July 26th, 1942. Cool Papa Bell stands next to his Manager Candy Jim Taylor during their time as members of the Chicago American Giants of the Negro Leagues. Taylor spent his entire adult life in Baseball as he came up as a Third Basemen in the Negro Leagues and eventually Managed up until his death in 1948. A fun fact about Taylor is that he was one of four brothers who all also played professional Baseball in the Negro Leagues (Ben, C.I., and Johnny were the other Taylor brothers).
Bo Jackson’s 1991 Topps Traded #58T card. Ok, I remember getting this card as a kid when my Dad bought me the Traded complete set as a Birthday present and finding this card in there. The feelings I got looking at the card is pretty much the same exact feelings that I get now when looking at it: Bo Jackson was the coolest dude on Earth.
I apologize for more DiMaggio brother/San Francisco Seals worship but I warn all of you that read this, as long as there are awesome old photos of these dudes floating around then they have a place in 90 feet of perfection.
September 25th, 1965. Satchel Paige made his last appearance in the Major Leagues as a member of the Kansas City Athletics. According to his WIKI page, this is how the game went for old Satch:
Owner Charles O. Finley signed Paige, 59 at the time, for one game. On September 25, against the Boston Red Sox, Finley invited several Negro League veterans including Cool Papa Bell to be introduced before the game. Paige was in the bullpen, sitting on a rocking chair, being served coffee by a “nurse” between innings. He started the game by getting Jim Gosger out on a pop foul. The next man, Daltron Jones, reached first and went to second on an infield error, but was thrown out trying to reach third on a pitch in the dirt. Carl Yastrzemski doubled and Tony Conigliaro hit a fly ball to end the inning. The next six batters went down in order, including a strikeout of Bill Monbouquette. In the fourth inning, Paige took the mound, to be removed according to plan by Haywood Sullivan. He walked off to a boisterous ovation despite the small crowd of 9,000. The lights dimmed and, led by the PA announcer, the fans lit matches and cigarette lighters while singing “The Old Gray Mare”.
That’s right, the 59 year old pitched 3 scoreless innings with one strikeout and allowed one hit. Now that’s whats up.
On January 11th, 2011 Trevor Hoffman announced his retirement from Major League Baseball and revealed that he would be coming back home to the San Diego Padres organization to take a front office position after being a member of the Milwaukee Brewers the last 2 years. It is a bitter sweet event for me and most Padres fans as Trevor never should have left the Padres to begin with (F-You Sandy Alderson & John Moores) but at the same time it gave Heath Bell the chance to showcase his skills as an All-Star closer which we can not complain about whatsoever. I wanted to see Trevor in a Friars uniform one last time but hey, I guess it wasn’t meant to be.
The all time leader in Saves leaves the game with 601 career Saves which should stand for a season or 2 until Mariano Rivera most likely passes him up. The two things I will miss the most about Trevor is 1) Seeing Trevor come in to the 9th inning to the “Hells Bells” intro in San Diego. Trevor Time had to be one of the coolest things ever to witness at a sporting event, especially in person. 2) would be seeing hitters choke on his incredible change-up over and over again which he mastered to a level that I have never seen a any other pitcher do so in my lifetime. Heres to you #51, see ya in Cooperstown.
ninety feet of perfection. 