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Post by Bradimous1 on Oct 1, 2009 16:18:17 GMT -5
... always described pitchers as "Dumb by Bread"... I thought that was funny.
I am reading Teammates by David Halberstam... really good book... sit and openly laugh while reading it.
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Post by BTB07 on Oct 1, 2009 21:47:52 GMT -5
I haven't read that book, but David Halberstam is a hell of an author. A couple of other books by him are also very good reads. The Coldest Winter being one of them.
Anyways...
I always loved the stories about Ted Williams. The stories about wood burning when he hit foul balls, when they invented the shift to slow him down, but he refused to hit the ball the other way, just to smoke it through the right side.
A hell of a hitter.
How could anyone write a better script than for Ted to hit a homer in his final AB, and finally tip his cap to the crowd.
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Post by badgersballers on Oct 1, 2009 22:05:03 GMT -5
Best Ted Williams story was about him hitting a HR off of Pedro Borboune(sp?) after Borboune had come into the Red Sox locker room, and asked him for an autograph.
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Post by BTB07 on Oct 1, 2009 22:21:22 GMT -5
Best Ted Williams story was about him hitting a HR off of Pedro Borboune(sp?) after Borboune had come into the Red Sox locker room, and asked him for an autograph. That is awesome story. Is it better than the final day of the 1941 season though? Williams average was .3998 and would have rounded up to .400 in the record books. The Red Sox had a double header scheduled and were way out of the race. Williams played in both games and went 5-8 (I think that is what he went...). Anyways he finished the season with the now famous .406 average.
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Post by Bradimous1 on Oct 2, 2009 7:38:56 GMT -5
Best Ted Williams story was about him hitting a HR off of Pedro Borboune(sp?) after Borboune had come into the Red Sox locker room, and asked him for an autograph. That is awesome story. Is it better than the final day of the 1941 season though? Williams average was .3998 and would have rounded up to .400 in the record books. The Red Sox had a double header scheduled and were way out of the race. Williams played in both games and went 5-8 (I think that is what he went...). Anyways he finished the season with the now famous .406 average. he actually had 6 hits that night... this book is about Ted, Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr, and Dom Dimaggio... how all four of them were teammates and friends for so long and how rare it was. It is really amusing to see how the differences of personalities helped them get along so much better and actually give credit to them being so good because of each other grounding one anothing.
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Post by BTB07 on Oct 2, 2009 9:17:54 GMT -5
Thanks for the correction Brad, I just couldn't remember that number last night.
It would be interesting to see what type of bond those players formed from being together so many years. Now guys are lucky if they have the same teammate for more than 2 years...just entirely different.
The stories about him taking a pitch because it was 1/8 of an inch off the plate and he wouldn't chase it are interesting as well. The people who criticize Williams for walking instead of attempting to drive in runs on what are technically balls are silly to me.
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Post by dawgggystyle on Oct 2, 2009 10:01:51 GMT -5
anyone interested in an autographed baseball ?
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Post by Bradimous1 on Oct 2, 2009 11:10:17 GMT -5
you hold on to your Ted Williams autographed ball... that is awesome
BTB... when I am done with the book, I will let you know and I will send it to you... I started it on Tuesday and am halfway done... not very long, but can't put it down either.
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Post by dawgggystyle on Oct 2, 2009 13:19:30 GMT -5
you hold on to your Ted Williams autographed ball... that is awesome growing up my dad and I went to a whole bunch of shows and got autographed baseballs. baseball autographs i have: Ted Williams Hank Aaron Willie Mays Stan Musial Frank Robinson Harmon Killebrew Reggie Jackson Ernie Banks Andre Dawson Yogi Berra Nolan Ryan
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Post by Bradimous1 on Oct 2, 2009 13:42:41 GMT -5
you hold on to your Ted Williams autographed ball... that is awesome growing up my dad and I went to a whole bunch of shows and got autographed baseballs. baseball autographs i have: Ted Williams Hank Aaron Willie Mays Stan Musial Frank Robinson Harmon Killebrew Reggie Jackson Ernie Banks Andre Dawson Yogi Berra Nolan Ryan that is awesome
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Post by dawgggystyle on Oct 2, 2009 14:20:10 GMT -5
all in those clear hard plastic cubes under my bed, waiting until i have a finished basement or pool table room so i can put them on a shelf or something.
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Post by Bradimous1 on Oct 2, 2009 15:04:56 GMT -5
all in those clear hard plastic cubes under my bed, waiting until i have a finished basement or pool table room so i can put them on a shelf or something. I have a bunch... mostly current players that I met at spring training my fav for some reason is my Billy Wagner... Billy is the only human to tough the ball since it was put in the box... handed it to him in a plastic bag and got it back the same way... but I also like my George Steinbrenner ball (hate that guy, but he was really nice to talk to, even with my Sox hat and shirt on)
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Post by BTB07 on Oct 2, 2009 15:39:22 GMT -5
you hold on to your Ted Williams autographed ball... that is awesome BTB... when I am done with the book, I will let you know and I will send it to you... I started it on Tuesday and am halfway done... not very long, but can't put it down either. That's cool Brad. I think my dad already owns it and I have not had enough time to read it yet (although I want to). Great stories about Ted, and I am sure that some are as much myth as fact. How about the one when he was flying the plane? He was supposedly an awesome pilot (everyone who saw him said so). Something happened to his plane and it was heading down. He was going to eject, but he knew that he would 'leave his knees' in the cockpit as he said. Instead he attempted to land the plane and did so. He walked away from the plane. I am sure at 6'3 or whatever he was, the plane would not have allowed him to eject and come out healthy. Truly incredible stories about the man. Unfortunately I just heard a very sad one about him on television. I will not share it here as to not ruin this thread.
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Post by Bradimous1 on Oct 3, 2009 8:12:38 GMT -5
I think I know the story you are talking about and appreciate it...
as for the story about him in the plane, I read that story and thought to myself that this guy must have been absolutely crazy.
another great story is of him and Bobby Doerr went fishing and ended up in an argument about batting... Ted was saying that since the mound was slightly higher, you had to swing slightly up... Bobby disagreed... so they pulled the boat over and pleaded their respective cases to some guys that were fishing with them... the best part, they were in their 50s, already retired.
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Post by BTB07 on Oct 3, 2009 12:43:00 GMT -5
I think I know the story you are talking about and appreciate it... as for the story about him in the plane, I read that story and thought to myself that this guy must have been absolutely crazy. another great story is of him and Bobby Doerr went fishing and ended up in an argument about batting... Ted was saying that since the mound was slightly higher, you had to swing slightly up... Bobby disagreed... so they pulled the boat over and pleaded their respective cases to some guys that were fishing with them... the best part, they were in their 50s, already retired. Williams said he would have left his knees in the plane, and didn't want to do it. He is like a 'myth'. It is great that those guys would actually talk about baseball. It is hard for me to find folks who really want to just sit and talk about the game. I am sure that the locker rooms don't have nearly as much as they use to, and that makes me a little sad. I am nostalgic of course and more old school than most old farts... I could read these stories about Williams all day, and can think of a few more as well... Williams never tipped his hat to the crowd, but he did in his rookie season, and after his final AB (that was a HR). How about when in 1941 Williams hit .406 and the Red Sox were no where near contention. He didn't win the MVP...it went to Joe D. who had the infamous 56 game hit streak in the same summer. Stories of Williams taking pitches 1/8 an inch of the plate and being blamed by the media for not hitting those pitches to drive in runs (When the Sox struggled). He was constantly accused of being more interested in stats than in winning games (they think that is why he took those pitches. Also great stories about the umpires when deciding a close call would 'defer' to Teddy Ballgame. A great moment that I got to see on Television was when the 99 All Star Game was at Fenway and all the players went and talked to Williams.
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Post by badgersballers on Oct 3, 2009 14:34:00 GMT -5
Best Ted Williams story was about him hitting a HR off of Pedro Borboune(sp?) after Borboune had come into the Red Sox locker room, and asked him for an autograph. That is awesome story. Is it better than the final day of the 1941 season though? Williams average was .3998 and would have rounded up to .400 in the record books. The Red Sox had a double header scheduled and were way out of the race. Williams played in both games and went 5-8 (I think that is what he went...). Anyways he finished the season with the now famous .406 average. I forgot about that one. There are tons of great stories about Ted. The Borbone one though will always be my favorite. "Do you want me to fucking sign that one as well."
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Post by BTB07 on Oct 4, 2009 10:36:56 GMT -5
I hope that they get an all-star game in Atlanta soon so a similar tribute can be paid to Aaron (it was done with Mays in San Fran, Williams in Boston, and Musial in St. Louis).
I think this story fits here...
The other day I was looking through some baseball cards with my dad. They are all Topps and are all from 1967-79. He kept the 'stars' and all the Reds players. Some pretty valuable cards. He was then telling me a story about opening the cards, and the one card that everyone always wanted and hoped to get in their pack...
The 1954 Bowman Ted Williams card (I looked it up in Beckett and it is worth over 3K).
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Post by tonythegator on Oct 4, 2009 11:09:30 GMT -5
There was a story in the newspaper a couple of days ago about Ted Williams. If you don't know, Ted's head was severed and frozen. Supposedly, his head has been being abused at the lab where it is kept. It said they were taking swings at it with a pipe wrench. I'll try to find a link.
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Post by tonythegator on Oct 4, 2009 11:11:04 GMT -5
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Post by MIZ-SIU on Oct 5, 2009 6:51:49 GMT -5
BTW I hate to make this political but because Obama had to come to the All Star, Musial did not get the tribute that he deserved
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Post by Bradimous1 on Oct 6, 2009 8:37:50 GMT -5
finished up with Teammates... went out and bought Summer of 49... should have probably read that one first, but oh well. Halberstam refers to the Summer of 49 a lot in Teammates and in fact has some quotes in that book from this one... already saw a couple, like the original one that I posted on here, pitcher are "Dumb by bread".
If anyone wants to read Teammates, let me know and I can ship it off to you... great read.
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Post by BTB07 on Oct 6, 2009 11:08:00 GMT -5
finished up with Teammates... went out and bought Summer of 49... should have probably read that one first, but oh well. Halberstam refers to the Summer of 49 a lot in Teammates and in fact has some quotes in that book from this one... already saw a couple, like the original one that I posted on here, pitcher are "Dumb by bread". If anyone wants to read Teammates, let me know and I can ship it off to you... great read. That is awesome man, too bad we lost Halberstam to a car accident just over a year ago (I know it was fairly recent). I could listen to the old timers talk about baseball all day and never get bored.
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Post by Bradimous1 on Oct 7, 2009 7:13:21 GMT -5
finished up with Teammates... went out and bought Summer of 49... should have probably read that one first, but oh well. Halberstam refers to the Summer of 49 a lot in Teammates and in fact has some quotes in that book from this one... already saw a couple, like the original one that I posted on here, pitcher are "Dumb by bread". If anyone wants to read Teammates, let me know and I can ship it off to you... great read. That is awesome man, too bad we lost Halberstam to a car accident just over a year ago (I know it was fairly recent). I could listen to the old timers talk about baseball all day and never get bored. He was truly a great writer and must have led an amazing life.
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Post by dawgggystyle on Oct 10, 2009 13:00:55 GMT -5
wanting to part with any of your autographed baseballs brad ?
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Post by Bradimous1 on Oct 10, 2009 14:42:32 GMT -5
wanting to part with any of your autographed baseballs brad ? no... each one of them has a story to me... met and had a conversation with every player/manager/owner that I have an autograph of. sorry bout that.
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Post by dawgggystyle on Oct 11, 2009 11:30:27 GMT -5
wanting to part with any of your autographed baseballs brad ? no... each one of them has a story to me... met and had a conversation with every player/manager/owner that I have an autograph of. sorry bout that. thats cool, same goes for me, i think the only ball that I have that I didnt see the guy personally sign it is Nolan Ryan
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Post by Bradimous1 on Oct 11, 2009 22:17:46 GMT -5
no... each one of them has a story to me... met and had a conversation with every player/manager/owner that I have an autograph of. sorry bout that. thats cool, same goes for me, i think the only ball that I have that I didnt see the guy personally sign it is Nolan Ryan doesn't matter if you met him or not... that man is awesome!!!
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Post by BTB07 on Oct 11, 2009 23:04:59 GMT -5
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Post by Bradimous1 on Oct 11, 2009 23:12:29 GMT -5
I actually looked at that book... think I might have to pick it up prior to the honeymoon to read... that is awesome!!!!!!
my Dad had a 52 Mantle... his parents threw it out about 15 years ago... that was the first time I saw my dad cry.
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Post by BTB07 on Oct 11, 2009 23:24:10 GMT -5
That is awesome man. I might want to pick it up as well to see what the greatest hitter of all-time has to say on the subject.
Those old cards are crazy rare and expensive. The other day I sat all day Sunday looking through a new Beckett I bought in order to see how much some of the cards were worth.
I have about 300 different Griffey cards and they are pretty valuable.
But my dad had a drawer full of old cards (he only kept the Stars and the Reds). So he had a Bench rookie, Rose rookie, and several cards of Aaron, Schmidt, etc.. They are all over 35 bucks or so.
The best part about the old cards? They are easy to look up in a Beckett. They were almost all Topps or Bowman and they each had a single set they put out for a year. When they added the All-Star cards or whatever...they just put them at the end of the line (700+ card sets).
Now to look up the new ones....nearly impossible (all types of different editions ex. 2008 Topps, 2008 Topps Gold, 2008 Topps Silver, 2008 Topps Chrome, etc (and the list goes on and on and on...).
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