what's the story behind that? it had to be a case where he just fell into polk's lap, considering polk's teams have the cultural diversity of an SS regimen.
how did raffy wind up at state?
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what's the story behind that? it had to be a case where he just fell into polk's lap, considering polk's teams have the cultural diversity of an SS regimen.
He'd coached at Dade North JUCO before going to Georgia Southern and had returned as an assistant at Miami before coming to MSU. And his early teams were actually not quite as lily-white as his later teams were. Harold Myles (black) was the #2 rotation pitcher in 1982 and Nelson Arriete (hispanic) was a rotation pitcher in the late 80s before getting hit in the face with a line drive. I think we had another hispanic or two from around that time frame too.
there ('83 & I believe '84 as well) where we actually had a Hispanic (Palmeiro), a Cajun (Clark) and an African-American (Harold Myles) all on the same team. I guess Polk wanted to get all that ethnic diversity stuff out of the way early in his career.
I was sitting with Buck Showalter, Jay Powell and him during alumni weekend at the Comfort Suites. This was right after Buck got the Texas job and he was talking to the two about things in Texas who they both were with at the time.
Raffy turns to me and says that he chose State because of me. I gave him a "********" look and he said that it was true. He said he visited on a weekend when we played Ole Miss and I hit a few HRs in the double header and also hit double with the bases loaded. He said the crowd was going crazy each time and it was just so exciting. That is when he decided State was the place for him.
I have no idea why he told me this, but there it is.
Raffy turns to me and says that he chose State because of me. I gave him a "********" look and he said that it was true. He said he visited on a weekend when we played Ole Miss and I hit a few HRs in the double header and also hit double with the bases loaded. He said the crowd was going crazy each time and it was just so exciting. That is when he decided State was the place for him.
I have no idea why he told me this, but there it is.
I lead the NY Penn league in HRs for the Auburn Astros. I was told I had a "<rule #17> you attitude". I was told in spring training that no one can hit HRs in the Astrodome and that they had to build the team around speed. I was let go and kind of blackballed. I was told by a friend in the Mets organization that Houston said I was uncoachable. Why the hell they drafted me I don't know.
"I was told in spring training that no one can hit HRs in the Astrodome"
Apparently someone forgot to tell Jeff Bagwell that.
No wonder the Astros had such a bad string of failures back in those days. Sounds like some bad ownership. I've never understood the idea of blackballing someone. I think it's a pretty crappy thing to do.
Apparently someone forgot to tell Jeff Bagwell that.
No wonder the Astros had such a bad string of failures back in those days. Sounds like some bad ownership. I've never understood the idea of blackballing someone. I think it's a pretty crappy thing to do.
It was the worst experience of my baseball life. In Auburn we did not have a batting cage or pitching machine. I once went in early, with my roommate, to take extra hitting. We got the cage out and everything. We were throwing to each other. When my manager got to the park, he yelled at us to get off the field. He wanted to know who told us we could take extra hitting. He was actually pissed that we were trying to make him look bad. I could not believe I wasn't allowed to take extra hitting as a professional.
The head of the minor leagues comes by for a visit and tells me I need to squat more in my stance to generate more power. At the time I was leading the team in Avg, HRs, RBIs. The day before I hit a HR in Oneonta over the 460 mark (Yankees farm team and the field was same dimensions as Yankee Stadium). He demanded that I hit in this new stance that night and told the coaches. I went into a 1 for 32 slump. If I tried to go back to my old stance a coach would yell at me to squat more. It was un<rule #17>in' believable.
The head of the minor leagues comes by for a visit and tells me I need to squat more in my stance to generate more power. At the time I was leading the team in Avg, HRs, RBIs. The day before I hit a HR in Oneonta over the 460 mark (Yankees farm team and the field was same dimensions as Yankee Stadium). He demanded that I hit in this new stance that night and told the coaches. I went into a 1 for 32 slump. If I tried to go back to my old stance a coach would yell at me to squat more. It was un<rule #17>in' believable.
I do think he could have, and should have, put more emphasis on signing a few more black players. He signed a couple that looked good back in the 80s that went straight to pro ball and never came to MSU. I guess after that, he figured he would just be wasting his time recruiting black players and pretty much quit doing it.
but in the Klan, he ain't. He has signed the black players before. But usually if they were good enough to offer, they were good enough to get drafted.Hammond and Butler come to mind. The Hispanic players were the ones I wish he'd have gone after more. I could have drug him a few off the rafts from Cuba and stashed them for him.
Bulldog Bruce , I do not know who you are bud , but did you play with those flame throwing MC transfers , via mighty Ethel High, Tim and Terry Fancher ?
O
Ole Miss Grad
Guest
Nice. I bet when they made those, all her chest wrinkles went away. She probably farts and gets black eyes everytime she sneezes.
but we were fishing once and catching the hell out of 'em. Just our luck, we ran out of bait. Happened to look up and damned if here don't come along some boat people. We rush over and ask if they have any bait. We offer to trade beer for it. They jabbered alot in Spanish, but said nothing about bait. We then tried for cigars. More jabber , but no bait or cigars. Finally , one speaking pig den English told us they were trying to find Miami . We told them they missed it by 60 or so miles and needed to head back south. Dumbasses had never heard of the Keys I guess.Thought they would just land on South Beach or something. One tried to climb over in our boat. Since he had no bait or cigars, he was dissuaded from that by the rifle we keep to shoot sharks. The raft rats gave us hard looks and in blissful ignorance headed back south.The rules are if the USA can get 'em in the water before they make land they can ship their *** back. We called the Coast Guard and reported them. Don't know if they found them or the dumb **** raft rats sailed back into Cuba. I do know we never found any more bait.
MisissippiTimes said:
</p>Does being the bat boy for the softball team they played on count?
AA - bats, balls, beers, whatever the team needed
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