Ya Gotta Believe

Tug McGraw is in intensive care with two malignant brain tumors. This is the man who pitched the spectacular final out of the 1980 World Series.

Baseball is designed to break your heart. Yes. Because those lovely boys die young, or they get older, they get sick, they die. Athletes flower so fast. Wise lad, to slip betimes away.

No. Damn it, don't slip away. I'd rather have athletes (and poets, and musicians, and soldiers, and everybody) grow into cranky old codgers than die young and pretty. Why is this hitting me so hard? Because too many people in my life have died young and pretty. I want us all to get old together. I want to die at 95 or so, scandalizing the staff at the nursing home right up to the end.

Tug, be well. We love you.

Quotes from Tug

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf." - Asked for a preference of grass or Astroturf

"I have no trouble with the twelve inches between my elbow and my palm. It's the seven inches between my ears that's bent."

"Kids should practice autographing baseballs. This is a skill that's often overlooked in Little League."

"Ninety percent I'll spend on good times, women and Irish Whiskey. The other ten percent I'll probably waste."

"Ten million years from now, when then sun burns out and the Earth is just a frozen iceball hurtling through space, nobody's going to care whether or not I got this guy out."