Quote:
Originally Posted by Tobra
I am with Bazza. Baseball was still the American Pastime when I was a kid. I remember the great players the Giants and A's had. Bonds, Mays, Willie Mac, Marichal. Those ridiculous teams the A's had in the 1970's, Vida Blue, Blue Moon Odom, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, Reggie, Billy North, Joe Rudi, Sal Bando, Gene Tenace, they were loaded. How can you not be a baseball fan, going to the Oakland Coliseum on a fine summer day to watch the most epic collection of facial hair ever fielded.
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Hijack in progress:
I posted this 'bout 10 years ago:
Quote:
Originally Posted by sammyg2
The funniest brush with fame I've had was getting drunk with Joe Rudi, Tim Wallach, my oldest brother and a couple other Angels players and driving those Malibu grand prix cars. The track was right next to A stadium at the time (long since plowed over).
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Back story: When my oldest brother was 11, he was the state little league all star MVP. My dad was the manager of the team, they won the state little league all stars two years in a row.
Anywho, they went to Fremont Ca. for the western regionals and the sponsor family my brother was staying with knew Joe Rudi and they went to Joe's house for a BBQ. This was back in the Oakland As heyday with all those great players mentioned above.
My brother got to meet one of his idols and got an autographed ball and pennant, the whole deal.
Fast forward about 8 years later: my brother was pitching for the cal State Fullerton baseball teal, managed by the great Augie Gurrido.
Augie had set up a pre-season practice game between the Fullerton team and the California angels. I think it was in '78.
You'd think that would me a huge miss-match but at the time it wasn't that bad. That Fullerton team went on to win the world series the next year and the angels were usually in the cellar back then.
So my brother was on the mound and Joe Rudi came to bat. He was at the end of his career and my brother snuck a couple fastballs past him and sat him down. Like something from Hollywood, but he was throwing in the high 90's at the time.
After the game my brother introduced himself and told Joe how he remembered the BBQ.
next thing ya know, there are a bunch of really good baseball players drinking beer in my parents garage. I invited myself and no one objected too much.
At the time my brother had a part-time college job at the malibu grand prix that was right next to A stadium. It wasn't a real job, more like a show up once in a while and get a paycheck from alumni thing. Someone said, hey I got an idea! Let's finish these beers and go drive go-karts!
That was a good day. Back when baseball was still our national past-time.