Originally Posted By: pizzaboy
Originally Posted By: Camarel
Originally Posted By: Binnie_Coll
pb. bobby thomsens hr in 1951 was the greatest hr in bb history. giants fans went nuts. what a great place ny was in the 50s dodgers, giants, yankees, I hated barry bonds also. well, I gotta go with the royals, you know [team of destiny] like the 69 mets.


Not a fan of Baseball myself, but i've enjoyed following the History of the Game; so i had to look up this "greatest hr in bb history". Of course the guy was born in Glasgow cool .

Only joking of course he moved to the States when he was two and it seems that the HR was actually bad for him since it was all he's remembered for, even though he apparently had 8 Twenty HR seasons.

Thomspson grew up right here in New York, on Staten Island. He was a natural for this city. And he did fine after retirement, Cam. He and Ralph Branca were always in demand at MLB sponsored events and outings.

About twenty years ago I bid to play with them in a foursome at a Teamster golf outing up at Westchester Country Club, so I got to play with them and my Dad. My Dad was thrilled, of course. But I was pretty awed myself. Two nicer guys you never met. Bobby Valentine was there, too, that day. This was before he came back to manage the Mets, though. He's Branca's son-in-law. He's a nice guy, too, even though he does come across as a jerk on television sometimes.



As i've already said i'm not a fan of Baseball, but i'm really interested in the history of it; your post about your Dad being a NY Giants fan before they moved to SF, reignited my interest in it so thanks.

I pretty much went into the deep end and started reading certain Baseball forums, an interesting thread that i came across on one was named something like: "Baseball History you personally witnessed". Some guy claimed that he witnessed a Rookie Greg Maddux, strikeout Mike Schmidt. This is the comment and link to the thread.

http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread...-It-quot-Thread

In 1987 I was off work for most of the summer on a health-related issue. Although I was a Chicago White Sox fan, I went to a lot of Cub day games that year. The one I remember most was a game with the Phillies. I was sitting in the second row directly behind home plate. It was a weekday afternoon game in late September, and the Cubs were in last place, so good seats were easy to come by. Late in the game, the Phillies sent up Mike Schmidt to pinch hit. He wasn't in the starting lineup that day.

The Cubs' pitcher was a rookie who looked impossibly young and scrawny to be in the big leagues, but he struck out Schmidt on three pitches that darted away from him at the last possible moment. Schmidt just dropped his bat on the ground and stood in the batters' box staring out at the mound. I'd never seen such a nasty curve from such a raw rookie. I mean this kid looked like the batboy. His name was Greg Maddux and I knew that day I'd seen something special.