Another true baseball great passes away. Love the Big Red Machine.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...morgan-dies-77
Another true baseball great passes away. Love the Big Red Machine.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...morgan-dies-77
“Chicken Wing!!”
I was not a Reds' fan. But, growing up as a huge baseball fan, how could you not admire Joe Morgan and the the Big Red Machine? Hall of Famers throughout their lineup. (and one who should be in the HoF...)
And Sparky Anderson smoking heaters in the dugout during games...
Him and Jim Leyland from the Pirates kept tobacco road in the black
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
The 1975 Great Eight Line-up
C Johnny Bench (Hall of Fame)
1B Tony Perez (Hall of Fame)
2B Joe Morgan (Hall of Fame)
SS Dave Concepcion (9 time All-Star & 5 Gold Gloves)
3B Pete Rose (The Hit King)
LF George Foster (5 time All Star & 1977 ML MVP)
CF Cesar Geronimo (4 Gold Gloves)
RF Ken Griffey Sr. (3 time All-Star)
My favorite team of all-time. 3 in the hall, 4 if Rose wouldn't have screwed up. Concepcion was overshadowed by Ozzie Smith, but was superior at the plate. Both were excellent in the field while Smith was better. Concepcion never really sniffed the hall but played at a hall of fame level. That's a great infield.
Also Don Gullett was the ace of this team. Gullett won almost 70% of his decisions, but his career was cut short due to injuries. Great team and lots of great boyhood memories.
I was a HUGE Orioles fan as a kid. Loved the O's. My uncle lived in Maryland and we'd go for a visit, he'd have tix for us to go see the O's play. Got an autograph from Brooks Robinson and Boog Powell...on a greasy popcorn carton! Kept it for years (no, decades) in a shoe box...until my Mom threw it out thinking it was trash...ugh!
The O's played the Braves at Kirsh-Rooney Park in New Orleans as a preseason exhibition game...1972, I think it was. Might have the year wrong. Anyway, my Dad pops me on the arm and says "you better take this all in..." at that moment Hank Aaron was stepping to the plate and Jim Palmer was on the mound....two Hall of Famers of the highest degree!!!
My uncle built Boog Powell a home on a second home on a lake in the Smoky Mountains decades ago. My uncle found out one of the reasons Boog wanted a home on this lake was to fish, so as the house is being built my uncle offers to take him out on his boat. My uncle who is Southern Baptist has never tasted alcohol, but he said Boog would drink between a 12-pack and case each time they went fishing, never becoming totally drunk and always catching fish! He said Miller could not have hired a better spokesman. Truth in advertising.
Don't feel bad about the autograph, my mother gave away my entire baseball card collection when I was in college.
I also grew up as an O's fan. Brooks is pretty much my all time hero. Never did get around to making a card show or something where he was. Would have liked to have met him. (I know he's still alive, but I don't get the impression he gets out as much now). A few years ago I finished the collection of all three of the World Series teams' baseball cards. The '66 team was a tad expensive since some of those were pretty early cards of some stars--and since I didn't really have any of them from growing up.
Hah! my favorite player. As a kid playing Little League I requested #5 and wanted to play 3rd base. I got both of those wishes a couple of times. Mark Belanger was a dynamite SS. Another of my favorite players.
I still have my "bubble gum" cards, both baseball and football. I never tried to collect, instead mine is just a random, by luck, collection. I do have a few rookie cards of value...Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver...Roberto Clemente. I hated the Pirates, and in 1979 they gave me every reason to, but Roberto Clemente was special. One of the absolute best to ever play the game.
When I think back on it, as a kid, wow! I was so engrossed in pro sports. Heck, I even had a collectable, a ceramic glove with the Montreal Expos logo on it. Kept it on the shelf with my other stuff. Used to listen to Astros' broadcasts with Gene Elston and Lowell Passe (I think that's their names) on my transistor radio, and I wasn't an Astros' fan, but it was all I could get. Being a kid is great!