Comments on: Bob Grich

By: sb1902

sb1902 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:46:20 +0000

12. This card of Bobby Grich always creeped me out as a kid because there was no inidcation he was as a baseball player. He's not doing anything baseball-related, he's not even wearing a baseball hat. I can't recall another player so fully taking up the whole card with just a face, either, but the fact he had the coveted "All Star" designation marked him as a man of distincton, however, so it was necessary to take him seriously. It was a troubling mix for me.

By: Lonnie Smith for president

Lonnie Smith for president — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:05:38 +0000

11. Josh, I share your childhood pillars. Coming of age, Kirby was surely King, Dairy was Queen, and Carlton, Seaver, Palmer, and Catfish were Aces (in every sense). Growing up doesn’t entirely suck, but I miss that purposeful clarity of youth. I imagine that’s why we’re all here, since you put that ennui into words better than anyone I’ve read.

On the topic of funny books, you surely know that Walter Mosley is a huge Fantastic Four fan. I don’t know how he feels about baseball (and given the difference in ages, he would have different but equally potent Aces and quite likely not give a damn about Dairy Queen), but I’d say it’s down to you and he to articulate the alchemy that comes when the game is blended through the perception of Kirby. I believe, for example, I’ve seen Kirby’s renowned Dots pulsing off the bat of Manny Ramirez lately, but that could just be fuzzy TV reception.

No room for the self-doubt of Ditko’s Peter Parker, though, not in this game. Well, not beyond some of those Cardboard Gods haunted by the Two Freaks, anyhow…

By: rangers1994

rangers1994 — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:31:19 +0000

10. As a longtime Orioles fan, I've always liked the perpetually undersung Bobby Grich. He was on some great O's teams.

By: sansho1

sansho1 — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:41:18 +0000

9. Davey Johnson still holds the single-season HR record for a 2B, with 43 in '73. But Willie Stargell hit 44 that year. Average distance was presumably no contest....

By: Eric Stephen

Eric Stephen — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:53:26 +0000

8. 7 Don't forget Eddie Murray! He was part of the strike-shortened 4-way tie in 1981. Other 2B League Leaders 1901: Nap Lajoie 1922, 25: Rogers Hornsby 1990: Ryne Sandberg

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:04:41 +0000

7. 5 : I wonder how many second basemen have led (or co-led, lest we forget that Grich tied in '81 with Dewey Evans, and maybe also with Tony Armas) the league in homers. Hornsby did it a few times, probably. Anybody else? 6 : Yes, I'll get a game thread up on the site sometime before first pitch tomorrow.

By: Ennui Willie Keeler

Ennui Willie Keeler — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:12:14 +0000

6. I don’t recall ever thinking of Grich as Bob instead of Bobby before. He looks like he should be in a Winston ad with that hair and that full mustache. (I said something similar about, IIRC, Gene Pentz. I’m running out of material!) But I didn’t really get into comic books. I was more about Encyclopedia Brown and Jupiter Jones; the Sherlock Holmes and the Phillip Marlowe of the tyke set. So I wound up getting into mysteries and thrillers when it comes to genre fiction.

I never said this out loud fearing I might irk somebody, but Grich is among those ballplayers that I think of as cult ballplayers; players that some (usually the more sabermetrically hip) think should be in the Hall of Fame but aren’t and may never make it. Some others include: Dick Allen, Ken Boyer, Darrell Evans and Bill Freehan. I suppose that a common denominator among may of these guys is a broad base of skills instead of one or two that stand out. I’m usually sympathetic to arguments for these guys; as long as their supporters don’t brand opponents as idiots or worse. IOW, as long as they don’t treat baseball like Pitchfork treats music.

Great post, Josh. Is this going to be a Cardboard Gods game thread for Wednesday night?

By: Bob Timmermann

Bob Timmermann — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:10:55 +0000

5. Grich shaved off his mustache when he retired. He wasn't going to play much in the 1986 ALCS, but Wally Joyner got an infection in his leg and Grich had to fill in at first. I remember him announcing his retirement in the locker room after Game 7. It was quite matter of fact although he seemed a bit sad. Grich is one of three Angels to lead the AL in homers. The other two were Reggie Jackson and Troy Glaus.

By: wireroom

wireroom — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:44:46 +0000

4. Josh, I grew up with comics books at the tip of my hand. My aunt owned a pet store where older cousin ran a comic book store inside of. It didn't do good business because we would mostly just grab a stack of comic books, walk back to the house, eat some cereal and read comics all day long. My aunt wasn't usually pleased about this. I am younger than you, so my guys were Alan Moore and Jim Starlin, but I have definitely have read my share of Kirby. The ballplayers I watched were for sure transformed into superheroes. Even today, I envision Jeff Kent beginning his second shift of the night after the ball game of kicking ass throughout the streets of Los Angeles!

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:22:56 +0000

3. Bobby Grich is one of the most satisfying names to say. The sound of it also describes him, somehow. It’s the sound of a guy making a diving, uniform-dirtying stop.

Surely I’m not the only guy here whose childhood was defined in part by the drawings of Jack Kirby…?

Truth be told, my favorite comic book hero was Spider Man, whom Kirby never worked on, I don’t think. But I definitely read my share of Kirby. Maybe it’ll pay off yet in my literary endeavors. No fewer than two fairly recent Pulitzer-Prize-winning novels (Chabon’s Kavalier and Klay and Diaz’ Oscar Wao) have made overt, grateful reference to Kirby. And a few years earlier Rick Moody’s great novel The Ice Storm was in some ways a long love letter to Kirby’s work on the Fantastic Four.