@BobPagesports Interviewed Drabowsky during a Cubs caravan in Illinois when he was coaching. He confirmed the stories Bouton told about him in “Ball Four.”
"Ted Williams was debating whether to play in the "Jimmy Fund Game" in Boston, at Fenway in 1972.
Williams wasn't sure until Mr. Yawkey asked him personally to play, so he did.
Ted came into the dugout looking for a bat for batting practice.
He was in the zone now, not like the rest of us.
I used a W183 bat, I had no idea what it stood for, but he picked out that bat, and I later found out the W stood for Williams!
Ted grabbed the bat and said:
'Now this is a damn good bat.'
Then he went looking for pine tar and screamed out:
'There's too much f****** oil in this pine tar, no wonder you guys can't f****** hit.'
So Ted walked to the plate, and Lee Stange was throwing.
Ted screamed at him:
'Now throw the ball hard, don't be throwing any shit up here.'
He took the first pitch.
Ted Williams always took the first pitch.
I looked at a teammate and said:
'I hope he swings and misses 20 times.'
Ted took 15 swings, and hit every one on the sweet spot.
He hit every one hard.
I looked at Nellie Fox after the round and said:
'Nellie, that was pretty impressive….
The guy hasn't picked up a bat in five years and he hit every ball hard.'
Nellie Fox just looked at me and said:
'Ted`s been hitting in the cage for six weeks, just in case he decided to play today.
You didn't really think Ted Williams would go out there and embarrass himself?"
Tom Grieve's experience with Ted Williams.
@BobPagesports@uptonbell Our family visited the HOF the day after the 1973 inductions (Berry, Joe Schmidt, Jim Parker). Walking up the stairs, coming down was Schmidt. Quite the thrill to say hello.
@BobPagesports Wrote a story and shot video of a 100-year-old bowler in Rochester. He said when he was a kid, the Yankees played an exhibition in town and he waited for Ruth to arrive and followed him into the clubhouse, before he was booted. He might be my earliest-born interview.
@BobPagesports Lewistown, Mont., in the ‘80s and ‘90s had a big amateur hoops event with teams from all over. Rodman played in it once. We were in a bar and my checkbook was out. Kid noticed my name and turned ashen. His pal, Chad Roberts, had recently been killed in a motorcycle crash.