Rainy Day Thread: Best Baseball Stories

He was the guy on the D-Rays 40-Man roster that they cut to make room for Morris. Donnelly dropped out of baseball, got a job as a bartender, in walks Daryl Strawberry to have a beer, Donnelly and he chat and Strawberry tells him not to give up.

IT is like a BETTER movie than the one made out of Jim Morris. Then he plays a central role in the Angels world series win and is the inning pitcher in the all star game the next season.

And throughout his 11 year minor league career he wore a gold chain that he bought with his signing bonus. Same chain makes it through every cruddy town and bus trip is on the mound in the 2002 series after starting the season at AAA.

Good screenplay in here somewhere, even with the part about being a scab in 1995 and having to fight against even that much more to make it as a player, let alone a teammate, in the bigs.

His dad was a crack cocaine addict. No electricity. No food. Going from crack house to crack house as a toddler trying to find his dad. He still tries to keep his dad off crack to this day, paying for his rehab stints. But his dad keeps falling off the wagon.

I am being overtly blog-brief, and it does not do Torii justice. The whole thing is a pretty amazing story about a pretty amazing guy.

He was also a mean bastard. Im sure most of you have heard this story, but for those who haven’t its decently funny. Props to Bob Costas for this one, who does it far more justice.

Bob Gibson’s last pitch in his major league career was hit for a Grand Slam by Pete LaCock. Bob Gibson was the type of “throw it inside” and “F you im nailing you” pitcher that isnt about to forget about a thing like giving up a grand slam to the likes of Pete LaCock. Later, after being asked about the timing of his retirement he said, "When I gave up a grand slam to Pete LaCock," Bob Gibson said later, "I knew it was time to quit."

Years later there was a old timers charity event that Bob Gibson attended and actually pitched in. Fate would have it that on the opposing team’s roster was Mr. LaCock. When Pete stepped up to bat Bob Gibson drilled him in the back with the first pitch.

Later, when asked why he so obviously hit LaCock on purpose Gibson replied, “No matter how long it takes, the books must be balanced.”

I might have butchered it, but you get the general idea. I love that story.

The book was better. “The Oldest Rookie”.

2 that really stuck with me were;
 - Hack Wilson. Still holds the record for most RBI’s in a season…191 I believe. Was born in a steel mill town, dropped out of school in the 4th grade and went to work. Started looking for a better job and joined a semi-pro baseball team. Discovered he could really hit a baseball. Had some tremendous years with the Cubs, but played for other teams as well. Apparently, he was built like a “brick s***house”, short but powerful with unusually large hands. Died at a relatively young age…45 or so.
 - Hank Greenberg – A great ballplayer…that happened to be Jewish. Most of us today don’t care one way or the other…but it created some tension in his era. There were stories of teammates looking at him like he was from another planet because “…they’d never seen a Jew before”. He also had to to decide whether or not to play on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah (similar to Sean Green a few years ago with the Dodgers). IIRC, he decided to play on one of the days, but not the other (I think he decided not to play on Yom Kippur). Needless to say, some fans were not thrilled with his decision. He retired with the 4th or 5th best slugging percentage in MLB. He was still alive at the time I read the biography…like 25-30 years ago.

I really enjoy the “snapshots” from years ago.

Bill Veeck’s greatest stunt.

Makes me wonder what the Angels might have been like had Veeck won the franchise instead of Autry.

2002 Anaheim Angels.

And Dock Ellis.

I will never forget sitting at the area code games here in Long Beach and having the DRays National Scouting Supervisor Stan Meek tell me the story about Jim Morris in the summer of 99. I swore he was pulling my leg as the scout Doug Gassaway who has been in the game a long time and signed many players was a joker but was known to go out on a limb.

As I was being told the story by Stan he said he hadn’t seen it, but from what he knew the guy threw hard. When I asked how hard he said “Well I don’t know for sure but when I called down to Florida to check on a few players that I had signed and if they had made it there I was told yeah they are here…..when I asked about Gassaway’s guy and if he was there I was told yeah he is here also, and when I asked if he had thrown they told me yeah he threw a pen today. So I asked how hard he threw and was told ummm about a 100” That was how I knew about this guy.

Funny thing is a few months later I was covering the Angels in late September and they were playing the DRays and late into the game out comes Jim Morris. I clocked him at 98-99 that evening for a 1,2,3 inning. Later that October I would see him again in the AZ Fall League throwing 101mph. Unreal story that I got to see a lot and know a lot about.

As for odd stories I would have to say Herb Washington would fit into one of the oddest stories in baseball. Washington played in 105 major league games without batting, pitching, or fielding, playing exclusively as a pinch runner

Curtis Pride

I have not seen it yet but I want to. I heard it was good. Link