For those of you that don't know who my father was, this was a great little piece written by Bruce Jenkins, a sportswriter for the San Francisco Chronicle and an old friend of my Dad.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/threedotblog/detail?blogid=60&entry_id=36165#comments
My father passed away in May of 2007, but his influence, especially in the game of baseball, still resonates with those that knew him. As one of his three kids, that always makes me proud. This article is a great example of the many "what-ifs" he had during his career as a scout, and probably the biggest mistake the San Francisco Giants made in the draft the past 20 years.
My father was by no means perfect. Some of his vices had the most harmful implications on a human body (i.e. smoking, adding salt to anything, drinking anything that had sugar in it), and he rarely thought about what he said before he said it. On the flip side, he had more friends than most, was sharper than any of his peers, always provided for us, and was always supportive of our decisions.
When it came to baseball, I always valued his opinions over everyone else. I felt that he was the best evaluator of talent I ever knew, which was good because that helped put food on the table for us. In the inexact science of baseball scouting, he was about as accurate as one could be, especially when it came to projecting what a kid would look like in 5-10 years.
He may have had only a high school education, but his IQ when it came to baseball was off the charts. Thanks to Bruce Jenkins for helping more to understand this, and for keeping his legacy alive.
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Brett: Your relationship with your Dad was much like mine. I think what I'll do here with this particular story is tell a few DAD stories.
ReplyDeleteI was an Appalachian league BABY. My Dad was playing in Bluefield when I was born over in Elizabethton, Tenn. As time went by my dad and I spent many days talking and swinging a bat. he taught me much about hitting both mechanically and mentally. One night while I was a Freshman in high school. My Dad was over watching me play in a game and hung around after to give me a ride home. We arrived in time for dinner. My Mom was and still is one of the best cooks ever!! Well, while sitting down for dinner with me and my 2 siblings and mom. My Dad and I started talking about hitting. Next thing you know he is up demonstrating the swing and making a certain point to me about building stretch in the swing and using my hands. Then he has me up doing what he is talking about. All the while he and everyone else is eating dinner and watching the discussion.
Brett, it's great that your so proud of your father. I think we led similar lives with our fathers.
Jeff
Bird that article was awesome. I loved the part about not drafting Hyzdu based on principle....ha! and the part about lincecum. that was a blueprint mcmillan comment and i love it. Its cool to read about your pops. hes the type of guy who all baseball people would love to be able to get to know cause its just interesting to hear his thoughts/knowledge on baseball. he just had a nack for it. but only a select group got to really know him as you did. i just never wanted to say anything stupid around him, or look like a fool in the cage. haha. Both of these were inevitable as you know.
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