RIP Bob Welch

That is wonderful. Simply wonderful. Thanks for sharing, DD.

RIP, Mr. Welch...

 

That was a terrific read.

As I said earlier, Bob pitched at Eastern Michigan; about 10 years later, I was the team's scorekeeper. I had a "theory of baseball" class taught by the head coach, Ron Oestrike, and part of the class was not only reading "Five O'Clock Comes Early," but also seeing the documentary. To read and see something powerful like this, then get to meet him, that was pretty cool.

What was even more cool was that "Oak" was moved enough by Bob going into rehab that he took a look in the mirror and decided he was drinking too much, as well. Oak gave up alcohol. Whenever you would come into the baseball coaches' office, he would open the mini-fridge and offer you a Coke or Cherry Coke.

For someone who commanded the respect of so many young men and cared about them as people to admit his faults, then do something about them, that takes a heck of a man - and he earned that much more respect, in my eyes. Here's a guy who loved the game, but loved being a coach, a husband and a father even more.

All because of Bob Welch.

 

Red Sox fans have been insufferable douchebags for at least five decades -- probably a lot longer than that.

 

Thanks for sharing that, DD. I loved it. I saw that Glenn Stout was among the commenters, so I hope it gets BASW consideration.

 

Longer.
Last to integrate.
Scumbag fans, scumbag franchise.
You would openly hear the N-word at Fenway, before the pink hatters.
The fawning pro-Red Sox national media, centered in Bristol, doesn't want to talk about any of these things.

 

He edited the piece. He's in charge of SB Nation's longform. While I do think — speaking as frankly as possible — there are complications about SB Nation stories being considered for/making it into BASW, I would definitely deem this one worthy of consideration.

 

and with a fly fishing element for added metaphor

Seriously, a really fine story.Thx for posting DD. Doubt I ever would have come across.

 

I've had a chance to think about the story some more and one thing that bothered me
a bit was Toor's Eastern elite "I'm smarter than you" state of mind. Clearly she started out
looking at Welch as some sort of neanderthal. but at least took the time to get to know him better.

Don't think she ever said if they stayed in touch. Maybe it was before smart phones hit critical mass.

 

Meh, those guys only went 9 innings.

 

Yeah, the throwaway "not the sharpest tool in the shed" line and the gratuitous thing about conjugating verbs (not really worth mentioning unless he really sounded like a complete yokel talking, which from most of the quotes, he didn't) did give it a kind of condescending air.

Also she seemed to know a leetle too much of the technical and psychological aspects of baseball to have, as she claimed, no idea of who Willie Mays or Sandy Koufax were.

Still it was a very readable piece and there's no reason to doubt the gist of the story -- just a couple of the details.

As far as the epilogue details: how long they stayed together, how and why they broke up, whether or not they were still in contact: I don't know if I want to know or if it's really any of my business.

I had a fair number of relationships in the 1970s-90s, before the cell phone and computer age, and with most of them, I've completely lost contact. I guess now with cell phones and email and Facebook and Twitter, it's a little more difficult to break relationships off completely and pretty much requires an affirmative "I never want to hear from you again" declaration from one or both parties, but once the flame is out, there's not much point in keeping up 'for old time's sake.'

 

I thought the piece was OK, but Toor painted Welch in a hazy kind of light.
Flirted too much around the edges. I wanted more – much more – about Welch himself.

I loved his book back in the day. Made me a Welch fan for life.
Great to see all his friends saying what a fantastic teammate he was, too.

 

Not surprising.
It's how most of the Eastern elite trained at Ivy League schools think. They're smarter than everyone else.