The following was written by old time Star-Telegram columnist George Dolan. I tried to research when it was written and but came up with no solid leads. It is reprinted here word for word without permission.
Three Up, Three Down by George Dolan
That oldtimers' baseball exhibition at Arlington Stadium earlier in the summer, which attracted big-name New York Yankee stars of the past, couldn't help but remind Bob Spindle of Fort Worth of what he calls his only real claim to fame.
Spindle used to officiate football and baseball games and even pro rasslin'. He was stationed behind home plate at an exhibition game between two Major League teams at El Paso 23 or 24 years ago.
In the pre-game meeting, where ground rules are discussed by umpires and managers, one of the managers requested that the umpires be lenient on their calls. If the home plate umpire wouldn't be too nit-picky about calling strikes, the manager reasoned, then his batting star would have a better chance of hitting a home run or two and giving the crowd a thrill.
Thumbs-Down On Let-Up
The umpires turned thumbs-down on that suggestion. They'd call it, they insisted, as the saw it. The second time the big batting star was at bat, Spindle recalls, he was out on a called third strike.
"He didn't like it," Spindle says. "He kept on fussing and called me a few names, which he shouldn't have. If he hadn't used the bad language, I wouldn't have sent him to the showers, but I told him to get off the field. He went to the dugout. I told him to get out of the dugout, that he was going to the showers or this would be a called ball game."
"(His manager) came out and said, 'I protest this,' and I said, 'You can't protest a judgement call..'" They had words, Spindle says, and the manager employed some vulgar remarks to him that the crowd could hear.
An umpire, he explains, can let such language go if the crowd can't hear it. "When you let the crowd hear it, that's it," he says. "I told him he would have to go."
"He said, 'You can't send me to the showers.' I said, 'Well, you'd better leave this field or your team is forfeiting this game.'" The manager left but, an inning or two later, Spindle says, the catcher started "breathing down my collar."
Catcher Next
"Instead of the umpire breathing down the catcher's collar," says Spindle in an injured tone, "he started breathing down MY collar." The memory still wounds him. "He started fussing because I was calling some balls he thought should have been strikes and he said a few vulgar remarks to me so I told him to join his two buddies in the shower."
So far as Spindle knows, he was the only umpire ever to throw those three out of the same game.
They were, in order,
Joe DiMaggio,
manager Casey Stengel
and Yogi Berra.
Bob Spindle is my grandfather. He passed in 1989. I'm sure he loved this story very much, so when I had trouble finding anything else out about it online, I decided to reprint it here. He would have loved sharing this and I hope you enjoyed it.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Texas College Football Volume 1
I wasn't at DKR on Saturday. Wasn't part of the 100,00 man army, although it might not have been 100,00 on Saturday cause there were an awful lot of Bruin fans there. No, my money and I stayed 3 hours drive to the north, in comfortable, reclined...despair as the Longhorns went through the motions against what has turned out to be a very solid team. In the process, they pissed away the opportunity to make next weeks match against Boomer Sooner mean something and took themselves out of the bogus national championship picture. But I think the most important thing they lost was leverage with all the recruits they had in the stands. I wonder how many of them still want to go to Texas? How many want to go to UCLA now? And while there is more finger pointing in Austin than drag worms after that embarrassing 34-12 loss, my twisted finger points one way, the schedule.
That's right, I said it, the schedule. Yes, there are other factors, I mean, come on, I'm not stupid(don't say it). Lack of running game, no down field passing game(weren't we promised a down field play-action passing game to go with the reborn i back sets?), poor tackling, careless turnovers, mental breakdowns, Will Muschamp can't stop a real running game, receivers with T Rex arms and oven might hands, rampant malaise and general disinterest. But most of these things come from the fact that Texas doesn't play anybody. When you don't play anybody you don't really face adversity. When a human being faces adversity it brings out their true character. And any good coach knows that adversity is the blacksmith that forges a strong football team. Your boys become battle hardened veterans, like Easy Company after Operation Market Garden. They can keep their cool cause they've been there before. Today I saw a team full of greenhorns that finally got to play somebody with legitimate talent and broke like poorly made steel.
So, you don't believe me. Well, let's just look at a few games from Saturday. Alabama was able to respond from a major deficit on the road against the #10 Arkansas Pig Siouxies. The same Bama team that played Penn State earlier in the year. Boomer Sooner wins a squeaker against Cincinnati after playing Air Force(very good team) and Florida State. Ohio State, notorious for playing Direction Fort Wayne State and Cleveland Institute of Ceramics, played Miami this season. Even little guys Boise State have played Virginia Tech and Oregon State. Texas played Rice and Wyoming, and in the process learned nothing about what it takes to respond to adversity in a football game. It almost caught up to them against those Plains Aggies from Techsterville. But Yosemite Sam shot himself in the foot like he always does. Yesterday there was no almost. It seemed like every mistake was capitalized on. This team flat out doesn't know what it is. Is it a great defensive team? Great defenses stop the run, and this team can only stop the spread run. Is it a power running team? If so, who's your primary back? Like I said about the Cowboys, if you got three backs then you don't have one. Or is it a spread? Right now it seems to be half and half, and that's not even very good in coffee.
The future may hold many bright things for Garret, Mike, Jackson and those boys. The talent on this team is not in question. We all know Mackie Mack can recruit as well as anyone out there. But the present only holds heartbreak, loneliness and anguish. Conference play will be rough this year as Oklahoma and Nebraska look for revenge. Missouri could be OK and Baylor is due to beat somebody at some point, right? Heck, even Okie Noodler State looks to be totally loaded offensively, although they might suffer the same fate as Texas because...wait for it...they haven't played anybody! Could a 4 or 5 loss season down in Longhorn Nation be a reality? This might be a very long season. Keep your head up, though. It could be worse, you could be in Oklahoma! Keep Austin Weird Y'all!
That's right, I said it, the schedule. Yes, there are other factors, I mean, come on, I'm not stupid(don't say it). Lack of running game, no down field passing game(weren't we promised a down field play-action passing game to go with the reborn i back sets?), poor tackling, careless turnovers, mental breakdowns, Will Muschamp can't stop a real running game, receivers with T Rex arms and oven might hands, rampant malaise and general disinterest. But most of these things come from the fact that Texas doesn't play anybody. When you don't play anybody you don't really face adversity. When a human being faces adversity it brings out their true character. And any good coach knows that adversity is the blacksmith that forges a strong football team. Your boys become battle hardened veterans, like Easy Company after Operation Market Garden. They can keep their cool cause they've been there before. Today I saw a team full of greenhorns that finally got to play somebody with legitimate talent and broke like poorly made steel.
So, you don't believe me. Well, let's just look at a few games from Saturday. Alabama was able to respond from a major deficit on the road against the #10 Arkansas Pig Siouxies. The same Bama team that played Penn State earlier in the year. Boomer Sooner wins a squeaker against Cincinnati after playing Air Force(very good team) and Florida State. Ohio State, notorious for playing Direction Fort Wayne State and Cleveland Institute of Ceramics, played Miami this season. Even little guys Boise State have played Virginia Tech and Oregon State. Texas played Rice and Wyoming, and in the process learned nothing about what it takes to respond to adversity in a football game. It almost caught up to them against those Plains Aggies from Techsterville. But Yosemite Sam shot himself in the foot like he always does. Yesterday there was no almost. It seemed like every mistake was capitalized on. This team flat out doesn't know what it is. Is it a great defensive team? Great defenses stop the run, and this team can only stop the spread run. Is it a power running team? If so, who's your primary back? Like I said about the Cowboys, if you got three backs then you don't have one. Or is it a spread? Right now it seems to be half and half, and that's not even very good in coffee.
The future may hold many bright things for Garret, Mike, Jackson and those boys. The talent on this team is not in question. We all know Mackie Mack can recruit as well as anyone out there. But the present only holds heartbreak, loneliness and anguish. Conference play will be rough this year as Oklahoma and Nebraska look for revenge. Missouri could be OK and Baylor is due to beat somebody at some point, right? Heck, even Okie Noodler State looks to be totally loaded offensively, although they might suffer the same fate as Texas because...wait for it...they haven't played anybody! Could a 4 or 5 loss season down in Longhorn Nation be a reality? This might be a very long season. Keep your head up, though. It could be worse, you could be in Oklahoma! Keep Austin Weird Y'all!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Long Season Reasons
A couple of things about the Cowboys that won't change until Jerry Jones steps to the side or dies(I would prefer step to the side, but, no...I'm not going there):
number 1-The Dallas Cowboys will not have a strong willed head coach with Hand(power) in personnel and coaching staff decisions. He will be always be as he is now, a puppet with very little respect from his coaches or players. Do you really think Wade could be a coach anywhere else? He almost wasn't the coach here. Garret was hired first and many thought he was going to be the head coach and Wade would be hired as d coordinator. Maybe Washington, because they are the only franchise more dysfunctional than the Cowboys. But, seriously, Wade is a great defensive coordinator(although it didn't show today, Mike Martz made him look foolish after the first quarter), and he could probably get a job with 20 other teams doing just that. But he is not a good coach. Not in Buffalo, where he was fired, and not in Denver, where he was fired. When the shit hits the fan in the playoffs, Wade has only managed 1 win. that's just one more than me. He's not alone in the Cowboys history though. Campo wasn't any good as a coach. Nor was Gailey or Switzer(Yahoo Boomer Sooner got one hell of a 4 year ride, though). Even Parcells, who was years past his prime and wanted guys to play with leather helmets and punt on 3rd down, was not a good coach when he was in Dallas. But he had the respect of his players and he still knew personnel, and that's where he and Jerry butted heads, resulting in Big Bills early departure. You see, Jerry likes over-rated receivers and crappy linemen. Parcells preferred guys who could play and weren't in love with themselves. Wade leaves it all to Jerry and the result is what we see on the field(Dez and Miles excluded).
Which brings me to point b-Your quarterback is an extension of your coaching staff on the field. It's basic football philosophy. So when you have poor coaching, more often than not you are going to have poor quarterback play. Tony Romo is in danger of becoming Danny White. Statistically, Danny one of the greatest of the great Cowboys quarterbacks(Meredith,Staubach and Aikman). But he got blamed for every shortcoming, mistake and big game loss. And while I would argue that it wasn't all his fault, that some of it was the game passing Laundry by, Danny took most of the blame. Most of the passing records Romo has broken belonged to Danny White. And Romo takes a very large amount of blame for the teams losses. And some of it is his fault, but some belongs to Wade, and Jerry, too. Tony was much more consistent under Parcells and I don't think that's a coincidence.
Jerry Jones is a good business man, and he makes a lot of money with the Cowboys. That doesn't bother me at all, in fact, good for him. I'm not jealous of money. But he's not even an average football man with complete control of MY team. That makes me absolutely sick. In all his other business ventures, Jerry has hired very competent people to make key decisions. Back in the 90's, after the Jimster left, the joke started about Jerry being the real coach of the team. I'm not laughing.
number 1-The Dallas Cowboys will not have a strong willed head coach with Hand(power) in personnel and coaching staff decisions. He will be always be as he is now, a puppet with very little respect from his coaches or players. Do you really think Wade could be a coach anywhere else? He almost wasn't the coach here. Garret was hired first and many thought he was going to be the head coach and Wade would be hired as d coordinator. Maybe Washington, because they are the only franchise more dysfunctional than the Cowboys. But, seriously, Wade is a great defensive coordinator(although it didn't show today, Mike Martz made him look foolish after the first quarter), and he could probably get a job with 20 other teams doing just that. But he is not a good coach. Not in Buffalo, where he was fired, and not in Denver, where he was fired. When the shit hits the fan in the playoffs, Wade has only managed 1 win. that's just one more than me. He's not alone in the Cowboys history though. Campo wasn't any good as a coach. Nor was Gailey or Switzer(Yahoo Boomer Sooner got one hell of a 4 year ride, though). Even Parcells, who was years past his prime and wanted guys to play with leather helmets and punt on 3rd down, was not a good coach when he was in Dallas. But he had the respect of his players and he still knew personnel, and that's where he and Jerry butted heads, resulting in Big Bills early departure. You see, Jerry likes over-rated receivers and crappy linemen. Parcells preferred guys who could play and weren't in love with themselves. Wade leaves it all to Jerry and the result is what we see on the field(Dez and Miles excluded).
Which brings me to point b-Your quarterback is an extension of your coaching staff on the field. It's basic football philosophy. So when you have poor coaching, more often than not you are going to have poor quarterback play. Tony Romo is in danger of becoming Danny White. Statistically, Danny one of the greatest of the great Cowboys quarterbacks(Meredith,Staubach and Aikman). But he got blamed for every shortcoming, mistake and big game loss. And while I would argue that it wasn't all his fault, that some of it was the game passing Laundry by, Danny took most of the blame. Most of the passing records Romo has broken belonged to Danny White. And Romo takes a very large amount of blame for the teams losses. And some of it is his fault, but some belongs to Wade, and Jerry, too. Tony was much more consistent under Parcells and I don't think that's a coincidence.
Jerry Jones is a good business man, and he makes a lot of money with the Cowboys. That doesn't bother me at all, in fact, good for him. I'm not jealous of money. But he's not even an average football man with complete control of MY team. That makes me absolutely sick. In all his other business ventures, Jerry has hired very competent people to make key decisions. Back in the 90's, after the Jimster left, the joke started about Jerry being the real coach of the team. I'm not laughing.
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