Writer, editor, sports historian; lover of spicy food. gregeno.substack.com thekneejerks.libsyn.com/webs…
Joined March 2009
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16h
Age yourself by naming a MLB shortstop you grew up watching.
I’ll start: Derek Jeter.
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Can it be in Cleveland tomorrow before game time?
Tigers fans, let's talk Toledo. Toss me your questions about the current roster.
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Well since Wilt should be #1 but he's not even on the list, no.
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Ugh. #RedWings
June 13th. One of my least favorite days of the year. On this day, two men that I was really close to lost their careers and almost their lives. Didn't seem fair in 1997 and it still doesn't today.
Much has been said about how we celebrated the responsible way. Yeah, we drank. A lot. But we didn't drive. We took limos everywhere that week. Yet tragedy still struck Vladdy and Sergei and it struck our entire team.
I still live near the crash site. Even though lightning would cruelly strike and destroy the tree less than a month after they hit it, I know exactly where it was, the exact median on Woodward, and the location, down to the foot. I drive past it almost daily and still it fixates my glare.
Not far away, Beaumont Hospital, where Vladdy and Sergei would spend months, and I would stop by daily...hoping for a miracle that never came.
Sure, elite medical care, rehabilitation and Vladdy's sheer will to live is why he is still with us 29 years later, but the miracle of he and Sergei Mnatsakanov having even a remotely normal life missed them.
And for that, I will always be angry. I will always wish they never got in that limo or even came to the golf course that day. Neither one of them played even one hole, they weren't golfers... they came to be with their teammates. To celebrate one last time before we all went our separate ways.
Unfair. Cruel.
So I choose to celebrate those men. Sergei has passed but he will never be forgotten. Such an amazing family man, masseur and friend. He never got the credit he deserved for helping that 97 team play at it's best. He was a blessing to me and all the players.
Vladdy? Man, what a warrior. What a great human being and hockey player. Easily the toughest player I had the privilege of working with. He would play through anything... and he did.
I think about him often...wish life was better to and for him. But I do not pity him. Vladdy wouldn't allow it. I love and appreciate him, and I know his fans do too.
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Down 0-2 in the first round against a highly inferior #Canucks team. Nicky Lidstrom's goal from center ice in Game 3 in Vancouver turned the entire series around.
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"Dr. Strangeglove" (poor fielding Dick Stuart) is the best nickname not only in baseball but in all of sports and I'll not be convinced otherwise.
Jun 12
Thinking about creating a “Nickname Hall of Fame”. Not required to be Hall of Fame players, but players with a nickname that’s stood the test of time.
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I remember when #Ford came out with one key for both the door and ignition and I thought it was the work of witchcraft.
Jun 12
These keys came with every car in America when I was a kid. I can’t explain how or why but everyone over 40 knows this is true.
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I never saw Rocky Colavito play but I'll die on the hill that says this was the greatest outfield throw ever made. Look where Roberto was when he launched it!
Jun 11
Roberto Clemente has 65 more career outfield assists than any player born after 1909. This is why.
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Let's play Jeopardy!
ANSWER: He played for teams representing all 4 #MLB divisions in 1977.
Jun 11
Dave Kingman, 442 Home Runs, 16 Grand Slams, 3x All Star. Which other MLB player is your best comparison to him?
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What are some of your favorite "wacky" #songlyrics?
I'll start.
"Tiny purple fishes run laughing through your fingers."
---Tales of Brave Ulysses #Cream
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