Pearlman on Ron LeFlore

Good, quick read on old Tiger outfielder...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/jeff_pearlman/04/17/leflore/index.html

 

Pearlman has a real knack for finding that OTHER story when something major happens. This one about LeFlore after the Bird's death. The one about the kid baseball player who drowned 20 years ago, which he wrote when the NFLers went missing at sea.

 

You're right, it is a good read. But it's hard to feel too much sympathy for a guy who complains that he gave his life to baseball and now baseball won't give back. I wonder what kind of life he would have had coming out of prison if it hadn't been for baseball in the first place.

 

Well said. Why am I supposed to feel sorry for this guy? Why should somebody hand him a job?

 

As much as I like LeFlore. And I've met him in person, interviewed him. You're both right. Baseball gave to Ron first. If it wasn't for baseball, he may have served more than his five years.

 

met him in person? I used to be his paper boy, when he bought his first house in Detroit from Kirk Gibson... his mom used to plead with his next-door neighbor to make him keep up the house, cause it was the first nice thing he ever had.
I remember one February day -- a Friday because I was collecting -- where he pulled up to his house, eight down from mine, got out of the car and went in the house.
An hour later after I finished the route (collection day), I passed back on my way home -- the Continental still running...

 

Slappy, you remember the same Ronnie, I do. He was unfailingly likeable, which lulled folks into believing him and that was almost always a mistake. During his time in the majors he had nothing but opportunities but frittered it all away by a long series of very bad choices. I certainly do not wish him ill, but I feel no sympathy for him.

 

Chaz, I remember him playing street football with us a couple of times on Somerset. it was like you'd take the snap, count to five and throw long. Only one guy could cover him - Bill Gracey. Cool guy, LeFlore's wife was smokin hot -- or was to a hormonal 14-15 year old.
And I had it backward. He sold the house to Gibson, the running joke was it's Gibson's boarding house.. Tom Brookens used to stay there.
I remember when he moved into the neighborhood. Bought Johnny Gauss's house; dad was a comptroller at FTD and had major bucks to move to West Bumfuck.
I came home all excited "MOM! A Tiger is moving down the street!"
She asked who and I told her. "Isn't he black," asked my mom.
"Yeah, but so what? HE's a Tiger!"
Keep in mind that Coleman Young had just become mayor of Detroit and the balance of power had shifted. By Michigan-Ohio State weekend of 1977, we were out of Detroit and in Grosse Pointe Woods about two miles from you, CV...


And the first time I walked into the Lindell A.C. I thought of him. And then I thought of Billy Martin punching out Dave Boswell. And then I had a beer.

 

I think Pearlman's remarkable talent is wasted on this kind of shit. We're bored, so we'll find some down-on-his-luck athlete, and, oh, ain't it sad (or tsk-tsk, he blew a fortune). This one isn't quite J.R. Richard living under a bridge, anyway, and we've been running this genre forever. Stanley Woodward mentions a series of them -- in the 1940s, IIRC -- in his classic "Sports Page."

Yeah, I read it. I remember him playing ball. But this one falls more into the category of idle gawking than reporting. Let's dial up old so-and-so and see if his life is fucked up. And if it isn't fucked up enough, we can call someone else whose life is more fucked up.

 

Ron LeFlore? SI is paying for this stuff?

 

Baseball used and saved Ron LeFlore's life. He's not the only ex-ball player looking to get into coaching or managing. LeFlore has a lot to offer and could be an asset in the RBI program.

 

I may have some of the details wrong, but in the late 80s I believe LeFlore was singing the same old tune about how baseball owed him somthing.

Some people got together and gave him a chance to go to umpire school with a job lined up in the minors after he was done the school. I guess it didn't pan out, and I don't think he even finished umpire school.