Greg Goossen RIP

Gossen has had more written about him here than he did his whole baseball career.

 

"A field of alfalfa is a great place to lie down and look up at the sky."

I made it a point to buy all the Seattle Pilots baseball cards I could find. Awesome to put faces with the stories.

 

I wonder if Mr. Talbert has received his share of the prize money that fan won for the grand slam.

 

"Crissakes Gelnar. You're not going to get them out by drinking Dr. Pepper."

 

That damn Donald Dubois.

 

"Steve Hovley sidled up to me and said, 'A base hit is an example of negative feedback.' "

 

If you have a little extra cash, get the Pilots DVD for the same reason. I was amazed at how small Sicks Stadium was.

 

Uh oh.

 

Sicks (I know it was named after a beer guy, but what a crazy name) was only supposed to be a temporary stadium for the Pilots. However, the Pilots moved so quickly, the park couldn't be built until the Kingdome.

Funny thing, that season, it was only 305' to the left field line. No wonder Ray Oyler hit seven home runs that year with a .165 average.

And speaking of Oyler:

"Guys, I had all the ingredients for a great piece of ass last night. Plenty of time, and a hard-on. All I lacked was a broad."

 

Pretty good retrospective of Sicks Stadium here.

http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/past/SicksStadium.htm

 

In the forward of Ball Four plus Ball Five, Bouton talks about how he gives speeches on college campuses and he is amazed how college kids still quote the book. He should check out this thread. I remember his failed comeback attempt with the Braves, but am not old enough to remember the Astros-Pilots seasons.

Interesting thing about Bouton, also revealed in Ball Four plus Ball Five, he is the inventor of Big League Chew (the bubblegum in a pouch). So he definitely is not hurting for cash.