Tue Apr 17, 2007 2:21 pm
Paul...gotta' admit, not all of the 34 years was "in the trenches". During that time I was also the Sports Rep. to the Washington Senators. Got to know "Teddy Ballgame" and go on the road with the team (by invitation). Had my own "uni" and threw some BP and took my turn in the cage with the pitchers. I was in the best shape of my life.
Also got to travel with the Redskins a few times and with the UMd and VMI football teams.
One of my greatest thrills in life was when I was in the cage hitting while a pitcher worked on his knuckle ball. I was hitting some screamers to right and heard a voice behind me say, "That swing looks a helluva' lot better than it did in the spring." I turned around and it was Ted Williams. Needless to say, my little heart went thumpity-thump.
So it wasn't ALL "grits", a lot of it was "gravy"
Mudge the fortunate
Also got to travel with the Redskins a few times and with the UMd and VMI football teams.
One of my greatest thrills in life was when I was in the cage hitting while a pitcher worked on his knuckle ball. I was hitting some screamers to right and heard a voice behind me say, "That swing looks a helluva' lot better than it did in the spring." I turned around and it was Ted Williams. Needless to say, my little heart went thumpity-thump.
So it wasn't ALL "grits", a lot of it was "gravy"
Mudge the fortunate
Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:18 am
Mudge wrote:Paul...gotta' admit, not all of the 34 years was "in the trenches". During that time I was also the Sports Rep. to the Washington Senators. Got to know "Teddy Ballgame" and go on the road with the team (by invitation). Had my own "uni" and threw some BP and took my turn in the cage with the pitchers. I was in the best shape of my life.
Also got to travel with the Redskins a few times and with the UMd and VMI football teams.
One of my greatest thrills in life was when I was in the cage hitting while a pitcher worked on his knuckle ball. I was hitting some screamers to right and heard a voice behind me say, "That swing looks a helluva' lot better than it did in the spring." I turned around and it was Ted Williams. Needless to say, my little heart went thumpity-thump.
So it wasn't ALL "grits", a lot of it was "gravy"
Mudge the fortunate
Wow! Ted Williams! Incredible! So did he give you some pointers on your swing? What a great memory. I did a few sports charters and one was particularly memorable. We were flying the Mets (pre 9/11) and it was acceptable policy to have the cockpit door open at cruise. We took turns going back to meet some of the players/manager and one notable encounter was meeting Mike Piazza while he was in the middle of a poker game with his teammates--very friendly guy. I'll never forget seeing him and a some of the other players engrossed in this poker game and this enormous pile of $100 bills in the pot!! The other thing that struck me was the enormous portions in the custom catered meals we provided them, and most of the guys at every scrap. It had to be the equivalent of two or three meals for mere mortals.
Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:43 pm
No...never got any tips from him. Every now and then he'd take a turn in the cage and all activity would stop while we watched him hit. Dude was in his 50's and could still sting the ball. Needless to say, sweetest swing you ever saw.
I know what you mean about meals. I was in charge of ordering the inflight stuff. Filet was always a winner. Poker pots got a bit outrageous on our flights, too.
Used to board 3 cases of beer and a full liquor cabinet on each flight. Players were restricted to beer only (on the plane) but everyone else could have drinks. Ted always drank Dry Sec. Nellie Fox always drank Crown Royal. At the end of the flight, I'd "loot" the remaining liquor and fill a flight bag, so the players could have a "tasty" at the hotel.
Shortly after checking in, you'd find me walking up and down the halls, flight bag in hand, distributing "leftovers". (Maybe that's why the players insisted I go on the road with them. HMMM.
) I wasn't always able to empty the flight bag so a lot of the miniatures ended up on my closet shelf at home. I don't drink, so they kept accumulating. At the end of one season, I counted over 1300 miniatures on the shelf. 
Don't know whether you've heard of Frank Howard or not. 6'7" 300+ lbs. (Managed the Mets in '83.) Really great guy, but you never wanted to go have a meal with him. The man was an eating machine. He'd order 2 steaks, 3-4 potatoes, extra veggies, pitchers of beer and suck up every morsel. The rest of us would order a regular meal. When the check came, Frank would say, "OK the bill's $200. Divide that by the 4 of us. That comes to $50 apiece."
We'd always stop him right there and remind him that he ate $100 of that.
And he'd do it every time.
Gotta' admit. That was the most fun I've ever had.
Mudge the reminescing
ps. OHH...the stories I could tell
I know what you mean about meals. I was in charge of ordering the inflight stuff. Filet was always a winner. Poker pots got a bit outrageous on our flights, too.
Used to board 3 cases of beer and a full liquor cabinet on each flight. Players were restricted to beer only (on the plane) but everyone else could have drinks. Ted always drank Dry Sec. Nellie Fox always drank Crown Royal. At the end of the flight, I'd "loot" the remaining liquor and fill a flight bag, so the players could have a "tasty" at the hotel.
Shortly after checking in, you'd find me walking up and down the halls, flight bag in hand, distributing "leftovers". (Maybe that's why the players insisted I go on the road with them. HMMM.
) I wasn't always able to empty the flight bag so a lot of the miniatures ended up on my closet shelf at home. I don't drink, so they kept accumulating. At the end of one season, I counted over 1300 miniatures on the shelf.
Don't know whether you've heard of Frank Howard or not. 6'7" 300+ lbs. (Managed the Mets in '83.) Really great guy, but you never wanted to go have a meal with him. The man was an eating machine. He'd order 2 steaks, 3-4 potatoes, extra veggies, pitchers of beer and suck up every morsel. The rest of us would order a regular meal. When the check came, Frank would say, "OK the bill's $200. Divide that by the 4 of us. That comes to $50 apiece."
We'd always stop him right there and remind him that he ate $100 of that.
And he'd do it every time.
Gotta' admit. That was the most fun I've ever had.
Mudge the reminescing
ps. OHH...the stories I could tell
airlines
Thu Apr 19, 2007 7:34 am
Mudge, your example about a bus delay in traffic is different than what Jetblue did. The bus doesn't lock the doors and refuse to let people off if there is a traffic delay, MOST of all a taxi or bus company does not try to missuse a federal law to accuse passengers of being a danger to a flight crew just because they don't want to sit in a wiinged prison for 9 hours. Your baseball memories are interesting; if Jet blue had a chater jet full of say Ted Williams, Tiger Woods, Shaq do you think they would have been treated that way?