R.I.P. Ryan Duffy
- Thread starter dgsmith15
- Start date
Was blessed to know him well during his time at State. Damn good ball player and one hell of a teammate. Fond memories and stories of those years will last forever. RIP Duffy.
Is he the one that was involved in a diving accident some years ago? If so, I imagine his death is related to that?
Sucks to hear. Ryan was a year younger than me but I knew him a little bit from playing baseball in Florida (I’m from Tampa and I think Ryan was from Naples if I remember correctly). He was a good dude and a great player. He had a tough go at it since his accident.
Hate that it takes tragedy to reminisce. Not many team reunions for those 08-10 teams that combined for less than 20 SEC wins. Still, this caused some group chats to fire off today from Duffy’s years. Thought I’d share a few of those.
1. UGA trip 2009. Get to the ballpark 3 hours early game 1. There’s really no locker room, but there is one commode back behind the visitors dugout. Inevitably, someone blows it up. Water backs up. Toilet room is 3 inches deep in sewage. Jim Ellis just so happened to be in the dugout when everything took place. And he immediately narcs on Duffy as the last one in there. UGA wouldn’t fix it. We played the entire 3 game set with no toilet and sewage basically in the dugout.
2. ULM midweek. We inevitably got our **** pushed in by a record crowd in Monroe. Duffy drew the start and when warming up Forrest Moore pregame in the left field bullpen was catching hell from the student section. He stops the warmup takes his mask off, walks up to a kid and says, “for you, I’m gonna park one on those intramural fields over right field tonight”. 3-4 innings in, it was a close game and Duffy hit a ball 450+ feet over the right field fence that bounced up to the intramural fields. The student section cheered for him.
3. It wasn’t uncommon when playing a SWAC school for the whole team to just use a single bat. His blue Easton Stealth got so hot one year, the whole team was using it by the Bama series. We didn’t even need diamond girls. It would literally just pass from one hitter to the next and no one was allowed to use it in BP to save swings before it busted. Hilarious when we went back-back-back against Bama, all with his bat. (We lost that game like 22-19 or something, but his bat had 7 HRs).
4. I think this was at Arky, we toted one game one in sleet/snow. And we get to the field the next day several hours early. After our BP, Arky wasn’t supposed to start for 20-30 min so we’re warming up in RF. They start anyway, working oppo swings. Ole Mingione starts yelling at Arky that “we love it, we love it! Bring it”. And he’s jumping in front of line drives wearing them off the chest, screaming back at Arky. Duffy in a stretch circle just dryly says “what the 17 is wrong with that guy”. Forcing everyone into hysteric laughter. We got worked that night, too.
1. UGA trip 2009. Get to the ballpark 3 hours early game 1. There’s really no locker room, but there is one commode back behind the visitors dugout. Inevitably, someone blows it up. Water backs up. Toilet room is 3 inches deep in sewage. Jim Ellis just so happened to be in the dugout when everything took place. And he immediately narcs on Duffy as the last one in there. UGA wouldn’t fix it. We played the entire 3 game set with no toilet and sewage basically in the dugout.
2. ULM midweek. We inevitably got our **** pushed in by a record crowd in Monroe. Duffy drew the start and when warming up Forrest Moore pregame in the left field bullpen was catching hell from the student section. He stops the warmup takes his mask off, walks up to a kid and says, “for you, I’m gonna park one on those intramural fields over right field tonight”. 3-4 innings in, it was a close game and Duffy hit a ball 450+ feet over the right field fence that bounced up to the intramural fields. The student section cheered for him.
3. It wasn’t uncommon when playing a SWAC school for the whole team to just use a single bat. His blue Easton Stealth got so hot one year, the whole team was using it by the Bama series. We didn’t even need diamond girls. It would literally just pass from one hitter to the next and no one was allowed to use it in BP to save swings before it busted. Hilarious when we went back-back-back against Bama, all with his bat. (We lost that game like 22-19 or something, but his bat had 7 HRs).
4. I think this was at Arky, we toted one game one in sleet/snow. And we get to the field the next day several hours early. After our BP, Arky wasn’t supposed to start for 20-30 min so we’re warming up in RF. They start anyway, working oppo swings. Ole Mingione starts yelling at Arky that “we love it, we love it! Bring it”. And he’s jumping in front of line drives wearing them off the chest, screaming back at Arky. Duffy in a stretch circle just dryly says “what the 17 is wrong with that guy”. Forcing everyone into hysteric laughter. We got worked that night, too.
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That Mingione story is the most “Mingione” thing I’ve ever read. He’s such a blowhard haha. Those stories are great, though. RIP Duffy.
As I remember more worth sharing, I’ll try to filter out the NSFW ones.
1 more stood out. And it was probably the best team building moment I’ve ever been a part of. On the charter back from Hawaii, the AC on the plane went out less than an hour in. It’s 95+ degrees on this hot box and we’ve got many hours left. Trainers started passing out muscle relaxers and melatonin to everyone to try and help with some sleep. Duffy had been rehabbing a nagging, painful injury and secretly shared some “good stuff” with everyone he could until it was gone.
Those lucky enough to share had no where near the flight experience as those that didn’t. Woke up in Memphis like nothing had happened. He just played through the pain in the weeks that followed.
1 more stood out. And it was probably the best team building moment I’ve ever been a part of. On the charter back from Hawaii, the AC on the plane went out less than an hour in. It’s 95+ degrees on this hot box and we’ve got many hours left. Trainers started passing out muscle relaxers and melatonin to everyone to try and help with some sleep. Duffy had been rehabbing a nagging, painful injury and secretly shared some “good stuff” with everyone he could until it was gone.
Those lucky enough to share had no where near the flight experience as those that didn’t. Woke up in Memphis like nothing had happened. He just played through the pain in the weeks that followed.
If you polled most former players… he’d rank right up there with a certain “beloved” bus driver in the annoyingly absurd dickhead rankings.
I went to PT school with one of your (probably) former teammates. Brooks Lewis. Both him and his roommate Nick Hardy were great guys back then. I assume they still are.
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