Brooks Robinson

    The recent passing of Brooks Robinson hit almost everyone who lived in this area no matter if you saw Brooks in his prime, at the end of his career, as an announcer for the Baltimore Orioles television broadcasts, or the many years after all those jobs that Brooks spent as a team ambassador for a team that maybe didn't deserve him for the longest time.

To most people under fifty, Cal Ripken Jr. would be the player that most people think of as "Mr.Oriole" but if you are over fifty, I'm certain that the title would belong to Brooks Robinson.

Brooks was a deserving Hall of Famer and a good ( not great) hitter with six seasons of over twenty homers and eight seasons with over eighty RBI.

Robinson also was named to fifteen All-Star teams, won sixteen Gold Gloves, and won the 1964 American League MVP.

Brooks stepped into the national spotlight during the 1970 World Series, in which the Orioles defeated the Cincinnati Reds in five games with Robinson winning the Series MVP after numerous spectacular defensive gems and hitting two home runs with an average of .429 during the five-game set.

Brooks Robinson still can stake a claim as the best-fielding third baseman ever and while I wouldn't grade him as the best overall third baseman, I'm in agreement with those that call him the top with the glove at the position,

But for me, Brooks was past his best days when I saw him play, especially with the bat, and I remember him most fondly for his announcing days on the Orioles television network with Chuck Thompson.

Brooks wasn't the most eloquent commentator ever but he had a charming, folksy manner of speech even if you were rooting against the Orioles as I almost always did!

Brooks always said the word "Orioles" as "Oreos", which tends to be a problem when you are commentating for that team and I still remember him calling Albert (don't call me Joey) Belle "Belley" during games against the Indians.

Yet, you could tell that it wasn't a lack of knowledge for Brooksie because his analysis was usually spot on. While I wonder if Brooks would have sold as well in the era of analytics, Robinson was exactly what teams hoped to have on their network- a homer to an extent but not so over the top that he comes off with a bias.

Brooks Robinson was a person who always had time for the fans of his and the game.

I remember meeting him a few times as a child, and Brooks always stayed until everyone had gotten what they came for, whether it was the chance to meet him, get a picture with him, or have something signed or all three, Robinson was noted for the time that he spent talking to people and listening to whatever they had to say.

I realize that sports, media, and collecting have changed since those days of Brooks Robinson as a player and commentator, and while some of those changes are for the better, I can't help but think it's not all for the good.

At his core, Brooks Robinson was still the person who grew up in rural Arkansas listening to St.Louis Cardinals and Browns games on the radio and appreciated that when people are meeting a celebrity it could be the only time that opportunity could arise and that is the memory that those people would forever have of him.

Road Trip: Hartford

      I'm not able to take as many road trips as I used to.

My work schedule is different and even my time away from work has been changed, so when you consider that with the takeover of minor league baseball by MLB, they have eliminated Monday games (one of my off-days), it would have made it difficult to attend games even if I wished.

But this trip was planned well before my job changes and this is the biggest trip of the season, so while there were a few disappointments, there were some great times and as always great memories made with Fred Landucci on the trip.

I've never been to Connecticut or Massachusetts before so it was a chance to not only add a ballpark to my list but also a chance to add two states to the states that I have been to as well.

The drive up was uneventual, we stopped in Connecticut for lunch at a place called John's, which was pretty good.

I ordered the daily special a fish sandwich, which was good but had far too much bread for my tastes.

I left a lot of bread on the table, which I feel bad about because I hate waste, but it was too much.

The legendary Northeast traffic did arrive as we neared Connecticut and Hartford, so it did take quite a bit of patience as we approached the ballpark.

Dunkin Donuts Park is a downtown stadium with its both positive and negative aspects. Still, it is almost directly off an exit into the city and that does make it a bit easier for visitors to find and park easily with a massive parking lot across the street from the field.

With Fred along, we were able to use handicapped parking, which caused one of the funnier moments of the trip in the parking lot

As we were moved along the parking lot by one person, another one followed us yelling "Where's their stickers, where's their stickers"?

Maryland vehicles have a handicapped symbol on the license plate but since this was a rental and non-handicapped plate, we only had Fred's Pennsylvania placard, which the first person had seen but the second one had not.

This lady chases all around the lot, only to see the placard and say "It's ok" in between huffs from running.

The main reason we picked this weekend was for the Hartford Yard Goats' "Whalers reunion weekend" with many former stars of the Hartford Whalers returning and we picked Friday so we could do other things over the next two days.

Unfortunately, not all of the players were there for the first night (which wasn't noted beforehand) but I still was able to meet and talk to a handful of former stars including Andre LaCroix, who was the all-time leading scorer in the defunct-World Hockey Association, and defenseman Gordie Roberts.

I didn't get as many as I hoped but I was able to get everyone that was there which was enough to please me.

Dunkin Donuts Park is a nice stadium and I really liked the wide concourses that despite the large crowd felt plenty roomy as we moved around.

We also were lucky enough to have someone sing the National Anthem (I wish I remembered her name) that sang it well yet not in a look-at-me way and it was very cool to see the home team run onto the field with the Whalers fight song "Brass Bonanza" playing in the background.

I liked the Dunkin Donuts cup on top of the scoreboard and on the right field roof, there was a large Deer (or Stag or Buck whatever) looking towards the outside of the park that I'm going to say is from "The Hartford" insurance company as that only makes sense considering the location.

It looked very statuesque from the distance and I bet it might look better had I seen it from the streets of Hartford.

We stayed at a Doubletree Hilton near the Hartford airport and when we checked in, we asked for a good pizza place.

There was a place literally a crosswalk away which would have been convenient to visit but when I asked the two ladies behind the desk about it, they both looked up sadly and nodded their heads no as in we didn't want to do that!

They recommended a place about a mile or two down the road but it was straight down the road so not hard to find our destination- a place called Tunxis Grill and Pizzeria 

Tunxis was busy (it was Friday night) and the pair of couples beside us were very loud but the wait was worth it for our pizza, which was "The Works" off their menu and might have won my favorite meal of the trip.

We returned to the hotel, which started my issues with the outside world on both nights.

I travel with a Roku stick, so I can stream and watch what I wish, even when away from home but Doubletree used what is called a "Clean Remote", which is reputed to be anti-germ and anti-bacteria and targeted toward hotels, hospitals, and nursing homes.

The Clean Remote worked fine but you need to be able to change the input on televisions to use Roku, Playstations, etc and if you go to the link, you can see they have omitted a button to access the input channels.

So if you replace all the television remotes with the Clean Remote, you would have no way to change the input and essentially render the object of choice useless and that meant no Roku and the streaming channels that it provides for this night.

I did have internet, so I used my Ipad for the night, so it could have been worse but my adventures with these issues weren't over as night two would prove.

I enjoyed day one and I liked Hartford, although I wish they had been clearer with their notes that most of the Whalers would be there on Saturday only.

I'd go back under certain circumstances and I had a nice time traveling to a new state.

I'll be back with day two of the trip sometime soon when I have time to write.

MLB Draft and Ralphie

  The recent baseball draft made me think of a time when the baseball draft was a big deal to me and writing about it here.

I so rarely watch baseball anymore that I hardly knew many of the prospects for the draft.

I watched some of the early rounds of the College World Series, so I was familiar with the two stars from LSU (pitcher Paul Skenes and outfielder Dylan Crews), Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford, Wake Forest pitcher Rhett Lowder with a few other names from high schools/junior colleges and that was about the extent of my knowledge.

That saddens me honestly and while I've written before about the perfect storm that took several issues (both large and small) to congeal and create the current malaise, it really hit home yesterday when I had a person send me a message asking about the Guardians (one of the small issues there) first-round pick in California high school catcher Ralphie Velazquez and I had to write back to say not only did I not have an opinion, I had never heard of him.

Now, that's because I didn't do any research to do so and not a knock on Velazquez in any way but it made me wonder just how deep this was for me.

After all, the first thought upon hearing the selection of Velazquez wasn't positional need, financial issues, contract demands, or what other players that Cleveland could have selected, it was this-

My thoughts were of Ralphie Valladares.

Between being a California native and the name Ralphie, my first thoughts were of Valladares, an already ancient star of the "World Famous" Los Angeles T-Birds of Roller Derby when I was a kid.

Valladares was already gray-haired, had a physical look that combined the head and upper body of Fred Flintstone with the height of Barney Rubble and looked more like your local butcher than a star of a sport.

Valladares passed in 1998 at the age of 62, which really shocked me because that meant when I was watching him on television he would have been in his forties and looked like he was sixty even then!

I would have lost money on that bet as I was certain looking at him that he was at least 55 when I saw him skating for the first time!

Valladares was treated like the Babe Ruth of the sport, often coming off the bench for a stunning miraculous performance to somehow lift the T-Birds to another win over the villainous Ms. Georgia Hase and her minions, despite reminding you more of your grandfather's drinking pal than a pro athlete.

Yet when it came to the MLB draft, it was Valladares that I was thinking of and not baseball.

And when I did think of another sport to read or wonder about, it wasn't baseball, it was checking to see if Harvey Barnes of Leicester City (English Premier League) had signed with Newcastle United yet.

I've watched one game from Japan this year and a few innings here and there at my dad's of a few Orioles games as the total sum of the baseball that I've watched this year.

While I don't think I've filled the gap once held by baseball during the summer, I've filled it with a few different things over the rest of the year.

I've really enjoyed learning about the English Premier League and my chosen team, Newcastle United, and would consider writing about them here but I don't know enough about the game to really add anything significant.

I have considered perhaps discussing the occasional signing during the two transfer windows but even then it's not like I know whether a player is a good or poor signing with a few exceptions.

I've enjoyed building my program collection with some additions that I've been very pleased with.

I've also been working on cleaning up some of my toy collections to make them a little easier on the eye as they their display stands.

It's a roundabout way of writing about how baseball may or may not have been replaced for the long term but I've found things to fill the void in the short term.

 I do wonder if I'll ever care the same way again but one never knows what small spark may reignite my interest in baseball, so never say never- just say we'll see.

Cleaning out the Inbox: Baseball Passings

   I've been well behind on the various items that fill the inbox and as always there are tributes to some that have recently passed.

In this edition, I'm going to stick to the baseball world.

Goodbye to Joe Pepitone at the age of 82.

Once thought to be the next superstar in the New York Yankee dynasty, Joe Pepitone had a good career but was the face of the crumbling of the Yankees after their 1964 American League pennant.

Pepitone made three All-Star teams, won three Gold Gloves, and hit over twenty-six homers five times but is remembered more for his antics away from the diamond as the Yankees moved to the second division in the mid and late 60s.

Pepitone is prominently mentioned in Jim Bouton's book "Ball Four" with some of his wild affairs as well as his own memoir "Joe, You could have made us proud" with even more wild stories.

Pepitone would struggle after leaving New York through three seasons spent with the Astros, Cubs, and Braves before a cameo in Japan ended his career in 1973.

Goodbye to Tim McCarver at the age of 81,

Known by most for his long-time career as a commentator, McCarver was a solid catcher for over twenty years for mostly the Cardinals and Phillies.

McCarver made two All-Star teams and was the catcher for the 1964 and 1967 World Champion Cardinals and spent the latter half of the 1970s with his career thought to be close to finish, McCarver found new life in a second stint as a Phillie when former Cardinal teammate Steve Carlton insisted that the team not only keep McCarver as a backup but play when Carlton pitched rather than the normal starter Bob Boone.

McCarver would move into the television booth for both CBS and Fox nationally as well as calling local games for the Yankees and Mets.

Goodbye to Jesus Alou at the age of 80.

The youngest of the three Alou brothers, Jesus wasn't a power hitter in his career, which lasted from 1963-79 for four teams but was an excellent pinch hitter and the perfect fourth outfielder.

Jesus won two World Series rings with the 1973 and 74 Athletics and will always be a part of baseball history in his rookie season with the Giants as the first trio of brothers to bat in the same inning and later in the year, all three brothers playing in the same outfield.

Goodbye to Albie Pearson at the age of 88.

The 1958 American League Rookie of the Year as a Washington Senator, at 5'5 140 pounds, Pearson was the smallest player in baseball during his career.

Pearson won the ROY with Washington but his best seasons were as part of the expansion Los Angeles Angels, where he made his only All-Star team in 1963 when hitting. 303 for his only season batting over .300.

A back injury forced Pearson into retirement in 1966 and after his career, Pearson would become an ordained minister and would remain involved in ministries for the rest of his life.

Goodbye to Dave Nicholson at the age of 83.

Known for his booming home runs and his bushels of strikeouts, Nicholson was brought to the big leagues by the Orioles in 1960 but spent most of his career with the White Sox, who acquired him as part of the trade that sent Luis Aparicio to Baltimore.

Nicholson hit a career-high twenty-two homers in 1963 but struck out a league-leading 175 times as well.

In 1964, Nicholson blasted a ball that was found across the street from Comiskey Park that cleared the grandstand and was measured at 573 feet in a doubleheader against the Kansas City Athletics that would see Nicholson hit three of his thirteen homers for the season on one day.

Nicholson finished his career with Atlanta in 1967.

An excellent look at Nicholson by Mike Kaszuba on the SABR website can be found here.

Goodbye to John Adams at the age of 71.

Adams was the man that pounded the drum at Cleveland Indians games from 1973 through 2019.

It was Adams that would provide the thump that could be heard over many a broadcast from a seven-eighths empty Cleveland Municipal Stadium and continued up to the pandemic season of 2020, where Adams was invited by the team to drum but Adams didn't feel right until other fans could attend.

Health issues would keep Adams from the ballpark in the two seasons following the pandemic.