When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

07.05.2007
Shooter Story

This comes from my teammate in the MSBL:

“We were down in Arizona for the annual MSBL World Series, I believe it was 1993, might have been '94, and one night our whole team went out to a bar. Lo and behold Rod Beck was also there with his brother in law. After striking up a conversation and sharing beers with them for awhile, Beck invited the whole team back to his house for more beers and to play pool. We must have been there until about 3:00 AM having a good old time. Somewhere along the line someone brought up our game the next day and asked Beck if he wanted to play, kidding of course. 

The next day while we're warming up before the game guess who comes strolling across the field carrying a baseball bag? That's right! Needless to say, we were all stunned, but elated! Keep in mind, I'm pretty sure we were already eliminated from any play-off spots so Beck's playing had no significance in that regard, though it wasn't legal to put him in the game. Also, he was only 23 or 24 at the time, and we were playing in the 28+ division.

Well, we inserted him into the lineup at third base and he proceeded to get a couple of knocks. I recall our catcher relating the comment by the homeplate umpire — ‘if that's who I think it is playing third base and he comes in to pitch and starts throwing 90+ mph, that's not gonna fly’ — something to that effect. It was a great experience and we were lucky enough to get a team photo with Beck in the middle!”

***

SMALL PRINT UPDATE: Misch and Atchinson up from Fresno, Sanchez to the DL and Chulk out for a few days of family leave. (His dad is having surgery.)
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[July 5, 2007 4:13 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Josh from Hollywood said

It's simply amazing how many great stories like this have popped up since Beck's death. Shooter was always one of my favorite players -- even after he left the Giants -- and his loss hit me very hard, but getting to hear about the countless positive experiences fans had with him over years has cushioned the blow considerably.

[July 5, 2007 5:53 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ogc said

Great Shooter story, ELM, thanks!

He was an original and he will be missed. I still sometimes wonder what would have happened if his agent didn't play hardball with the Giants and he had resigned with the Giants, because then there probably wouldn't have been the Nen trade, and Nen was clearly better than Shooter after Beck's great first year for the Cubs, so what would have happened by 2002?