A good read about Eric Show from ESPN

Didn't even know who the hell Eric Show was, but the story had me hooked.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=5543839

 

Re: A really good read from ESPN

Was just about to post this. That was absolutely outstanding, even if the ending felt just a bit forced.

 

Re: A really good read from ESPN

Looking forward to reading. Show once tried explaining to me what it meant to be a John Bircher...I wonder what he would have thought of politics in America today.

 

Re: A really good read from ESPN

Wow.

 

Re: A really good read from ESPN

beautiful piece

 

Re: A really good read from ESPN

Show was a pitcher for the Quincy, Ill., team in the Central Illinois Collegiate League during the summer of '75 or '76. I was working for the paper there and got to know him for that summer. Heard him play his guitar in his apartment, ate after-midnight breakfast with him at a greasy spoon, watched wet t-shirt contests at the local disco.

Followed his career from afar and thought of that summer the night he gave up Rose's hit.

Sad, sad ending to a life that might be the definition of "tortured soul."

RIP, Eric.

 

Re: A really good read from ESPN

This answers the question about what happened to Tom Friend.

Nice work.

 

Re: A really good read from ESPN

Ira Berkow did pretty much the same story back in 1994:

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/27/sports/baseball-eric-show-s-solitary-life-and-death.html?pagewanted=all

I think Ira's is better.

 

Re: A really good read from ESPN

Great story. Never knew any of those things about him.

 

Re: A really good read from ESPN

Fuck, that was depressing.

Damn.

 

Re: A really good read from ESPN

Writers look for anniversaries to write about this guy. A few years ago the San Diego paper did a shorter version of this story (or as much as space as they could get these days to write about this guy).