The Hall of Fame Era Committee meets this Sunday, December 7th. Dale Murphy needs 12 of 16 votes. You never know who will see this and their vote may be the one that puts Murph over the top. Please retweet if you love Murph and believe he deserves to be honored in Cooperstown.
I want @AlabamaFTBL to win today - and every day - because it’s Alabama. But this is just one example of why I want @KalenDeBoer to win today. #RollTide
That's a wrap on the regular season at Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium! 🏈
Thanks to the best fans for another great home season, Roll Tide! #BamaGameday
Sunday Evening in Tuscaloosa
This is awesome stuff — on Sunday evening, just one day after beating South Carolina on the road and on the first day of the bye week, several Alabama players — including Ty Simpson, Wilkin Formby, Germie Bernard, Tim Kennan, Isaiah Horton and more — gathered in the North End Zone at Bryant-Denny Stadium for an event called “Audience of One,” where they shared their testimonies with nearly 2,000 people.
I’ve covered a lot of teams at UA, but I’ve never been around a group that shares their faith in Christ in so many different ways. ❤️
I was told this was Germie Bernard’s vision
Kalen DeBoer is building champions — on and off the field.
@oti_germie@wilkinformby@ty_simpson06
"Satchel Paige had a very, very good fastball...
but the first time I faced Satchel, he threw me a little breaking ball, just to see what I could do, and I hit it off the top of the fence.
I got a double.
When I got to second, Satchel told the third baseman, 'Let me know when that little boy comes back up.'
Three innings later, I go to kneel down in the on-deck circle, and I hear the third baseman say, 'There he is!!'.
Satch looked at the third baseman, and then he looked at me. I walk halfway to home plate and he says, 'Little boy.'
I say, 'Yes, sir?' because Satch was much older than I am, so I was trying to show respect.
Satch walked halfway to home plate and said, 'Little boy, I'm not going to trick you. I'm going to throw you three fastballs and you're going to go sit down' and I'm saying in my mind, 'I DOOON'T THINK SOOO.
If he threw me three of the same pitch, I'm going to hit it somewhere.
I turned to the catcher and asked, “What does he mean?”
Catcher told me, “He’s going to throw you three fast balls. Nothing else.”
He threw me two fastballs and I just swung...
I swung right through it...and the third ball he threw, and I tell people this all the time, he threw the ball and as he let go he said, 'Go sit down.'
This is while the ball was in the air.
Yes, he struck me out with three pitches.
He was just magnificent."
17 year old Willie Mays
But God!
In 2015, I was diagnosed with ALS and given two years to live. That moment felt like the end of everything I had dreamed for my family. I thought I’d never see my kids graduate high school, let alone college. I imagined missing weddings, never walking my daughters down the aisle, never welcoming sons- or daughters-in-love into our family. And the idea of spoiling grandchildren? That joy felt permanently out of reach.
But then—God.
God didn’t just extend my time. He expanded my purpose.
Day by day, breath by breath, I kept going. Not with grand plans, but with small steps. I celebrated each sunrise. I laughed through the hard days. I leaned on faith when fear tried to take over. And slowly, the impossible started happening.
All but one of my children have now graduated both high school and college. That final milestone is just a year away. I’ve welcomed two beautiful souls into our family—daughters-in-love who bring joy and light. And just yesterday, when my heart was heavy thinking about my aging parents, God whispered hope again.
I’m going to be a granddaddy.
This journey hasn’t been easy. But it’s been amazing. And if you’re reading this while facing your own diagnosis, wondering if there’s anything left to hope for—let me tell you: there is.
Hope lives in the ordinary. In the next meal. The next laugh. The next hug. The next day.
Take life one day at a time. That’s where miracles happen.
—Kerry Goode
ALS may have a timeline, but God writes the story. And my story is still unfolding.
Story by Whitey Ford
"The White Sox came into Yankee Stadium in ’59 and I was pitching against them. I took my 8 warm up pitches, they played the National Anthem.
Up comes Louie Aparicio. First pitch I throw to him he bunts down third, beats it out. One pitch, man on first.
Nellie Fox gets up. First pitch, double down the left field line. Two pitches, second and third.
Minnie Minoso, I threw him a really good curveball, but it hit him in the kneecap. So he walks down to first.
Now I’ve thrown three pitches. Bases are loaded and up comes Ted Kluszewski…First pitch high fastball, off the right-centerfield wall. Three runs score. I’ve thrown four pitches.
Manager Casey Stengel comes out to the mound. Yogi doesn’t want to miss that, so he hustles out there.
And Casey says to Yogi, ‘Does Ford have anything tonight?’.
And Yogi says, ‘How the hell do I know? I haven’t caught a pitch yet.'"
So I’ve got a a better outlook for the rest of Bama’s season today. We had a few key players who were injured yesterday and it WAS Ty’s first start. I think we need to trust that Coach DeBoer will make the changes needed to get us back on track. ROLL TIDE!!!
So my wife Tanja comes to me all serious the other day and says:
“Honey, what do you think I should cook for the Labor Day get-together? I’m inviting people over to watch the games.”
Now let me remind y’all of something. I’m paralyzed. I can’t speak. And I eat through a feeding tube. So when she asked me what food she should cook, all I could think was: “Lady… I could care less if you fry chicken, grill possum, or serve SpaghettiOs straight from the can. I ain’t tasting any of it.”
If it were up to me, I’d just line everybody up and give them the same shake I’m having. Boom—problem solved. One flavor, one blender, one straw. Shake Fest 2025. “Welcome to the cookout, y’all. Hope you like vanilla with a side of hospital chic.”
But Tanja? She’s stressing about ribs, wings, potato salad, baked beans… Meanwhile, I’m thinking, “This is basically the most glorious buffet that don’t even apply to me.”
And then there’s the football situation. She wants to invite people over to “watch the games.” Which sounds great… until you realize Alabama is playing. And let me tell you—I am NOT good company when Alabama is on TV.
Forget being the friendly host. Forget chit-chat. Forget small talk. When the Tide is on, my blood pressure has its own playbook. I’m paralyzed, but believe me—if Alabama throws an interception, my soul is up pacing the living room with a headset on.
Guests will be sitting there like, “Mmm, these ribs are falling off the bone.” And I’m in the corner telepathically screaming at the TV, “WHO CALLED THAT PLAY?!”
So here’s the deal: Tanja’s gonna feed y’all like royalty, I’m gonna sip on my little gourmet shake, and when Alabama kicks off, do not—under any circumstances—try to make small talk with me.
Because at that point, the only two words that matter are: “Roll Tide.”
One day Gates Brown wasn't in the Tigers starting lineup, so he grabbed two hot dogs from the clubhouse. Manager Mayo Smith told him to pinch hit. Gates stuffed the hot dogs in his jersey to hide them from his manager.
"I always wanted to get a hit every time I went to the plate. This was one time I didn't want to get a hit. I'll be damned if I didn't smack one in the gap and I had to slide into second-head first, no less. I was safe at second with a double.
But when I stoop up, I had mustard and ketchup and smashed hot dogs and buns all over me. The fielders took one look at me, turned their backs and damned near busted a gut laughing at me.
My teammates in the dugout went crazy."
Gates Brown was then fined $100 and when Mgr. Smith asked him what he was doing, the hitter came clean:
"I said, 'I was hungry. Besides, where else can you eat a hot dog and have the best seat in the house?'"
Legend!!
“I've buried people in better shape than I am"
Richie Hebner, after running two miles at Spring Training.
"In a good winter I'll dig 50 graves. It's good work. I get 25 bucks a grave. If it has snowed, you just use a pick and shovel, scoop away the snow, the ground is good and soft. But if it hasn't snowed, the ground might be frozen two feet down. You have to use a pneumatic drill.
One time last winter, the ground was so hard and the weather was so cold I said, 'Ah, that's deep enough.' There's a law that a grave's got to be so deep, five feet or something, and the Rabbi says, 'That's not deep enough.'
'Did you ever see one get out?' I asked him.
One woman, they forgot to take off her wooden leg, we had thrown several shovels of dirt on her already when somebody came up and said we had to get her back out so they could get her wooden leg.
Another woman fell into the grave in the middle of the service. Did a header.
'Get her out, get her out,' the rabbi was yelling.
I said, 'Naw, leave her in there and give her a discount.'
The Rabbi looked at my father and said,
'Who is this you've got digging graves?'"
Richie Hebner
LEGEND!
"The Boston Bruins were interested in me and people thought I would sign with them and have a career in pro hockey."
Richie Hebner
Some New England hockey experts have ranked Richie Hebner as the second best player ever to come out of the Boston area. Only player ahead of him was Robbie Ftorek. But Hebner was ranked ahead of players like Rod Langway, Bob Carpenter, Tom Barrasso, Tony Amonte and, yes, even Jeremy "Hollywood" Roenick.