Comments on: Al Bumbry

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:31:56 +0000

tscastle:
I second that emotion. Happy Veterans Day to all the many Cardboard Gods who served (the last generation of baseball players to do so in large numbers).

By: tscastle

tscastle — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:50:07 +0000

Happy Veterans Day, Al Bumbry! Thank you for your service!

By: hendersonmurphyarmas

hendersonmurphyarmas — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 14:50:14 +0000

10. from the Al Bumbry entry in the 1980 Complete Handbook of Baseball (Zander Hollander):

” … he is still haunted by the memory of the death of his platoon sergeant … Refused to accompany his teammates to the movie, The Deer Hunter …”

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:48:41 +0000

9. 8 : Great story. Thanks for sharing that.

By: Kooperman

Kooperman — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:12:42 +0000

8. I used to play slow-pitch softball with the scout who signed Al Bumbry to his first contract. I always enjoyed the after-game beer drinking because he’d tell us tales about his successes and failures in tracking down talent…both athletic talent and barstool talent. You know, it gets real lonely out on the road all the time. I tended to believe most of what he said because I’d known him for years, and he’d always been a good guy. When I was 11 years old he worked for a sporting goods store who supplied equipment for a semi-pro team that he played for in Jackson, Mississippi. He gave me my first baseball bat, a broken Nellie Fox model with an incredibly thick handle. I nailed it back together, taped over the small nails and swung it for years in sandlot games.
The only other scout I ever met was an old man scouting Rodney Gilbreth for the Atlanta Braves. My high school coach let him sit in the dugout with us during a game so he could get a closer look at Gilbreth. Being the only baseball nut on the team, I struck up a conversation with him and I discovered that he had played in the big leagues a long time ago and I wouldn’t know who he was. I quickly deduced that he was an old bench warmer, probably during WW II when all the good players were gone to the armed forces.I asked his who he was, figuring on hearing a totally unknown name. It wasn’t. Dixie Walker, the people’s cherce in Brooklyn, former batting and RBI champion (during WW II, hah!)of the National League was sitting in my dugout. Jesus H. Christ!

My softball teammate, who sure as hell never played major league baseball, was a better scout, though, than rumpled old Dixie Walker. He has signed many players who were solid major leaguers, but he said he had never scouted anybody poorer or nicer than Al Bumbry, who lived in a shack that had sunlight coming through cracks in the roof. Bumbry always sent the scout used equipment to pass on to other young kids, and was generous with his advice to them.
I always wondered if Dixie Walker, who wasn’t pleased to have Jackie Robinson join his team in Brooklyn, would have made that same connection with a young black player.

By: rangers1994

rangers1994 — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:22:50 +0000

7. I never knew this about Al Bumbry, but I’ve always felt an odd connection to him. When I was in grade school, this guy John Repp was a big Orioles fan, and he got me into the team. He would go around singing this song he made up, “My name is Al Bumbry / What is yours?” over and over, and that song enters my mind whenever John or Al’s name comes up, which isn’t very often.

John is the reason I am an Orioles fan (second to the Mets, of course). It was even easier because my brother was a Pirates fan back then, so we had some good battles.

I also went through a period where I read so much about the Vietnam war, oral history after memoir after oral history.

Awesome job bringing these together.

And 9/11 too.

By: wireroom

wireroom — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 02:34:35 +0000

6. 4 That is just beyond surreal to have been in that bazaar and to have seen two retarded girls walking around and suddenly they just blow up. That is like a bad heavy metal video or something. My god.

By: Jeb

Jeb — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 01:09:49 +0000

5. Bravo Josh. Just great writing. Everytime I come here I'm just enraptured. 1 and I will add that I have 2 children for many reasons but the stuff your writing about is at the top of my list. You can't be a cynic; you've got to have hope!

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 18:55:51 +0000

4. 3 : As reported in the AP story that I linked to (and also in all the other reports I've seen), both women had Down syndrome. The strong speculation (impossible to prove at this point, I guess) is that the women were unaware of what they were doing. (The bombs were remote-controlled.)

By: wireroom

wireroom — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 17:51:04 +0000

3. I was curious to know what you meant by "two severely retarded women," up above? Were they literally retarded, because if that was the case, then those who recruited are beyond cowards. Either way, it sucks. I wonder if these presidents and dictators who send so many off to these undefined wars to die, eventually realize the magnitude of their decisions? I would have a hard time sleeping at night for the rest of my life knowing that I made that final decision. That is so much blood they are responsible for. Garcia-Marquez wrote a few great novels that explore this.