Dock Ellis and my 10th Birthday

Former Pirate (among others) pitcher Dock Ellis passed away on Friday of a liver ailment in Los Angeles.
Ellis was noted for many things in the 70's-his wearing hair curlers in pre-game warmups, his claiming to pitch a 1970 no-hitter while on LSD, his long home run that he allowed to Reggie Jackson in the 1971 All-Star game, and his controversial 1976 book-In the country of baseball.
Ellis was 138-119 over his career, mostly spent in Pittsburgh with stops in New York with the 1976 American League Champion Yankees and the Texas Rangers, along with cameo appearances with the Mets and Athletics.
Dock Ellis was 19-9 for the 1971 World Champion Pirates in the best season of his career and compiled six double-digit win seasons in a row in Pittsburgh with the Pirates.
Rest in peace, Dock, and best wishes to his family.

But for all that, Dock Ellis will be remembered by me for one thing first.
He was the first big leaguer to sign an autograph for me at a big league park.
In 1978, I celebrated my 10th birthday in Baltimore with a doubleheader between the Orioles and my favorite team, the Texas Rangers (That would change over the winter, but that is another story for another day).
My dad took me and a friend to the old Memorial Stadium for the two-game set. (Click here for Game 1 Box Score and here for Game 2) and I was hollering for my favorite player,
Toby Harrah, but the position players were otherwise occupied and unavailable.
Harrah would make one appearance in the twinbill as a pinch runner, I recall me going crazy for the cameo.
I always wondered why a normal starter sat for both games of the DH but was well enough to pinch run...
Maybe Ranger skipper Billy Hunter wanted to shut the screaming ten-year-old behind the Ranger dugout up?? (Nah).

In between games, Ellis walked by me and saw my newly purchased Ranger batting helmet and spoke to me first about how much he liked it.
Back then, hats, shirts, etc were not all over the place unless it was for the local team.
If you wanted non-Oriole stuff, you had to go to the stadium and find them.
Anyway, Ellis signed my program and called over the late Paul Lindblad and had him sign it as well which gave me a memory of a lifetime.
That program is still around here somewhere, if I ever get a scanner, I will scan it for here down the road.
That day was one of the fondest memories I ever had of spending with my father.
My dad and I have never really spent a large amount of time together, but that day ranked right up there with one of the best days of my life at home.

A final note on that day was this exchange between the friend and my father.
Friend: Who's that guy in the outfield?
Dad: Andres Mora (young Oriole outfielder)
Friend: Who?
Dad: Andres Mora
Friend: Who?
Dad: Andres Mora (beginning to be annoyed)
Friend: Who?
Dad: Andres Mora (Steam beginning to escape)
Friend: Oh, Carlos Garcia (no such player on either team)
Dad:(Wondering why he did this)
That has been a story in my family since that day and why an obscure outfielder that did next to nothing to be remembered for still is......

The Pirates announced their farm system staff for the upcoming season.
Frank Kremblas comes over from the Brewers organization to take over Indianapolis and new hire Matt Walbeck will be the skipper at Altoona.
Former Lakewood Blue Claw manager P.J. Forbes will man the helm for the Lynchburg Hillcats and Gary Green will return at Low A with the new affiliate in West Virginia.
Newcomer Gary Robinson will manage the State College Spikes.
For the autograph hounds out there, the only former big leaguer that is new to the Pirate organization is the new pitching coach at Lynchburg, Wally Whitehurst.
Whitehurst will have plenty of cards from the early '90s to dig up from his days as a Met and Padre.

The Pirates also replaced Lanny Frattare last week with the hiring of Tim Neverett from the Colorado Rockies.
I am not really familiar with Neverett's work, but he couldn't be worse than Greg Brown, now could he???

And finally, Harrisburg will be delivering on those promised renovations in a two-year program that will see some finished for the 2009 opener and the remainder for the 2010 opener.
One of the improvements is adding a souvenir store that will replace the current NASCAR-like trailer.
I liked Harrisburg's park and the improvement should add even more to the experience.

Until the next few posts that will cover Devil-Flyers, today's football games, and eventually my trip to see the Lowell Devils.

Photo Credits
Hair Curlers; Unknown
Ellis; Topps