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Since this thread is for all things baseball, I thought I'd just mention something you may find interesting about something from the past. I think I may have mentioned this before, but here goes anyway.
I'm sure you all are somewhat familiar with the name "Jim Bouton". Besides being an accomplished author of a book that "exposed" baseball, he was a very successful MLB pitcher, winning World Series games for the Yankees. However, when he was in HS (the same HS I attended, but about eight years earlier than me) he was not the #1 pitcher in the HS baseball team rotation. He was #2. The guy who was ahead of him was another guy whose name may be familiar to you - Jerry Colangelo. Yep - the guy who became a front office leader and franchise owner was rated as a better pitcher back in HS. I went through HS with Jerry's younger sister and I met him a few times back then. I also met Bouton a few years ago when he was doing some promotions for the minor league baseball team here in Portland - the Mavericks.
Anyway - I just thought I'd throw that in. Oh yeah - when I was a kid playing park district baseball (my town didn't have "official" Little League), White Sox third baseman Pete Ward once came to our ballpark to do a demonstration on hitting. I was one of the kids chosen to pitch to him. He hit one of my pitches so far out of the park, it landed across the highway and hit a pump at a gas station, breaking the glass on the meter. It must have traveled well over 450 feet. No wonder I played shortstop.
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Yom HaShoah
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