RIP, Fred Talbot

So long, Mr. Talbert. Ball Four wouldn't have been as good without you.

http://www.legacy.com/guestbooks/washingtonpost/guestbook.aspx?n=frederick-talbot&pid=162397156&cid=full

 

St. Peter: Welcome Mr. Talbert.
Fred: Nice teeth ya got there.

RIP

 

Talbot probably went to the grave not getting his share of the home run money. Hope they have some Budweiser for him to pound in heaven.

 

He looks like a goddamn perch.

 

After Goosen, he may have been the most interesting guy in the book. Bouton hated him in the beginning, but after awhile he sees that Talbot is one of the brighter guys out there. They have a perfect love-hate relationship at times.

 

Talbot hated him for it, though. Bouton really turned him (and a few other teammates) into a hillbilly caricature, and as Bouton has spent the last 40 years trying to make up for, Talbot was a lot more interesting than that in real life.

 

I hope someone in the Donald Dubois clan is lighting up a candle somewhere tonight.

People always mention the fake letter Bouton wrote offering him some of the home-run money, but the Pilot players pulled another great one on Talbot earlier in the book when one of them had a lawyer friend draw up a fake legal document naming Talbot in a paternity suit. Bouton's description of everyone watching Talbot's reaction when they all knew what it was was priceless.

 

He was?

 

Fred Talbot would never be afraid of rap.

 

He was from the north part of the South.

 

I should have clarified ..the relationship in the book. There are times when it appears Talbot genuinely likes Bouton and enjoys teasing him as such (the part when he says "eat your heart out" when Bouton hears Talbot get a starting nod for a series...I always took that Talbot wasn't being mean, but trying to make a joke) and appear genuinely hurt (the entrance exam comment about why Talbot didnt play college football) by Bouton's sarcasm.

 

I don't know what things are like in cycling, but baseball clubhouses are filled with diverse people who are thrown together by circumstance, often for the very short term. Ball Four is probably typical -- neither Bouton nor Talbot spent the full season with the Pilots. A few guys are friends, but most of them are just serving time in the same outfit. All of which means you're probably reading too much into the few recorded interactions of Bouton and Talbot.