Posted on 07/24/2005 4:54:14 PM PDT by ken5050
OK, all you Freeper baseball afficionados. It's early Sunday evening..it was a hell of a week for the national pastime, and I wanted to get our weekly thread up and running...I won't have a chance late tonight, early tomorrow, and there is much to talk about..
Stan "The Man" Musial...but I did read The Boys Of Summer by Roger Kahn.
Carl Erskine was said to be so mean on the mound that he would throw at his grandmother if she was crowding the plate.
Yes, Stan Musial was a great guy. A great hero.
He's from Donora, PA, just a little distance from here in Pittsburgh.
I was able to meet him a couple of times back in the late 50's at Pirate games. He was a very nice man, and a great hitter.
He used to look like he was peeking around a corner when he was hitting. He was one of the best.
Yes, Stan's peek-a-boo stance...have Erskine's autograph as well.
I had heard stories about Clete hitting the bottle, although he was an outstanding defensive third baseman, really just a shade below Brooks Robinson level. I knew about Cloyd but never heard of Ronnie and Lenny. Glad to know that Ken was a good guy. He was an awfully steady player.
Gibson had the same rep. Bob Uker tells a story about catching Gibby. He's going out to the mound and as he's about half way, Gibby yells, what the hell you doing out here. You don't know **** about baseball. Don't ever come to my ****** mound. Uker just kept on walking and had a conversation with the second baseman.
Yeh, I heard that story!!! LOL!
God, Gibson was great and nasty....... a very great athlete too!
And Ueker is one of the funniest people in the world!
**** For instance:
"I have found that the best way too catch a knuckleballer is too wait for it to stop rolling and pick it up."~ Bob Ueker
p.s. I was a senior in college playing in a high level baseball program in 1968 when Gibson had an ERA of 1.18........ for the year! The dead ball era! YOI!
;-)
"Anybody with ability can play in the big leagues. But to be able to trick people year in and year out the way I did, I think that was a much greater feat."
"If a guy hits .300 every year, what does he have to look forward to? I always tried to stay around .190, with three or four RBI. And I tried to get them all in September. That way I always had something to talk about during the winter."
"In 1962 I was named Minor League Player of the Year. It was my second season in the Bigs."
"I signed with the Milwaukee Braves for $3,000. That bothered my dad at the time because he didn't have that kind of dough. But he eventually scraped it up."
"People don't know this but I helped the Cardinals win the pennant. I came down with hepatitis. The trainer injected me with it."
"The biggest thrill a ballplayer can have is when your son takes after you. That happened when my Bobby was in his championship Little League game. He really showed me something. Struck out three times. Made an error that lost the game. Parents were throwing things at our car and swearing at us as we drove off. Gosh, I was proud."
"I had slumps that lasted into the winter."
*****
LOL!
Thanks. I'm a lifelong Cards fan, and am blessed with a lady friend who is just a passionate about them as I am.
I tend to agree with you this moment on all counts...
But there is something about "Mystique and Aura" that can't be discounted.
Heck, as bad as they've been playing, for one day they were actually ahead of the Bosox -- AND still they're only 1 1/2 behind that powerhouse Beantown team (Guess who else has no pitching?)
Kenny Boyer, Red Schoendienst, Stan Musial, 'Vinegar Bend' Mizell, Jim Brosnan, etc........ you had a lot of real good guys back in those days............. and, I love your logo with the Cardinal on the baseball bat. You have cool uniforms and GREAT fans!
Please be well...............
Well I'm 58 also, so welcome to the club.
I have no teams that I really dislike, but the lifelong Cubs rivalry is fun. It also was fun to dislike the pondscum Mets when we were in the same division, but that's gone now.
I guess I sorta 'dislike' the Yankee's because of what I call 'bandwagon' fans, and the 'big bucks' attempt to purchase the prize. It's this kinda thing that really has hurt baseball IMO.
The Yankees will never deal Rivera. He will finish his career in New York.
Oh blah, blah, blah. A team with solid pitching and defense that aloso has multiple ways to score runs is always for real. And their record speaks for itself. I'm sure people said the same thing about the Steelers last season, and look what.....oh, wait - never mind....
"The Yankees will never deal Rivera. He will finish his career in New York."
You're right, especially after this year's performance. My concern was that ever since he blew the save/game/series against Arizona in '01, he didn't seem to have the same level of performance under pressure.
I hear you! But I laugh about the Yankees...... because as a 13 year old Pirate fan, after decades of futility........... we won the 1960 World Series over that excellent and greatly favored Yankee team ............ we the Pirates being beaten 16 to 3, 10 to 0, and 12 to 0 in three games..............and the Yankees with a team batting average of .338, outscoring the Pirates 55 to 27 still managed to lose the Series.
Put some ice on it.
;-)
My concern was that ever since he blew the save/game/series against Arizona in '01, he didn't seem to have the same level of performance under pressure.
He got over that the next spring. Take a look at his stats, he has been pretty consistant since 2001.
What about the lastest couple of decades of futility by the Pirates? Do you laugh about them as well?
Those are great stats, but I'd be curious to see his "blown saves" count. My gut tells me that it's higher since the '01 series.
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