Aaron, that looked like it was leaving the yard.
Senior Citizen Day.
on every broadcast then.
I bet no one knows who the last member of the '69 Cubs was to wear a MLB uniform was. It was fairly recent.
No, it was not Randy Bobb, it was The Vulture, Phil Regan, who was still coaching on the Mets staff up until a few years ago.
They had fired their pitching coach in about May that year. IIRC, he was 82 yo. I recall seeing him make a few mound visits during a Met game here.
IIRC, I saw the end of the first 1 w/ Cub fan cousins at Grand Beach. One can argue that their epic fold started w/ Jenkins losing to Braves next day. That loss started a 2-7 slide that was briefly righted by a 5 game win streak followed by a 1-11 stretch in which Mets passed them for good.