makepeac

Another boyhood idol gone, RIP Bill.

Little known fun fact. Apparently AO and I overlapped one year in high school as Tustin Tillers along with Mrs Rod Carew. AO was a senior, but obviously at least 22 and held back multiple times as his attention was more focused on baseball trivia, professional wrestling and giving every teacher a worthy nickname.

I still chuckle at AO so adroitly tagging C.J. Wilson “Nibs Nibbler.” Bluto anointing Flounder and Pinto into Delta House pales in comparison.

Previously after my Dad’s own and thankfully very early ‘64 Vietnam tour ended we had been stationed and lived off base just outside of Detroit down near Metro Airport from ‘65-‘70, where I gained my love of Motown, Daves Bing and Debuscherre on the Pistons, saw smoke 12 miles off in the distance and National Guard personnel carriers drive through our neighborhood as the city burned during the July ‘67 riots, and more importantly, fell in love with the great Tiger team of that era culminating in the come from behind ‘68 WS championship. Al Kaline soon became my new boyhood idol joining Jerry West and Vince Lombardi’s great Packer teams of the era. Those Tiger teams had the Mickeys Lolich & Stanley, Denny McLain’s 31 win season, Bill Freehan, Willie Horton, Norm Cash, Dick McAuliffe, Jim Northrop, Earl Wilson, all illuminated nightly through my transistor radio by the remarkable radio play by play calls of the legendary Ernie Harwell on 50K watt clear channel blowtorch WJR AM. Following that, Hawaii and the PCL were quite quaint, though I was lucky enough to get to listen nightly to a young Al Michaels doing the Islander radio broadcasts with future Pirate manager Chuck Tanner the Islanders skipper. Then finally on to OC and SoCal and more nightly radio magic from legends Chick Hearn, Vin Scully, and Dick Enberg. And now, 34 years as an Angel season ticket holder who can’t wait to get back into the stadium for live baseball.

In 1970 my career Marine Air Wing Msgt father and family were assigned to Kaneohe Bay, Oahu at the height of the Vietnam war. The Hawaii Islanders were in their final year of being the Angels PCL affiliate before becoming the Padres Triple A team the following season. The Islanders were led by Winston Llenas and won their PCL division and in the league playoffs faced faced their big PCL rival the Spokane Indians who were the Dodgers Triple A team, managed by Tommy Lasorda and featuring league MVP SS Bobby Valentine as well as future Dodgers Garvey, Lopes, Cey, Yeager, Paciorek, Buckner, Hough, Rau, etc. After the war ended we were sent to El Toro where I continued to watch these same players on the Dodgers.

With Iglesias at SS that’s great for this year. Next year though I’d prefer the better, more naturally talented and just more baseball intuitive player in Fletcher play the much more important and demanding SS position if Renigfo or Barreto or someone else internally can show the can play 2B. Renigfo is young with potential but mentally on the field sometimes seems like a very close relative of Aybar. Hopefully it’s just a maturity issue and he can grow and develop out of it as Maddon has inferred. Then instead of chasing and signing the expensive FA SS options like Linder, Correa, Seager, etc. use the Pujols money and eventually Upton money coming off the books in the future to invest in better pitching and filling various other holes, catcher, etc.

Isn’t Fletcher actually a better SS with better arm at this point, with Reningfo possibly a better fit at 2B long term?

We used to regularly play the old Riverview course in Mesa which closed when they built the Cubs new Sloan Park Stadium on part of that land. Now we just do Top Golf and call it even.

During the 1997 remodel with the OF grandstands removed, Ken Griffey hit a ball center which seemed to clear the construction and leave the stadium but I never heard or read any confirmation of what I thought I saw. Last summer we were golfing with my friend who used to share our piece of season tickets and his now 33 year old son. In the middle of the round we got to talking old games we saw and the son innocently and out of the blue asked if Ken Griffey actually did clear the park that day. He was 10 when it happened and like me still wondered if our eyes deceived us that day.

?? Everything I’ve read says both Suzuki and Victorino were born and grew up in Wailuku Maui.

Nibs Dibbler

That article in The Athletic from ten days ago pointed out that in addition to the Cubs, the Nationals, White Sox, Red Sox, Yankees, Cardinals, Phillies, Angels and Giants have also enacted cost-cutting measures such as layoffs, furloughs, salary reductions and buyout packages. As Lou alluded to, Arte just did it and had it reported in the press earlier. Does that make him cheap or a shrewd businessman making tough decisions?

I’m not a big fan either. I actually agreed with what Bill wrote in this column. It’s not anything specifically about any one column he writes. He just tends to drift with the tide. I think as a columnist Bill often tends to write articles more to draw readers than present a consistent viewpoint. The lawyer as ambulance chaser motif in print journalism at times. For example, he repeatedly piled on the Lakers and Rob and Jeanie when Magic was pulling his histrionics last year but once their drama less approach to managing a front office produced a championship he was suddenly back on board. His old pal Simers was even better at it but also was better at providing some level of sarcastic yet slightly comedic effect. It’s something I could never do and one reason why I never pursued that line of employment in the end. I do understand they need to pay the bills and drawing attention is part of it. Just don’t agree with it. I do love Jeff Fletcher, though he’s a beat writer so it’s an apples to oranges comparison at times with a columnist like Bill. But Fletch is a straight shooter, even more so on this board than in print. Now Dollar Bill Shaikin on the other hand and his continuous anti-Angels and anti-Arte thing does perplex me. Almost seems like a grudge or vendetta at times, very consistent and unrelenting. These guys are all incredibly talented writers. Just don’t always agree with their approaches to what they write. But they do get my clicks (via the old school subscription method going back over 40 years now).