Willie Mays Played the Game the Way It Should Be Played

So Willie turned 80 today.  How can you not like the Say Hey kid?  He played with a boyish enthusiasm.  He hustled all the time.  He never dogged it.  All those years playing in miserable Candlestick Park and he never made excuses.  He just pounded the ball there, played outstanding defense and carried his team for years.  If Willie had played those prime years of his in a ballpark that was simply neutral, he would have shattered Babe Ruth's home run record.

I still remember him rounding the bases after bumping off his helmet and speeding himself to the bags hatless .  He’d turn singles into doubles, doubles into triples.  He wasn’t a big man, but his power was the best in the game during a pitching dominant era in the 60s.

He stopped the Roseboro/Marichal brawl.  He simply stepped forward and attended to John Roseboro and that act was what calmed tempers and stopped the mayhem. Lou Johnson said it best, “They can thank Mays that there wasn’t a real riot out there, if it wasn’t for Willie Mays it could have been a lot worse. Willie did a hell of a job stopping the battle.”

click here for link to Roseboro/Marichal story

Mays had that presence to stand up and say, “that’s enough boys, the fight is over,” and it was be over.

Willie Mays calms the situation in the Marichal/Roseboro incident, August 22, 1965.

Revered to this day and respected in all baseball circles, the only issue I have with Mays is his ridiculous statements in which he defends his godson, Barry Bonds.  But he’s loyal to him, and there is something to say for that.  There is honor in that stance he has taken.

I ran into Willie once.  I was in San Francisco Airport, where I have worked for the better part of the last 15 years.  As I was walking towards an elevator in the parking garage I overheard a stranger say, “I think that was Willie Mays getting in the elevator.”  So I rushed to it, just before the door closed and I made it inside.  Sure enough, there was Willie, inside the elevator wearing a Bally’s Casino jacket.  I was going up only one floor, I pushed the button and stood there in silence.  What could I say?  I was standing next to the greatest ballplayer ever to play the game.  The bell chimed, it was my floor, and the door opened,  I turned to leave, looked at the man and said the only thing that came to my mind, “say hey!”  He smiled and patted me on my shoulder as I walked out.  That was it.  

Happy birthday Willie!

Odds and Ends on a Travel Day

My nephew was asking me how much his ball signed by Lance Cormier was worth.

“Let’s see, well you can buy an official major league ball for about $14.95 so after Lance Cormier signs it on the sweet spot, if it’s a sharp autograph, with a nice permanent ball point pen, preferably a 1.0 medium point, I’d say it’s current value is about $7.00.  Now if it’s erasable ink, then if you can remove it completely, $14.95 is about right.” 

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While going through my dad’s stuff, I ran across the evil binoculars that robbed me of my chance to catch a home run ball in 1974.

Link to story: RIGHT HERE

I asked my mother if I can have them and she happily gave them to me.  I’ll never take them to a game, but I get a chuckle out of having them in my possession.  Here they are, united with a Jose Cardenal signed baseball gifted to me by my brother as a practical joke.

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Here is my logic to how Georgia Frontiere and Al Davis screwed over us Dodger fans.  Okay, bare with me here.  Frontiere and Davis bailed on the Southland after seeking Stadium deals elsewhere.  This interested Peter O’Malley in building an NFL Stadium in the Chavez Ravine parking lot, giving him hope that he could continue to afford the Dodgers in today’s climate of high salaries and free agent spending.  This potential deal was opposed by then L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, who asked O’Malley to back down since the city was in favor of refurbishing the L.A. Coliseum.  Afterwhich, O”Malley determined that he could no longer afford the Dodgers in today’s sports ownership environment without that infusion of cash he would receive from the footbal team, forcing him to sell the Dodgers to Newscorp, (Fox).  Fox sells the team to McCourt and here we are today, with an owner, one month from being insolvent.

So, had Al or Georgia remained, would things be different today?  Probably not, but it was an interesting link and turn of events.  I wonder if Peter could have seen the potential TV deals available and held the team with those deals looming, eventually turning the club over to his son and nephew.  It’s a true shame that it didn’t happen.

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Andre Ethier is enjoying his off day in New York.  Here we read of his visit to the Fan Cave where he talks of his elbow injury, the Streak and superstitions.

Link highlighted below:

ARTICLE BY Mark Newman at Mlb.com

The Colletti Moves that Favor the Veteran Mediocre Players are Catching Up

Today’s top three hitters in the lineup have to be one of the weakest in recent Dodger history:

Tony Gwynn

Aaron Miles

Jay Gibbons

It certainly isn’t Murderer’s Row.  Those three must have really struck fear in Cub starter Carlos Zambrano who mowed down the Dodger lineup with the confidence of a staff ace, something that he used to be considered.  Players like Miles and Gibbons are lucky to have major league jobs and probably wouldn’t if GMs like Ned Colletti weren’t still in the game.  Why is it that Colletti loves these poor to mediocre veterans to serve as roster fodder year after year.  Take a look at this list, (and it is bigger than this folks, believe me).

Juan Castro, Ramon Martinez, Jose Cruz Jr.,  Oscar Robles, Ricky Ledee, Luis Gonzalez, Shea Hilldenbrand, Marlon Anderson,  Esteban Loaiza, Mike Lieberthal, Angel Berroa, Mark Loretta, Ronnie Belliard, Eric Milton, Brad Ausmus, Doug Mientkiewicz, Garrett Anderson, Scott Podsednik, Jack Taschner, Russ Ortiz, Ramon Ortiz, Justin Miller, Marcus Thames, Jay Gibbons, and Aaron Miles.  These are often the types of players that come to mind during Ned Colletti’s tenure.

That list is a who’s who of reject players pulled off the 2000’s scrap heap.  Some of them have worked out and even performed well with the club at times, (Ausmus, Anderson, Belliard come to mind), but overwhelmingly, those guys are major league scrubs well past their prime years.

Ned Colletti has shown that he's quick to jettison young players with potential off to other clubs to keep the veteran scrubs.  He swapped Cody Ross for next to nothing in order to keep a guy like Ricky Ledee.  He let Jayson Werth walk in the off season in favor of Juan Pierre and a 39 year old Luis Gonzalez.  Why are these moves made?  Often the answer is that a youngster is out of options, or he gives up on a player after an injury.  Additionally, and this seems to be Colletti’s M.O., he deals a young player in a last minute trade deadline move.

Cody Ross, James McDonald,  Jayson Werth, Delwyn Young, Xavier Paul, Carlos Santana, Blake DeWitt, Jason Repko, Shane Victorino, James McDonald, Andy LaRoche, Willy Aybar, Tony Abreu and Edwin Jackson are names to come to mind.

Now I don’t profess to be knowledgeable enough to be a General Manager.  I realize that there are intricacies to contracts and rules about veterans becoming free agents after so much service time, etc, (a la the Tommy Lasorda’s fiasco with the Jeff Shaw/Paul Konerko trade), that must be understood.  But come on!  The Colletti track record in handling the young talent at L.A. is questionable.   I can appreciate that he left the young core of Kemp, Ethier, Billingsley, Kershaw, Martin, Loney and Broxton alone, but there could have been more talent coming in return for many of the names mentioned in the paragraph above.  A classic example was dealing James McDonald and Andrew Lambo for less than a month of an over the hill Octavio Dotel. The fact that we lost Russell Martin this off-season and Carlos Santana wasn’t even an option to replace him because he was dealt two season’s earlier in a money saving deal, is the classic problem that Dodger fans have faced during the Colletti years.

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The Schedule is in the Dodgers favor.

Thirty-two games in and the club is 15-17.  It is a disappointing start, but with significant injuries forcing the club to play a significant period of time without Furcal, Blake, Kuo, and Uribe, things could be much, much worse.  Additionally, with Broxton's horrendous start, you can only pin one or two losses on the big closer.   Being the ultimate optimist that I am, this club is a good road trip away from being on the doorstep of the division lead.   The schedule is starting to get easier, it's a lousy time to start playing bad now, so I'm hopeful that they turn things around on the road against lower level clubs like New York, Pittsburgh and at home against Arizona, Milwaukee and San Francisco over the next  14 games.  Now is the time to make a move in the standings.

Ethier, Comparing the Streak to the 1978 Rose Record

Getting back into the swing of things.  It's tough, but life goes on and I can't be in this mode of grief forever.  I know my dad would want me to continue on stronger, so I'm back.  As I return home today and try to catch up to the world and of Dodger baseball, there are a few things that catch my attention.

First, with Andre Ethier creeping up on Willie Davis’ team record for hits in consecutive games, it brings me back to the memories of what a great player Willie was in his prime.  He was a gazelle on the base paths and in the field.  I remember him making a spectacular catch in the early 70's that I didn't see with my own eyes but only those eyes in my head because the play was described by Vin Scully.  He ranked it as the third greatest catch he had ever seen. He said catches ranked 1 and 2 were made by the Sey Hey Kid.

Ethier's hitting streak is quite a story, and I'm sorry that the 3-Dog isn't here to witness it.  I wonder how long his luck will continue as defenders fail to come up with the great defensive plays against him.  In every great hitting streak, you need your share of luck to keep it going, and it looks like Ethier has already had some.  I’m not saying this to downplay his accomplishments thus far.  To the contrary, Andre is absolutely clutch and both he and Kemp have carried the club thus far, but it made me wonder about other famous streaks and how they were compared to Ethier’s.

After reviewing Pete Rose's 44 game hit streak in 1978, I’m not that impressed.  We all know what Pete was, a singles hitter, so it’s no surprise that his record was made up of a bunch of singles.  Over Rose’s 44 games, 53 of his 66 hits where singles, the remaining 13 hits were all doubles.  So far in Ethier’s modest 28 game streak, he has surpassed Rose’s extra base hits with 4 homers and 10 doubles. 

Second, the national media is downplaying Ethier’s accomplishment thus far.  Roberto Baly at Vin Scully is my Homeboy Chronicles this fact. 

Link:  http://www.vinscullyismyhomeboy.com/2011/05/media-being-negative-on-andre-ethiers.html

Sports Illustrated and ESPN both downplay Ethier’s accomplishment which is ridiculous.  It looks to me that their opinions have been jilted by the two infield hits by Ethier in the last two games.  Both were legitimate hits, by the way.  Overlooked by these reporters is the fact that Ethier has had ten multi-hit games during the streak, three of which were games when he collected three hits.  Are we looking at the East Coast bias raising its ugly head again?

Third, I was on a plane while Frank McCourt was being interviewed on the radio and was fielding phone calls from fans.  The comments I have read on blogs seem to insinuate that he really took it on the chin.  Now comes acknowledgement that he has admitted that he will be insolvent by July if a TV deal with Fox does not come to fruition.  This simply means that Bud Selig holds the cards and can force McCourt out of ownership in a matter of two months.  I can't imagine all of this playing out without McCourt going the litigious route again.

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Last personal comment.  

It has been an extremely emotional week as my family and I met in Southern Utah for the funeral and burial of my father. During that time I have been soberly reminded that sports is really the "toy department" of life and is simply for our entertainment.  It wasn't that I didn't know that already, but I probably needed a reminder if it.  The funeral was the most touching and loving service I have ever attended as all seven children of my father spoke.  It was a worthy representation of his fine life.  We laid him to rest at a private cemetery in the Southern Utah town of New Harmony, at the foot of Zion National Park.  A more beautiful setting I could not imagine.  My sister took these photos at the graveside service.  They couldn't be more perfect.

OKP blog will be active again soon...

Unless some unforeseen circumstances develop, this blog will resume activity on Tuesday or Wednesday, (May 3rd or 4th). I remain attending to family matters and my mother's needs following the passing of my father. I appreciate the loyal following and condolences sent by readers.

Earl George Bladh, 1928-2011

I post this from my i-phone at my father's home in St. George, UT. Dad passed away early this morning at 83 years of age. He was a wonderful man that I will treasure for all my days. Attached is a link to a story I wrote on him on his birthday in March. He called and spoke to me shortly after that and it was our last conversation, lasting about 15 seconds. I am grateful that his suffering has ended and have faith that he's in a better place.

Link: http://opinionofkingmansperformance.blogspot.com/2011/03/its-my-dads-83rd-birthdayive-been-so.html

My brother Eric wrote him a touching poem a few years ago. I'd like to share it here. There are some references to mormon theology, but the loving message is conveyed.
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My father never wrote a book, or sailed encharted seas,
He's never walked upon the moon, or cured some dread disease,
He's never scored the winning run in a single World Series game,
And as far as I know the President doesn't even know his name.

But I saw him help his neighbors whenever they needed a helping hand.
He's fixed their cars and taught their kids, hauled rocks and pitch and sand.
And I saw how helping others truly was its own reward,
For when you serve your fellow man, you only serve your Lord.

My father's not a millionaire, he's never traveled far.
When I graduated from school, he could not buy me a car.
He's never held the winning ticket in a single lottry,
And, try as I might, I've never seen his face on MTV.

But he sent me on a mission where my testimony grew strong.
He held home eveing every week, we even have a family song.
And now that I've grown older and have a family of my own,
I see that no success can compensate for failure in the home.

My father never saved a life or fought on foreign shores.
He's never earned a doctorate or been honored with awards.
He's never run for Senator or been sought out by the Press.
No Pope ot King or Ambassador has even asked for his address.

But I've learned something that the world has long been searching for.
It's not gained from riches, worldly succes or learned by waging war.
For I have seen him live his life while holding the Iron Rod.
And I know, that most precious truth, the way to return to God.

OKP blog will be inactive for a few days

Due to the illness of my father, who is surely living his last days on this earth, I have been unable to post any new material. The OKP blog will resume activity when I return home at an undetermined time. Thank you to the many that have expressed concerns and offered prayers on my family's behalf.