I had a business meeting with a couple of Canadian friends the other day and they were bemoaning the fact that back in the days of the six team NHL, kids would pick their favorite team and then be able to cheer on their favorite player for years and years.  It’s definitely not like that anymore in hockey, to say the least.

And it’s not like that anymore with baseball.  But back in the day it was the same as hockey.  I’ve been a Cardinal fan my whole life and I can tell you the starting lineup for the 1967-8 Cardinals teams that were NL Champs 2 years in a row, winning the world series in 1967 and losing the seventh game to the Detroit Tigers a year later.

I thought to myself with the era of free agency dawning shortly after my hero, Bob Gibson, retired, WWBGD if he in fact became eligible for free agency.

It’s a difficult quandary.

Because of his fierce competitive nature and because he would always want to play for the championship, one could assume that he would rather sign with a perennial contender than stay with one team out of loyalty if that team had fallen on bad competitive times.  And I would imagine because of his close friendship with Curt Flood [another hero of baseball and should be in the HOF, IMHO], he would have wanted to seize control of his own destiny.  He could go to wherever it was best for him, his career, his family and his team.

So, I could see him signing on with the great Oakland A’s teams of the early 1970’s or with the pitching and defense laden Baltimore Orioles or anchor the lackluster starting pitching staff of the famed Big Red Machine.

However, I would dare say that he would be loyal to the city, his team and teammates and would choose to make the best deal he could with his current team.  He’d be a Tony Gwynn or a Cal Ripken.  People who stayed with the home team because they wanted to spend their career in one place. He would dance with the date that brung him to the dance.  I believe he would be pissed off when one of his teammates left just for the money.  He would throw at them the first chance he got.

Just ask his best friend, Bill White.

As trumpeted by his Hall of Fame plaque, George Kell was “a solid hitter and a sure-handed fielder with a strong, accurate arm, was the American League’s premier third baseman in the 1940s and 1950s. He batted over .300 nine times and led the American League with a .343 average in 1949 while playing for the Detroit Tigers. He topped American League third basemen in fielding percentage seven times, in assists four times and in putouts and double plays twice.”

Our Arkansas correspondent, Jim Sanders, caught up with Kell recently and recorded his comments on several topics. (more…)

Remember back when it was a game?  When the hitters didn’t wear body armor, the pitchers wanted to own their half of the plate, the catchers weren’t afraid to whip one past the batters’ ears if he thought they were doing something wrong.  And the umpires called the strike zone in accordance with the rules and let the players play according to the unwritten rules.   Everyone knew what they were.  I could have titled my part of this blogosphere What Would Don Drysdale Do? or What Would Nolan Ryan Do?  Since it’s my column and my hero, I went with What Would Bob Gibson Do. 

Here’s an old skool real-life scenario — Frank Robinson would dig-in against the pitcher trying to intimidate him.  And if you were any pitcher not named Gibson or Drysdale you would be intimidated.  Drysdale or Gibson would simply throw at him or anyone for that matter.  In the HBO documentary, When It Was A Game, they show a video highlight of 4 pitches.  Mano a Mano.  Robinson against Drysdale.  On each pitch Robinson would dig in and Drysdale threw at him.  4 balls.  One walk.  Neither man gave in.

So, I was wondering, in today’s game, where everyone seems to be so lovey-dovey, WWBGD?  A few weeks ago in Spring Training, a young Yankees player slid spikes high into a young Rays player.  The names aren’t important.  What is important is that back in the Pete Rose bowling over Ray Fosse in an All-Star game day this would have been an everyday getting ready for the season experience. 

I didn’t hear one of the talking heads say anything positive about the play.  They talked about the  outrage of someone playing dirty like that in Spring Training.  To quote Animal House, “What was he supposed to do, you Mo-Ron.” 

And I asked myself, “WWBGD?”  My wife heard me say this and asked, “what?”  I said, “nuttin’ honey.”

Here’s what I think.  If he [HEAVEN FORBID] was a NY Yankee, when the Yankees player arrived at the dugout, Gibby would have been sitting there alone with a wry smile on his face and he probably would have gotten up, simply shook the young man’s hand and said something innocuous like, “Good job, son.”

If OTOH he was a Tampa Rays pitcher and was on the mound, he would have put his first pitch in the middle of the first Yankees’ batter’s back, who would have simply trotted down to first base, trying to show that he wasn’t hurt by the pitch.  The umpire would have picked up the ball, rubbed a bit, thrown it back to Hoot and said, “Batter Up.”

Watch this space for more WWBGD.  Or if you have WWBGD question, feel free to contact me here.

By Steve Lombardi

A World Series sweep is an exceptional incident. It also stirs either extreme jubilation or great sadness for hometown fans of the participants. For the winning side, the source of utmost delight is obvious — your team excelled while never experiencing the finality of a loss. For fans rooting for the eventual losing team, the pain is numbing — having the still somewhat fresh and resonating joy of the triumphant Pennant chase completely washed over by a tidal wave of their Series opponent’s dominance, without striking even a single shot against their foe. (more…)

By Olga Zavolovich

McGwire, Sosa, Krassner and Gilmore — home run hitters extraordinaire! McGwire topped Maris and ended 1998 at 70. Sosa was right behind him with 66. But neither has equaled the feats of Jerry Krassner and John Gilmore who, as members of the Foreign Devils over-30 baseball team, have homered in Denmark, Ukraine, and China.

While most Americans enjoy their summer vacations relaxing in splendid bliss, Gilmore and Krassner answer the call of the ump to travel to exotic lands in the pursuit of international baseball. Appropriately named the “Foreign Devils,” over the last few years John and Jerry have tasted the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat in Beijing, Shanghai, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Amsterdam, Kiev, Kirovograd, and Copenhagen. (more…)