Sometimes life is good

And sometimes it’s very good.

Last year, on a lazy Sunday afternoon, the phone rang. The caller asked if I was Allen Crenshaw. I started to hang-up because this is generally the opening pitch of a cold call, but something made me stick with it. The caller said, “I’m John Daniel and we played Little League baseball together 43 years ago.”

My brain sprung into high gear and started rummaging through the memory cells. Yes, I did play Little League baseball but the name John Daniels failed to register a blip. So I probed for more information - hopefully not letting-on that I remembered virtually nothing of my early baseball days.

John continued by announcing that he was planning a reunion of the old team. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I was remembering nothing of those early days. This was getting embarrassing and my recall was at the critical stage.

John, I’m sure sensing my predicament, added that “he had a picture of the team that was printed in the Times Herald” (Dallas, at that time, had two newspapers: The Morning News and the Times Herald. Currently we only have one, but that’s a story for a later date). “Would I like for him to e-mail me a copy?”

Ah Ha, I remember that picture, so I said sure, how about right now. I gave him my e-mail address and within seconds it was dinging in my inbox. Now I had something concrete to prod my sagging memory.

As we talked, I rapidly scanned the picture and identifying caption line.

The brain cells were finally coming to my rescue. I inquired about John Coker and various other members of the team. One I asked about was Tommy Hicks our sometimes pitcher/second baseman. John said, “You don’t know?” I wanted to say, “Of course, I don’t. I barely remember who you are,” but I didn’t. So I innocently said, “No. What’s Tommy up to these days?”

“Tom Hicks, you know who he is don’t you!?”

I only know of one Tom Hicks, the owner of the Texas Rangers, Dallas Stars hockey team and previous owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

“You don’t mean the Texas Rangers’ Tom Hicks do you,” I answered with a voice dripping with incredulity. I could now see him grinning on the other end of the line when he said, “Yes!”

Not to take anything away from the other players, but this put the Reunion of the Myers & Rosser Pill Rollers (I know it’s a silly name, but heck we were just kids) into a new category of importance.

To make a long story shorter, the reunion was held in the owner’s box during a Ranger home game, complete with a news story in the Morning News, exclusive tour through the stadium and clubhouse, interviews on TV, our names on the scoreboard, a visit on the field with Ron Washington (Ranger manager), a gourmet buffet, a Ranger cap and T-shirts with our 43 year old team picture on it. As if it needs to said, watching a game from the owner’s box is definitely the way to go.

Besides spending five great hours with my teammates, the highlight, at least for me, was during our tour by the club’s VP, he knocked on a blank nondescript door deep in the bowels of the stadium. A middle-aged guy cracked open the door and the VP asked him to come out and meet some folks. He did and the first thing I noticed was that his hands were covered in some kind of very black glop. We learned that one of his tasks was that of “ball mudder.” It seems that when the team’s new baseballs arrive (they go through seven dozen a game) they are slick which makes it difficult to handle, so they get “mudded.” He smears on this special mud -that only comes from South Carolina- and this gives it a grip that’s especially important to the pitchers.

He told the story of Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan. Whenever he was pitching, he’d come down to the mud room and pick up each ball and carefully weigh it in his hands. If he didn’t like the heft of an individual ball, he’d separate it from the box and ask that it not be used. Then Ryan would randomly select a few balls and autograph them. “I like to give a little surprise to some fan who happens to catch a fly ball,” said Ryan.

Life can truly be wonderful.

Trivia question of the day

(Try it without Google)

The answer will be in tomorrow’s blog.

Yesterday’s Question: What was Ozzie Nelson’s profession in the TV series Ozzie and Harriet? Sportswriter for a newspaper

Today’s Trivia: Name the previous owner of the Rangers prior to Tom Hicks? George W. Bush