Dooley Womack, please report to Baltimore

[I Should Coco]

Was skimming through one of my favorite books recently when I realized that one of SportsJournalists.com's most prolific posters and one of SportsJournalists.com's favorite writers were forever linked to each other 40 years ago on this date (Aug. 26, 1969).

From "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton:

At nine this morning while I was asleep in my room at the Statler Hilton in Baltimore the phone rang. I picked it up and Joe Schultz said: "Jim, you've been traded to the Houston Astros."
There were two things I wanted to know. The first was, where was I? You travel as much as we do and somebody wakes you up in the morning, you don't know where you are. The second thing was, who for? You like to hear a big name on the other end. It's good for your morale.
"Who for?" I said to Schultz.
"Dooley Womack," he said.
Dooley Womack? Holy mackerel. The same Dooley Womack whose great spring I almost matched with the Yankees? Oh Lord! I hope there was a lot of undisclosed cash involved. I hope a hundred thousand, at least. Maybe it's me for a hundred thousand and Dooley Womack is just a throw-in. I'd hate to think that at this stage of my career I was being traded even-up for Dooley Womack.

 

[shockey]

this is a joke, right? ??? ??? ???

 

[dooley_womack1]

As good a spring as Jim Bouton, *******. 8)

 

[Songbird]

at least dooley doesn't look like joe torre with tits.

 

[slappy4428]

********.

well said

 

[ArnoldBabar]

In honor of this historic day, let's go pound some Bud!

 

[mustangj17]

this is a joke, right? ??? ??? ???

Horace Guy "Dooley" Womack (Born: August 25, 1939 in Columbia, South Carolina) is a former right-handed throwing, left-handed hitting relief pitcher who played for the New York Yankees, Houston Astros, Seattle Pilots and Oakland Athletics from 1966 to 1970. He was 6'0" tall but weighed only 170 pounds. - Wikipedia.

 

[imjustagirl]

this is a joke, right? ??? ??? ???

Horace Guy "Dooley" Womack (Born: August 25, 1939 in Columbia, South Carolina) is a former right-handed throwing, left-handed hitting relief pitcher who played for the New York Yankees, Houston Astros, Seattle Pilots and Oakland Athletics from 1966 to 1970. He was 6'0" tall but weighed only 170 pounds. - Wikipedia.

This is my favorite post of the day, and I'm only five hours into said day. Spectacularly awesome.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

"The end of an era. And there goes the Seattle dynasty, slowly crumbling." - Mike Hegan.

I've always thought that scene is one of the best transitional parts of a book ever (if that makes any sense). Here you have Bouton on a last place team, then all of a sudden, he gets traded into the pennant race.

 

[imjustagirl]

MIKE HEGAN!

The voice of the Indians (well, on TV) when I was growing up. Him and Rick Manning.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

See, I quoted Mike Hegan. Am I still dead to you, IJAG?

 

[mustangj17]

this is a joke, right? ??? ??? ???

Horace Guy "Dooley" Womack (Born: August 25, 1939 in Columbia, South Carolina) is a former right-handed throwing, left-handed hitting relief pitcher who played for the New York Yankees, Houston Astros, Seattle Pilots and Oakland Athletics from 1966 to 1970. He was 6'0" tall but weighed only 170 pounds. - Wikipedia.

This is my favorite post of the day, and I'm only five hours into said day. Spectacularly awesome.

Glad I can help.

If you liked that, you would love some of the other intros I can pull from there.

1. Bison Dele (April 6, 1969 – presumed dead July 7, 2002)[1] formerly known as Brian Carson Williams, was an American professional basketball player who finished his career as a center for the NBA's Detroit Pistons. He is believed to have been murdered at sea by his older brother in 2002.

2. Troy McClure is a fictional character in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. He was voiced by Phil Hartman, and first appears in the second season episode "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment".[1] McClure is a washed-up actor, usually shown doing low-level work, such as hosting infomercials and educational films. He appears as the central character in "A Fish Called Selma", in which he marries Selma Bouvier to aid his failing career and quash rumors about his personal life.

3. George Lewis Costanza is a fictional character in the United States–based television sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998), played by Jason Alexander. He has variously been described as a "short, stocky, slow-witted, bald man"

 

[WolvEagle]

Talk about coincidence - I'm re-reading "Ball Four" right now. I just passed where he finally got a start for the Pilots - and got "creamed". What an awesome, awesome book.

 

[I Should Coco]

Talk about coincidence - I'm re-reading "Ball Four" right now. I just passed where he finally got a start for the Pilots - and got "creamed". What an awesome, awesome book.

My thoughts exactly. When I first read the book, as a high-school kid, the jokes and the "beaver shooting" humor were what hooked me in.

Now, what stands out is that for all his wisecracks and jokes about Joe Schultz, Bouton really did love the game -- as the classic closing line to Ball Four attests:

"You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time."

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

********.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I always used to enjoy that fact that during quiet study hall in junior high, I woudl read that book. I always felt like I was getting away with something by reading a book that had sexual overtones while in school.

 

[WolvEagle]

Just remember - Baseball is an Ass.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

I <i>loved</i> Ball Four. Don't know how many times I read it, or how many hundreds of times my friends and I traded lines from it. It rekindled my sagging interest in baseball, because it showed what things were really like instead of the sanitized, "Joe Doubles spent the afternoon at the kids' hospital" stuff that the club sold.

I still love Ball Four, and I thank Bouton and Len Shecter for it. But I have to admit that my perspective changed at least a bit after I got into the business and discovered that Mike Marshall was an Ass.

 

[Moderator1]

Love that book. I spent the summer of 69 in Seattle, went to several games at Sicks Stadium.

Bouton came through Richmond during his 1978 comeback. Had a couple of interesting conversations with him.

 

[The Big Ragu]

I've read Ball Four. Not much to add. ... except Smasher and Moddy are two old dudes. *I* sometimes feel old on this board, but geez guys.