As the umps discuss whether or not Manny Ramirez just hit a home run in tonite's ALCS, here's a heart warming, yet tragic, story from the baseball world.
It was the ninth inning that day. The Drillers had a runner on first and a 28-year-old utilityman, Tino Sanchez, a left-handed hitter, at bat. Mike was busy, concentrating on the baserunner and his lead. According to reports, Mike told him, “If you’re going from first to third, you’ve got to be sure,” and those were his last words. Sanchez pulled an inside pitch and it traveled like an arrow straight at Mike, struck him behind the left ear, and in the words of an attending doctor, he was dead by the time he hit the ground. It was a freak. An inch either way or the other, the doctor said, and he’d still be alive.
2 comments:
Outstanding blogging here. Great catch. Just right. I had to read Bisher's whole column after reading the snip and I'm not, as you well know, a sports fan.
Makes me want to start reading the sports section...if I still read a newspaper.
(Kinda like "If we had some ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had some eggs.")
"Jolting Joe" Torre turned down an offer this week to manage the Yankees. After guiding them to 4 World Series titles, Joe rejected an offer of 5 million a year plus incentives. It would have been a pay cut. Because he made 7.5 million this year. He was insulted by the offer.
The Bronx Bombers didn't get out of the division series this year, so no World Series. And George Steinbrenner had hinted during the series that Joe might not return if they didn't win.
The story reminded me of our days at Piccadilly, when the Brass decided to cut everyone's pay in exchange for performance-based "targets." Like Joe and our brethren before us, no one lightly concedes a pay cut, even tho' Joe's pay ain't exactly pauper wages.
Thanks for the tip of the cap. Yes, it's a nice story, and Furman Bisher has a knack for writing.
Onbe of my favorite things is still reading the fishwrappers, especially the Sports section on Sundays. A bargain at $2.00 or whatever it costs these days.
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