The Jazz Owl
  • Travis Rogers, Jr. -- The Jazz Owl
  • A Love of Music
  • Music Reviews
  • Reviews on Travis Rogers Jr.
  • Meetings with Remarkable People
  • SoulMates by Candlelight
  • Music in Portland
  • Toshi Onizuka
  • The Arts: Film, Literature and More
  • A Love of History
  • Baseball Stories
  • Personal Reflections

When a Bird Was Hit by a Pitch

4/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
A lot of strange things have happened in baseball games over the last 150-plus years of its existence. From Little League to high school to college to the Majors Leagues.

When I was playing as a 12-year-old, I was at shortstop and a runner was on first. The batter hit a ground ball to the first baseman who fielded it cleanly and threw it to me as I went for the put-out at second base. I looked at the runner coming from first every so briefly but just long enough for me to take my eye off the ball. I must have lowered my glove ever so slightly and the ball hit be right in the upper lip, bouncing off my face so that the second baseman was able to catch the ball as he crossed the bag for the out on the runner. I had the impression of baseball seams on my lip for about a week.

One of the weirdest things to happen in Major League Baseball, however, was during a Spring Training game on March 24, 2001. The Arizona Diamondbacks were playing the San Francisco Giants. The game was not televised but everyone heard about it immediately and clips of the event soon made it to the sports channels for all to see.

Randy Johnson was pitching for the Diamondbacks. If you don’t remember, Johnson stood at 6’11” and had long, gangly hair and, when he was in mid-pitch to the plate, must have looked like the Visigoths coming over the seventh hill of Rome.

Johnson stood on the mound facing the Giant’s Calvin Murray. Johnson threw a fastball that never made it to the plate. Instead, the ball came into direct contact with a bird flying across the path of the incoming ball. It all happened so fast that if it weren’t for the announcer saying something into the mic during the broadcast, most people would have missed it.

When asked about it later, Johnson indicated that he saw a blur going across home plate. He then said that he noticed that this fastball hit the blur. At the time, he wasn’t aware that the object in motion was a bird. By the time he saw the movement, the fastball was already out of his and it was too late.

Not Being in the Line-up, Bird Could Not Take 1st Base
Yes, it was an accident. I mean, who could have intentionally aimed at a bird in light and hit it? Still, some members of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) were outraged and the organization considered filing a lawsuit against Johnson for animal cruelty. Randy hired a lawyer and PETA was never able to get their accusation off the ground.

Randy Johnson, also known as “Big Unit,” was born in 1963 and played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball before retiring in 2009. He played mostly for the Seattle Mariners and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Randy Johnson had 29 games (across both leagues) where he struck out at least fifteen batters, a Major League record for Games in a Career with 15+ Strikeouts. He is second on the all-time strikeouts list at 4,875, second behind Nolan Ryan, giving him the Most Strikeouts in Major League history by any left-handed pitcher.

Johnson would be named to All-Star Games 10 times and won one World Series (2001). But ask a baseball fan what they remember about Randy Johnson, chances are it will be when a bird was Hit by Pitch by Randy Johnson.
​
You can find the clip on YouTube. All you are is Johnson delivering the pitch followed by an explosion of white feathers.
‍

0 Comments

The 2016 Orioles' 6-0 Start

4/15/2016

0 Comments

 
PictureOrioles' starter Chris Tillman
Okay, I don’t plan on doing this all season…well, unless I can. But I need to take a moment or two to talk about the Baltimore Orioles. Sure, you gave me grief when we had such an abysmal season last year. Now you get to hear me crow a bit.

I was happy to report last week that the Orioles got their win on Opening Day and Chris Tillman was looking pretty good from the mound. What I could not have expected was the week that was to follow.

Let’s jump to the headline. The Orioles have now won their first six games of the 2016 season. This was the best opening winning streak in the history of the Baltimore Orioles since moving from St. Louis (and changing their name from the St. Louis Browns) in 1954. In 62 years, it is their best start.

Sure, they had some close games to get to this point. I mean, they had to win a 9-7 come-from-behind game—born from Chris Davis’ monster three-run homer—to win game number six. But that’s what I mean, exciting baseball! And they are the only undefeated team left this season.

Today’s game was against the Boston Red Sox and the Bosox had their $200 million-plus ace David Price pitching. The Orioles just pounded the guy all day long, even after Boston had jumped to a 3-0 lead. The Red Sox thought they had it put away and brought in their All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel to finish off the Orioles.

The Orioles reliever Zach Britton had lost his sinker earlier and the Red Sox had fashioned a comeback of their own. Then Crush Davis made that top of the inning, three-run, two-out smash that put the Orioles ahead for good. Britton regained that sinker and shut the Red Sox down. It was his third save of the first six games, having retired 9 of the 11 batters he had faced.

The last time the Orioles had such a start was in 1970. That Orioles team went 5-0. What became of the 1970 Orioles team? They went on to a record of 108-54. They swept the American League Championship Series and won the World Series (4 games to 1) over the first great Cincinnati Reds team, soon to be called The Big Red Machine. Did I mention 4 games to 1 in the Series?

Also in today’s game, centerfielder Joey Rickard batted in the lead-off position for the fourth straight game. His lead-off hit was a double to open the game. He has now hit safely in each of the first six games, the first Orioles player to start his career with a six-game hitting streak since Howie Clark did it in 2002.

It is far-cry better than that 0-21 start way back when. And even a better start that the fabled 1970 campaign. The year that left-handed pitcher Mike Cuellar hit a Grand Slam in the ALCS against the Minnesota Twins, the only pitcher to ever do that in a League Championship Series. In that same year, pitcher Dave McNally hit a home run in Game Three of the World Series against the Reds. The only pitcher to do that in a World Series game. While I’m talking about Orioles’ pitchers, did you know that Jim Palmer never gave up a Grand Slam even though he pitched in 558 career games? Not one.

I’m not saying that the 2016 Orioles are going to surpass the 1970 Orioles team. But…
 
 


 
 


0 Comments

The Home Run Derby, Cal Ripken, Jr. and other things I love about baseball...

7/13/2015

0 Comments

 
Tonight is the prequel to the Midsummer Classic, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. What is the prequel? The Home Run Derby, of course.

The fun thing about baseball is the history of it all. The statistics are a big part of that and allows a fan like me to compare today’s players to the greats of yesterday like Henry Aaron, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson and that big fat guy. What’s his name? Oh, yeah. Babe Ruth.

The one thing we cannot do with any conviction is compare players of different eras who played in different leagues. Everyone calls Babe Ruth, for example, the “Home Run King.” Not even close. Even within the Major Leagues Ruth is far-outpaced by Henry “The Hammer” Aaron. Yes, I am leaving out Barry Bonds. If you follow baseball (or the news), you know why. Cheater.

But even the Hammer doesn’t have the absolute best number in home runs with a huge 755 HRs in 21 seasons played. Ahead of him is Sadaharu Oh of the Japanese Leagues with an incredible 868 homers in 22 seasons. Unofficially, however, because of the lack of records and only anecdotal evidence for estimates, Josh Gibson is the unofficial record holder with perhaps near 1000 homers.

But, detractors say, Gibson never played against the great pitchers of the Major Leagues. How can he compare? He may not have played against Dizzy Dean but he did play against Satchel Paige…and Ray Brown…and Bullet Rogan.

What would a Home Run Derby have been like with Aaron, Mays, Oh, Gibson and Ruth have been like?

They were such different hitters. Aaron believed in hitting a pitcher’s best pitch. He didn’t wait for a bad pitch, he punished a pitcher’s best pitch. He had the eyesight to see that pitches movement as it came toward him.

Tony Gwynn, the great Padres hitter, talked about seeing the seams of the baseball and “picking up the rotation.” Reggie Jackson (Oakland A’s and NY Yankees) said, “I just wait until something white gets close to me and I swing.”

Sadaharu Oh was all about consistency. He had a phenomenal swing in his days with the Yomiuri (Tokyo) Giants. It wasn’t the bone-crushing power of a Gibson or Aaron, it was dead-on contact with the exact spot on the bat.

The great Ted Williams (Boston Red Sox) said, “The hardest thing in all of sports is hitting a round ball with a round bat, squarely.” Sadaharu Oh did that time after time after time.

But then there was Josh Gibson. Raw, unmitigated power combined with an incredible technique. If the technique failed, the power made up for it. In one game, he was fooled by an outside change-up. Gibson finished the swing with a one-handed backhand swing and drove the ball out of the park. He was also the only player to hit a fair ball out of the “House that Ruth Built.”

Now Cal Ripken, Jr. is one of my favorite ballplayers of all time. He never had the power of a Gibson or the technique of Oh but, in the 1991 All-Star Home Run Derby, he could have stood proudly beside them all.

The 1991 season was probably Ripken’s best individual season ever. By the All-Star break, he was hitting .348 with 21 doubles, two triples, 18 homers and a .405 on-base percentage. That night in Toronto, 24 years ago, Ripken won the Derby in pulse-pounding fashion. He crushed 12 homers on 22 swings.

The player in 2nd place was the New York Yankee’s Paul O’Neill with only…five. Take that, Yankees.

"I just remembered telling myself to slow everything down, to take a nice easy swing," Ripken told a reporter. "And the first one went out of the park."

As the contest got started, it was clear that Cal was “in the zone” and he brought all of us along with him. With each swing and the sound of the crack of the bat, everyone was on their feet. I was sitting in my living room, watching Cal drive out seven in a row. Toronto Blue Jay Joe Carter was waving a white towel at him, as if to cool Cal down.

"I didn't want to take time out to analyze anything,” Ripken said. “You just want to go with the flow. I hit a couple of balls off the upper deck, and I'd never been up there before. It was very cool seeing the reaction of my teammates. There was genuine excitement."

The next night, in the ninth of Ripken’s 19 All-Star Games, Ripken stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the third inning after Rickey Henderson and Wade Boggs, both future Hall-of-Famers, had singled.

The guy that Ripken faced was his old friend and former Oriole teammate, Dennis Martinez. Ripken was expecting Martinez’ fastball. Martinez knew that Ripken knew that a fastball was in order with a 2-1 count.

Instead, Martinez let fly with a breaking ball. Ripken was fooled but adjusted and—maybe not one-handed—drove the ball to centerfield over Tony Gwynn’s head for a 3-run homer.

He had won the Home Run Derby on Monday night and, on Tuesday night, was named Most Valuable Player of the All-Star Game. Only one other guy did that. That year, Ripken won his second American League MVP.

I love this game.

0 Comments

My Favorite Baseball Game Ever.

2/1/2012

2 Comments

 
Picture
Orioles Manager Joe Altobelli
August 24, 1983: The Orioles were hosting the Toronto Blue Jays at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. It remains my favorite single baseball game of all time. Even now, the box scores look like something in need of decryption by the NSA. The 1983 Orioles team was not comprised of the stellar that made up the 1969-71 Orioles' teams. Brooks Robinson had been gone for five  years by 1983. Frank Robinson was managing the San Francisco Giants. Boog Powell was off fishing somewhere before establishing "Boog's Barbeque" when the Orioles would move from Memorial  Stadium to Oriole Park at Camden Yards. But Jim Palmer was still in an Orioles uniform and would get a win in relief during the 1983 World Series--the only pitcher to get World Series wins in three separate decades (1960's, 70's, 80's).

What this team had was workhorses, maybe even warhorses. There were some greats to be sure: Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken, Jr., to name two. I would probably include Ken Singleton but that's because I love the guy.

I have to give you the dramatis personnae just so you know why this game was so wild and so very much fun.

The great manager Earl Weaver was gone and Joe Altobelli had taken his place. Joe was kind of a run-the-numbers kind of guy. Weaver flew by the seat of his pants.

Picture
The catcher was Rick Dempsey--talk about a workhorse. He would actually win the MVP for the 1983 World Series. Left-field duties were shared by John Lowenstein and Gary Roenicke. It was called the platoon system. One would play against right-handed pitchers, the other against lefties. Jim Clancy was the starting pitcher this day for the Blue Jays, so Lowenstein started in Left. Dan Ford was in Rightfield. Ripken was the Gold Glove-winning shortstop and Eddie Murray was a great firstbaseman. Lenn Sakata was a utility infielder who would usually  replace Rich Dauer at Second or Todd Cruz at Third. Scott MacGregor was the Orioles starting  pitcher, another favorite of mine. Tippy Martinez was the closer for Baltimore. His go-to pitch  was a great curveball. He didn't have much of a pick-off move to first but, with Dempsey at  catcher,he didn't need much of one. Like I said, the roster had some truly great players but mostly they were really solid players.

On August 24th, everybody would play a wild and important part.  Tippy Martinez called it  "the oddest game I ever played in." At that date, the Orioles were in second place in their division and the Blues Jays were just getting their feet under them.

By the bottom of the ninth inning, everything had been pretty much ordinary. The game was  tied after three innings and Toronto scored a go-ahead run in the fifth then added one in the eighth to lead 3-1 after eight innings. The Orioles were down by two runs in the bottom of the ninth.

By this point, Orioles manager Joe  Altobelli had already used John Shelby, Jim  Dwyer and Joe Nolan in pinch situations (Shelby had pinch-run for Kenny Singleton who was a great  hitter but a bit slow on the basepaths. Dwyer had pinch-hit for Todd Cruz and Nolan had pinch-hit for the catcher Rick Dempsey), and Lenn Sakata had been inserted as a defensive  replacement. Shelby was still in the game, however, since he had pinch-hit for the Designated Hitter.

Joe Altobelli took some pages from Earl Weaver's playbook apparently because he substituted like a madman. Shelby bunted for a single and Lenn Sakata got a base on balls. Altobelli pinch hit Benny Ayala for Joe Nolan because Benny was great against lefties. But Nolan was the second and only remaining catcher! It was the bottom of the ninth , however. The move paid off as Ayala smacked a single, scoring Shelby and slicing the deficit to one run. Al Bumbry followed with another single to tie the score.
 
There it was, the score was tied with runners at second and third and two outs. Dan Ford  struck out to end the ninth inning and take the game into extra innings. 

This is when it got wild...

Everyone and I mean everyone was stunned when the Orioles took the field in the top of the  tenth. It wasn't really who took the field as much as who took the field where.

Pinch-hitter Benny Ayala trotted out to left. So where was Lowenstein? He was at second base  for Rich Dauer who had been pulled for pinch-hitter Gary Roenicke. Lowenstein had not played secondbase in eight years! Roenicke, who had pinch  hit for Rich Dauer, stood at third, where he had never, ever played.

Picture
Now the most dire of situations was that  Altobelli had pinch-hit for both of his catcherss, violating one of baseball's cardinal rules; Don't run out of catchers.

So imagine seeing poor Lenn Sakata behind the plate.  Sakata had not played at that position  since he was in Little League! Still, he kept his  mouth shut and put on the catcher's gear.

Tim Stoddard came in to relieve Scotty McGregor. Stoddard was pretty solid and he just had this huge, menacing presence on the  mound. But almost immediately, he gave up a monster home-run to Cliff Johnson. The  Orioles were down by one run again.

After  allowing another hit, Stoddard was gone and in came my favorite closer Tippy Martinez.

What a surreal situation! Martinez didn't want to put the ball in play because he was afraid of the lack of infielding ability of Lowenstein and Roenicke. "They both had the range of a dime, so not much coverage there," Martinez had said.  Roenicke and Lowenstein didn't want the  ball hit to them, either. In fact, Gary Roenicke later said that he was just praying that the ball  would be hit to Cal Ripken or Eddie Murray who were the only infielders left in their own  positions!

Sakata and Martinez held a conference on the mound. It was just unreal to look across from  one to another. Lenn told Tippy,"I don't know what I'm doing." 
 
Martinez was hoping to at least be able to use his best pitch. "Well, can you catch a curveball?" he asked his "catcher."

"No," Sakata confessed.

So, not only can Sakata not catch Martinez' best pitch, there is no way that Lenn will be able to throw out any runner attempting to steal a base.  "I think Lenn was probably the strongest  guy on the team, but I'm not sure he could have even thrown the ball to second  without bouncing it," Oriole broadcaster Tom Marr later said.

Those Toronto base runners were going to steal on every opportunity.  "Their eyes got as big as  silver dollars," Marr said of the Blue Jays' runners. "It was like they were going to commit a bank robbery with no one  in town and the vault already open." 

Like I said above, Tippy was not known for a great pick-off move. But maybe... just maybe... the Blue Jays' eagerness to steal on the unfortunate Sakata could be made to work against  those Toronto baserunners.

Sure enough, Barry Bonnell was on first (having been allowed on by Stoddard) and he took a  big lead off the bag, ready to challenge Lenn's untested arm behind the plate. Tippy Martinez quickly threw the ball to Murray to catch Bonnell in a rundown. Bonnell was tagged out. One out in the top of the 10th inning.

Tippy then walked Dave Collins. Collins was fleet-footed and was ready to steal second at his first opportunity. He took a big lead off the bag and... Martinez threw to Murray to pick him off. Two outs!

Due up: Willie Upshaw. He smacked a grounder that slipped past Lowenstein for a single. Upshaw took a big lead off first. No way he will be picked off, right? 

Wrong.

Oh, my God...Martinez made a quick throw to Murray, who  tagged out Upshaw to end the  inning for the Blue Jays. Announcer Tom Marr shouted, "Martinez to Murray once,  Martinez to Murray twice, Martinez to Murray three times!" All three outs made off of three pick-offs.

There it is in the box scores; Tippy Martinez, 3 Assists.
 
Now all that was wonderful, extraordinary, beautiful... but the Orioles were still behind by a  run going into the bottom of the tenth inning. "I really don't want to go  back out there," Martinez later remembered thinking.

Picture
No worries. Ripken, who would be the  American League MVP that year, hit a solo homer to tie the score at 4-4.  And how great was that? It happened to be Cal's birthday.

Eddie Murray got on base with a walk. Lowenstein grounded out. John Shelby was walked  intentionally. Gary Roenicke struck out. 
 
 It was tied in the bottom of the 10th inning. Oriole runners on first and second. Two outs.

Toronto  pitcher Randly Moffit started his delivery, Murray and Shelby took off  from second and  first. The batter was...Lenn Sakata.

Yes,  that  Lenn Sakata. The nice young Japanese-American boy from Hawaii who was made to play a position he was woefully unprepared to play. The guy who was rescued from humiliation by a teammate making moves he normally did not make. The guy who did not want to put on that mask, that vest and those shin-guards ever again. 
 
And he didn't have to. Sakata drove that ball screaming over the outfield wall for a three-run homer. The game was exactly what Earl Weaver described as the Orioles' formula for winning which was "Good pitching. Good Defense. And Three-run Homers." It was one of only three homers that Sakata would hit in the 1983 season. The Orioles won 7-4.

After the game, Tippy Martinez said, "You couldn't have written  a story any better."

I love baseball.

2 Comments

Mr. Oriole! Brooks Robinson.

1/26/2012

4 Comments

 
Picture
Brooks Robinson. What a catch!
When I was a boy I discovered baseball. I was almost five years old when I watched the 1963 World Series and saw the Yankees play the Dodgers for the title. Sandy Koufax, the legendary pitcher for the Dodgers won the Most Valuable Player award after shutting down the Yankees  and defeating Yankee great Whitey Ford in Games One and Four. But like every other American boy, I was a fan of Mickey Mantle. The Mick’s stellar career was winding down but, at age five, I had no idea what that meant. I eventually learned that things change, that is a constant.

In 1965, my grandmother was living in Baltimore, MD. One day, a package arrived for me and it was from my grandmother. The parcel contained a baseball sweatshirt and an autographed 8x10 photo. However, the sweatshirt was not of the Yankees and the photo was not Mickey Mantle. Instead, it was a Baltimore Orioles sweatshirt and the photo was signed to me from Orioles’ third baseman Brooks Robinson. 

As it happened, the Orioles were playing the Yankees the very next Saturday on ABC’s Game of the Week. Watching that game, I became-then and forever-an Orioles fan and a Brooks Robinson fan. Now, I was only six years old but I had never seen or imagined a player like Brooksie. His fielding was incredible! Sure, he was great with the bat but that glove! I was
hooked.

The very next season, 1966, the Orioles went to the World Series against…who? The same Los Angeles Dodgers who had defeated Mick and the Yankees in 1963. The Dodgers had won the 1965 Series, as well, by finishing the Minnesota Twins 4-3. The deadly Sandy Koufax was once again the MVP. But ’66 was going to be different…

I can remember rushing home from school to watch the day games. My mother would have the television set turned on, tuned to the station broadcasting the games, and waiting for me. 

It was an unbelievable Series. The Orioles crushed the powerful Dodgers 4-0; a sweep! It was the Orioles’ first World Series victory in franchise history. In Game One, Brooks and Frank Robinson hit back to back home runs.  A remarkable young rookie and future Hall of Fame pitcher named Jim Palmer closed out Koufax’s career by handing him a 6-0 shutout loss in Game Two and Dave McNally defeated Don Drysdale 1-0 in the fourth and final game. Exciting stuff!

I continued watching Brooks Robinson every season until his retirement in 1977 and Brooks had played every game of his career in an Orioles uniform. Let me just brag on him a bit. He had won 16 consecutive Gold Glove Awards, , had played in 18 All-Star games, and he had been in the World Series in 1966, 1969, 1970 and 1971. The Orioles had won the Series in ’66 and ’70. He had won the American League MVP in 1964 and was World Series MVP in 1970. He was chosen to the Major League All-Century Team and his number (#5) was retired by the Orioles, never again to be worn by any other Oriole player. 

This was and is my favorite athlete of all time in any sport. More than Magic Johnson, more than Merlin Olsen… Brooks stands alone.

Picture
In 1987, I got to meet him…

I had been collecting baseball cards for years. In 1985-86, my pal David and I had taken it to a new level. We both had decent paying jobs and we could really get into some serious card buying. He was a Carl Yastrzemski fan which meant that he and I never competed for the same cards. He could have all the Red Sox cards he desired and I would never fight him for them. Ever. He felt the same way about my Orioles.

 As I said, in 1987 we got the opportunity to go to a baseball card exhibition in Tampa.  And…Brooks…Robinson…was…there…

Even David wanted Brooksie’s autograph. I got Brooks to sign an 8x10 photo for me, autographed the very same way he had done back in ’65 for me through my grandmother. As an aside, when I told my grandmother that I had gotten Brooks to sign a photo for me, her response was: “Why? Didn’t I give you one in 1965?” She didn’t see the need for a second one.

He was everything you could have hoped he would be: gracious, engaging, a true gentlemen. When the crowds died away, I got to speak with Brooks semi-privately. We both bemoaned the Orioles’ woes at third base at that time. They had had almost 100 errors at third base over the last two seasons. We got to discuss players and managers, past and present. 

He had enjoyed making the 1966 Sports Illustrated cover with Frank Robinson and the caption reading “The Robinsons of Baltimore.” He said that in the 1970 Series (after he had made that amazing grab which carried him way over the third base foul line to throw out Cincinnati’s Lee May at fist) that as May was heading back to the Reds’ dugout, he shouted at Brooks, “I just put you on the permanent highlight reel!” Which was true. Ironically, Lee May would join Brooks on the Orioles’ roster in 1975.

Picture
Brooks and Frank Robinson. 10 October 1966
Brooks still seemed shocked at the results of the 1969 World Series loss to the New York Mets. I still have newspaper  clippings of that Series. I told him the story of my grandmother getting his autograph and he laughed, saying “Yeah, all the grandmothers liked me. The younger ones all went for Jim Palmer, especially after his underwear ad.”

He was very impressed with a young Orioles shortstop named Cal Ripken, Jr. “He’s actually a third baseman, you know,” he said. “Weaver decided to play him at short. And why not? The kid had come to the ballpark with his dad (Orioles’ Third Base Coach, Cal Ripken, Sr.) and was always learning from (shortstop) Mark Belanger. It was a great move.”

Regarding the great Orioles manager Earl Weaver, Brooks said that he never had any problems with Weaver. “I never gave him a reason to be angry! I batted in the lineup  wherever he told me. I positioned myself where he told me.”

He told me stories of Boog Powell and Davey Johnson, Paul Blair and Andy Etchebarren—all Oriole greats. It only occurred to me later that he was more comfortable speaking of others than of himself. In doing so, however, he told me so much about himself. 
 
He was sincerely interested in other people. He had asked me questions about myself and he was interested. He enjoyed people. He had spoken of players, managers, owners, and umpires. In 1976, Umpire Ron Luciano had said, “I don’t care who wins, as long as it’s not Earl  Weaver.” Brooks still laughed about that.

He loved baseball. He quoted Ted Williams who, after his retirement, had said that he didn’t miss the travel or the practices but he missed baseball. And baseball misses Brooks Robinson. At least, I do. He was called “Mr. Oriole,” a title which he bequeathed to Cal Ripken, Jr. upon Cal’s retirement.

Picture
Brooks Robinson. Still looking good as an Oriole.
That was Brooks Robinson, exactly as I had hoped.

He was a gentleman eager to speak well of others while never uttering a negative word about anyone, not even Pete Rose who was standing in the hallway outside.

More interested in others than in himself. Now that’s a hero.






© copyright 2011. Travis Rogers Jr. All rights reserved.

4 Comments

    Baseball Stories

    Travis

    Baseball is my other great love. I was never a great (or even good) ball player but I have loved the game all my life. My wife has convinced me to tell you the stories that I have told her. I hope you enjoy them, too.

    Archives

    April 2020
    April 2016
    July 2015
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Categories

    All
    Brooks Robinson
    Lenn Sakata
    Tippy Martinez

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.