Oh, and, btw, if you’re going to bust out the three dollar words, make sure you spell them correctly, i.e. “oleaginously”.

Just kidding, I love looking up new words in the dictionary. Hopefully I’ll never stop learning.

14 : Thanks, Conrad! (A sample of my uncle Conrad’s poetry is available online at the site below.)

http://www.acarts.org/mystic/MRR4squires.html

I never seem to get around to reading these, but Jenny sent me this one and I think it is a really fine piece of writing. I don’t want to say anything really fatuous, but I loved it! (so I did, anyway.)

Warm regards, Con

It didn’t hurt that they were always on the same team, having both been “drafted” by the Giants in 1968, and that both played the same position, batted right, threw right, stood 6’3″, consistently hit about .285, wore afros and beards, and had similar speed and power.

Only Maddox was “DRAFTED” though.
And he was better defensively, but what does that matter when you’re a ten year-old card-collecting kid who knows the players primarily from their cardboard likenesses?

Even more confusing was that the civilian, Matthews, was known as “Sarge,” and just to exacerbate everything, Matthews later joined Maddox on the Phillies in the early ’80s, just when they seemed to be developing their own identities in card-flipping land, (or was it the other way around?).

Furthermore each saw fit to sire a male namesake who pursued a career in professional baseball. (Obviously Matthews Jr. achieved a more lucrative stuation…. I think….)

I am still confused, and apparently I’m not the only one.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel lists Matthews as a Vietnam Vet in a 1999 article about the firing of Blue Jay skipper Tim Johnson, ostensibly for having fabricated wild tales of his combat heroics in the jungles of ‘Nam. (He was actually a stateside reservist.)

www2.jsonline.com/sports/brew/wed/cam31799.asp

Did the author mean Maddox?… Am I just getting confused?… Actually, am I having deja vu? … Didn’t we already have this posting and discussion before?…

I saw first hand what that war did to one my uncles. One of the funniest mothers you could ever meet, but being in Vietnam fucked him up and he could never get over shooting at 14 year old kids who were trying to steal from their supplies. That isn’t to blame the Vietnam war on my uncles drug problems and eventual death from it, but I think it pitched in overall.

“Maddox served in the Army, including a tour in Vietnam, during the 1969 and 1970 seasons. Exposure to chemicals in Vietnam left his skin highly sensitive, and he has always since worn a full beard to protect his face.”

I remember seeing him sitting a few rows in front of me at a Sixers game when I was probably 10 years old. My father prodded to go up to him and say hi and that I was a fan. I did go up to him, and I remember him being nice, but I mostly remember not wanting to interrupt him while he was enjoying the Sixers. (And how could you not enjoy the Sixers during the Dawkins era?)

But I never really knew about his Vietnam service until now. Maybe in my pre-teen years, it just never sunk in. I have a new respect for him now.