Baseball goes back a long time in my family. My mother and father honeymooned at Sportsmen's Park in the forties. Cardinal fans, all of them. I remember days and nights pent on the farm, holding on to the AM radio, providing an antenna to pick up KMOX. One of my favorite memories is taking a road trip with my uncle Dick and discussing the finer points of baseball while looking at my 1967 Cardinal yearbook when I was about 13. Since the entries of this blog have been a bit maudlin lately, I thought I would put together my top five baseball guys.
Number one Bob Gibson
The baddest mofo to take the pitcher's mound. I always wanted to do radio like he pitched. No prisoners and if you diss me, I will knock you down. I wonder how many times he would have plunked guys like Barry Bonds. No question that this guy is my all time favorite and I don't imagine a scenario where he wouldn't be. I drove from the Quad Cities to Busch Stadium in 1975 because it was "Bob Gibson" day. They gave him an RV. I couldn't belive there were seats left.
Number twoRoberto Clemente
To me, Roberto Clemente was a man's man. He was tough as nails on the diamond and no one ran faster than he did going from first to third. Charlie Hustle before Pete Rose copped the nick name. He died in a plane crash delivering medical supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua on New Years eve. He had just gotten his 3,000th hit. If I go to heaven, he's the first guy I want to meet (after Jesus, of course).
Number threeGeorge Brett
The greatest hitter I have ever seen. I remember in 1984 when my sister and her family came to KC, we were all at the game and I said to her "wouldn't it be great if he hit one out?" 20 seconds later he did just that. I remember being at the game in 1980 where he stood on second base arms pumped becasue he had just sent his average over the .400 mark in September. I drove to Cooperstown in New York to see George Brett inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame. He is Royals baseball.
Number FourNolan Ryan
Robert DeNiro, and Al Pacino all rolled into one baseball player. This is my favorite picture of him. He hit Robin Ventura with a pitch and Robin charged the mound. Oops. Big mistake. Nolan grabbed him in a headlock and procede to punch the hell out of him. 7 no hitters. All time strikeout leader. First player to make a million bucks in a year. Bad ass dude. He was inducted in the HOF the same year as George Brett. Excellent speech.
Number fiveOrlando Cepeda
"Cha-Cha". The 1967 Cardinals are still my favorite team. I still can recite the starting lineup by position and wnere they batted. This guy was the catalyst and the man. He arrived that year from the Giants and he just made baseball sound and look (the once a month the games were televised)fun. He called them "El Birdos" and this young punk kid was such a fan. He was inducted the year I went to Cooperstown also, so you can see why I drove from here to Cooperstwon and back for 6 hours of intense heat.
Honorable mention Willie McGee, Ozzie Smith, Bud Black, Robin Yount, Willie McCovey, Frank White and Albert Pujols.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
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