Poor Toby's Almanac: Ode to Buddy Bell
Toby descends from a pack of wild dogs that have roamed the mystical lands of the Transvaal since the beginning of time. Each Sunday morning, he helps us look ahead. The Week That is : Pennant races take a holiday, at least in Arlington this week. The Kansas City Royals come into town for a three-game series beginning Monday and then the Oakland Athletics are here for the weekend as the battle for the bronze medal in the American League West heats up.
The Athletics will be without Travis Buck, Eric Chavez and Mark Kotsay. All have been shut down for the rest of the season for one reason or another.
The Oracle of the Elysian Fields: Obviously it’s incredibly important. He’s as important to our team as any player. That’s the kind of thing that should be done as soon as possible." Michael Young on the need to extend hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo’s contract.
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Anybody understand the significance of the Royals three-game series with the Rangers this week?
Buddy Bell is managing the Royals. Bell is also retiring at the end of the season. This will be Bell’s last appearance in Arlington in a Major League uniform.
Bell played for the Rangers from 1979-85 and again for a couple of months in 1989. He was a six-time Gold Glove winner at third base, a four-time All-Star and a three-time Player of the Year. Not surprisingly, he was the Harold McKinney Good Guy winner in 1980.
He’s still hanging in there among the Top Ten in a number of offensive categories including games, at-bats, runs, hits, doubles, triples, RBI and batting average.
He is a member of the Rangers Hall of Fame and one of the most popular players to ever wear the uniform.
He is from another era, one that is all but forgotten, for better or for worse. The Rangers were bad back then and they were a small-market team playing in a bad stadium. But they belonged to Arlington, just like the Packers belonged to Green Bay, and if you’ve never been to Smacko’s then it’s just not worth explaining.
The main performance-influencing drug they knew back then was made by a St. Louis microbrewery. No, that’s not a good thing either, nor is it good when your team crawls back from a watering hole in Chicago known as The Lodge at 4:30 in the morning.
But Buddy Bell is one of the great ones, on and off the field.
Book review: The latest book read by reliever C.J. Wilson?
The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence. It was written by Josh Waitzkin.
Who is that? Ever see the movie In Search of Bobby Fischer? That was inspired by Waitzkin, a former child chess prodigy who is now a top level tai chi martial arts practicioner. Basically he offers mental and physical skills that can be applied to the process of learning.
"The best book I’ve read in two years," Wilson said. "If I could read one book like that every year, it would be awesome."
Anybody old enough to remember Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?
Birthdays: Rangers reliever Wes Littleton turns 25 today and Jeff Russell is 46. Mav Throneberry, one of the original New York Mets, is 74. Former Rangers manager Eddy Stanky, who passed away in 1999, was born on Sept. 3, 1916.
Former Rangers catcher Rod Barajas is 32 on Wednesday and former first baseman Jason Hart is 30.
Yes, Russell was one of two players acquired from the Cincinnati Reds in the summer of 1985. The other? Duane Walker.
Anniversary: On this day in 1880, two teams from the department stores Jordan Marsh and R.H. White played a baseball game. So? They played under the lights, the first night baseball game ever recorded.
Last call: "I hate not playing but I’ve been out so long I’ve kinda gotten used to it." Hank Blalock.
T.R. Sullivan
Toby
It is sad that Bell and Hargrove had to wait until they were in their 50′s to decide that they need to spend more time with their families. Eventhough i have never played MLB, i would liken it to my experience in my job, working long hours, often on evenings or midnight shifts, away from my family. For far less money, i might add. It just goes to show you that money isn’t the answer. For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul? Biblical i do believe. So lets get personal lonestar, i got my first bible when i was five years old from memorizing bible scripture, my favorite movies, Lawrence of Arabia and The Sound of Music, I always cry when Christopher Plummer, a future Herod, walks into the room and begins to sing Edelweis. I am 40 years, old and have seen dead children that were not taken care of by their caretakers, and around 25 dead people from car accidents involving drunk drivers. I was previously assigned to the DWI unit for 2 years, where i arrested over 250 DWIs , this is where my dislike for attorneys comes from. I have been in law enforcement for 14 years and can’t wait to retire from it in 6 years, because the public doesn’t support the police. My call sign, dwidregod, stands for Driving While Intoxicated, Drug Recognition Expert and God stands for the All Mighty, not me. I am also a crash re-constructionist, SFST Instructor, Diversity Instructor and Tops Instructor. So thats it for me.
This blog is a lot more fun when TR speaks Latin and talks about the moon
Fly yourself back to your bubble pantherparent. Forget the moon, haven’t you seen Capricorn 1 with OJ Simpson?