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Happy birthday Pee Wee.

fairgambit

fairgambit

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Aug 20, 2010
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No, not that one, the baseball one....Pee Wee Reese. Besides being a Hall of Fame shortstop for the Dodgers, his support of Jackie Robinson was instrumental in helping Robinson survive those difficult early days as the 1st black major league player. One vignette in that regard: Robinson joined the team in 1947 and in his 1st road trip, during pre-game practice, he was being heckled by the fans in Cincinnati. Reese, the Dodger's captain, went over to Robinson, engaged him in conversation, and put his arm around Jackie's shoulder, silencing the crowd. Reese's support for Jackie never wavered. At Pee Wee's funeral, Joe Black, another early black pioneer, said "Pee Wee helped make my boyhood dream come true to play in the majors, the World Series. When Pee Wee reached out to Jackie, all of us in the Negro League smiled and said it was the first time that a white guy had accepted us."

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fairgambit said:
No, not that one, the baseball one....Pee Wee Reese. Besides being a Hall of Fame shortstop for the Dodgers, his support of Jackie Robinson was instrumental in helping Robinson survive those difficult early days as the 1st black major league player. One vignette in that regard: Robinson joined the team in 1947 and in his 1st road trip, during pre-game practice, he was being heckled by the fans in Cincinnati. Reese, the Dodger's captain, went over to Robinson, engaged him in conversation, and put his arm around Jackie's shoulder, silencing the crowd. Reese's support for Jackie never wavered. At Pee Wee's funeral, Joe Black, another early black pioneer, said "Pee Wee helped make my boyhood dream come true to play in the majors, the World Series. When Pee Wee reached out to Jackie, all of us in the Negro League smiled and said it was the first time that a white guy had accepted us."

66505.jpg



DSCF0151-640.jpg
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Nice article. Playing high school baseball, I took a lot of hits at the plate and I’m not talking about hitting the ball. My batting avg. was not exactly spectacular, but my fielding was.

Nevertheless, my physics teacher (“Chief” great sports fan) saw me play many games and nicknamed me after one of the major league ball players. He told me the player would go out of his way to be hit by the pitch at the plate.

I can remember the name of the player, but, it was a unique name…could it be Dizzy Dean? Would you have anyone in mind? Damn, this is going to drive me to drink until I figure out the player.

Step
 
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step.eng69 said:
Nice article. Playing high school baseball, I took a lot of hits at the plate and I’m not talking about hitting the ball. My batting avg. was not exactly spectacular, but my fielding was.
Nevertheless, my physics teacher (“Chief” great sports fan) saw me play many games and nicknamed me after one of the major league ball players. He told me the player would go out of his way to be hit by the pitch at the plate.
I can remember the name of the player, but, it was a unique name…could it be Dizzy Dean? Would you have anyone in mind? Damn, this is going to drive me to drink until I figure out the player.
Step
Click to expand...
Growing up in the 50's and 60's, the one guy I remember that got hit by pitches a lot, and had a unique name, was Minnie Minoso. I don't know if that was the guy you were looking for, but he did seem to go out of his way to get hit.
 
Thank you for you input, but that's not the name Chief Williams nicknamed me. Looks like I'll be drinking tonight. Maybe my wife could remember, she was one of Chief's favorite students, in fact, he would roll his eyes at Karen to conjecture "why are you hanging around "him" (me).
 
Jeez, fairgambit, couldn't have titled this thread "Happy birthday Pee Wee Reese". I thought this thread was about you wishing your extremities a happy birthday.
 
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fairgambit said:
Growing up in the 50's and 60's, the one guy I remember that got hit by pitches a lot, and had a unique name, was Minnie Minoso. I don't know if that was the guy you were looking for, but he did seem to go out of his way to get hit.
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I remember Minnie as well, he always tried to step into the ball mostly with his butt (really his side) :)
He to not offer up his arms or hands. I do not recall him ever getting hurt by a pitch despite getting hit quite often. Ron Hunt was another one that would give himself up to get hit by a ball, not sure if there is any statistic on that?
 
step.eng69 said:
Nice article. Playing high school baseball, I took a lot of hits at the plate and I’m not talking about hitting the ball. My batting avg. was not exactly spectacular, but my fielding was.

Nevertheless, my physics teacher (“Chief” great sports fan) saw me play many games and nicknamed me after one of the major league ball players. He told me the player would go out of his way to be hit by the pitch at the plate.

I can remember the name of the player, but, it was a unique name…could it be Dizzy Dean? Would you have anyone in mind? Damn, this is going to drive me to drink until I figure out the player.

Step
Click to expand...

Whomever it was should be on this list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_top_50_Major_League_Baseball_hit_by_pitch_leaders
 
maybe one of these sound familiar to you:

Hugh "Ee-Yah" Jennings - HBP 287 times
Tommy "Foghorn" Tucker - HBP 272 times
Dennis "Cap" McGann - HBP 230 times
Jake "Eagle Eye" Beckley - HBP 183 times
Norm "Tabasco Kid" Elberfield - HBP 165 times
Jacob "Nellie" Fox - HBP 142 times
Napoleon "Nap" Lajoir - HBP 134 times
William "Dummy" Hoy - HBP 133 times



step.eng69 said:
Thank you for you input, but that's not the name Chief Williams nicknamed me. Looks like I'll be drinking tonight. Maybe my wife could remember, she was one of Chief's favorite students, in fact, he would roll his eyes at Karen to conjecture "why are you hanging around "him" (me).
Click to expand...
 
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brycefo said:
maybe one of these sound familiar to you:
Hugh "Ee-Yah" Jennings - HBP 287 times
Tommy "Foghorn" Tucker - HBP 272 times
Dennis "Cap" McGann - HBP 230 times
Jake "Eagle Eye" Beckley - HBP 183 times
Norm "Tabasco Kid" Elberfield - HBP 165 times
Jacob "Nellie" Fox - HBP 142 times
Napoleon "Nap" Lajoir - HBP 134 times
William "Dummy" Hoy - HBP 133 times
Click to expand...
Geeze, I would love to be called the "Tabasco Kid". Update: I assumed he was called the "Tabsco Kid" because he liked Tabasco Sauce. Not so. Elberfeld was given the nickname "The Tabasco Kid" because of his fiery temper. He was known for his ferocious verbal, and sometimes physical, assaults on umpires. On one occasion, while in the minors, Elberfeld threw a lump of mud into the umpire's open mouth. Later in his career, Elberfeld assaulted umpire Silk O'Loughlin and had to be forcibly removed by police; Elberfeld was suspended for just 8 games. Although records were not kept, it was said that Elberfeld was thrown out of more games than any other player of his era. I love this guy! And then I read this...Kid Elberfeld, was called "the dirtiest, scrappiest, most pestiferous, most rantankerous [sic], most rambunctious ball player that ever stood on spikes" for his vicious arguments on the diamond, patterned his combative style after that of his favorite team, the Baltimore Orioles of the mid-1890s.
The Tabasco Kid...
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brycefo said:
maybe one of these sound familiar to you:

Hugh "Ee-Yah" Jennings - HBP 287 times
Tommy "Foghorn" Tucker - HBP 272 times
Dennis "Cap" McGann - HBP 230 times
Jake "Eagle Eye" Beckley - HBP 183 times
Norm "Tabasco Kid" Elberfield - HBP 165 times
Jacob "Nellie" Fox - HBP 142 times
Napoleon "Nap" Lajoir - HBP 134 times
William "Dummy" Hoy - HBP 133 times
Click to expand...

Thank you ALL---I'm giving up on the nick name...I started thinking about it when fairgamgit ( the "Tabasco Kid") mentioned Pee Wee Reese and immediately thought of Chief, then I thought I might have been
Dizzy Dean ?
 
Colorado Man said:
Whomever it was should be on this list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_top_50_Major_League_Baseball_hit_by_pitch_leaders
Click to expand...
fairgambit said:
Growing up in the 50's and 60's, the one guy I remember that got hit by pitches a lot, and had a unique name, was Minnie Minoso. I don't know if that was the guy you were looking for, but he did seem to go out of his way to get hit.
Click to expand...

Thank you ALL---I'm giving up on the nick name...I started thinking about it when fairgamgit ( the "Tabasco Kid") mentioned Pee Wee Reese and immediately thought of Chief, then I thought I might have been
Dizzy Dean ?
 
step.eng69 said:
Thank you ALL---I'm giving up on the nick name...I started thinking about it when fairgamgit ( the "Tabasco Kid") mentioned Pee Wee Reese and immediately thought of Chief, then I thought I might have been
Dizzy Dean ?
Click to expand...
I can't imagine Dizzy Dean got hit much, but I could be wrong.
 
step.eng69 said:
Nice article. Playing high school baseball, I took a lot of hits at the plate and I’m not talking about hitting the ball. My batting avg. was not exactly spectacular, but my fielding was.

Nevertheless, my physics teacher (“Chief” great sports fan) saw me play many games and nicknamed me after one of the major league ball players. He told me the player would go out of his way to be hit by the pitch at the plate.

I can remember the name of the player, but, it was a unique name…could it be Dizzy Dean? Would you have anyone in mind? Damn, this is going to drive me to drink until I figure out the player.

Step
Click to expand...

Ron Hunt (Mets/Expos) was well known for it.
 
Jimmy Piersol? He was nuts enough, literally, to do anything. Saw him run around the bases backwards one day, after hitting one out of the park.
 
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