Texas Rangers manager question

Slider (sniff) You stink

 

I'll echo the Seasons in Hell comment. There is some funny, funny shit in there.

He devotes an entire chapter to the infamous Nickel Beer Night in Cleveland that begins with him describing the scene as he rode the train to the stadium. Had me in tears.

 

Yeah, that whole chapter was a hoot. May the Lord never place me in a shitty part of Cleveland late at night with a big old clunky "telecopier" (a Nixon-era prototype of a fax machine) under my arm.

I seem to recall something about Spring Training in Florida, Charley Pride, Canadian tourists and a bar tab he turned in to the paper that would probably not be reimbursed in full in this day and age. And something about letting a hitchiker drive his car for a little while as he went through Louisiana? It's been a long time since I read that book, too.

"WE JUST CAN'T HAVE THAT SORT OF THING."

 

Doug Rader was an incompetent dipshit.

He dumped Jim Sundberg for Ned Yost, who as we all know, was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame with 600 career home runs and 10 gold gloves.

 

Doug Rader was hired right after I left the Metroplex. I vaguely remember him being mentioned at the time as an All-Star caliber douche.

I also remember reading in a book I lost long ago (maybe it was one of those 80s Hall Of Shame books) that Toby Harrah was almost universally disliked.

 

It's situations like this where the SI vault becomes invaluable.

Here's Peter Gammons story about Rader when he was hired as Angels manager in 1989. It references Rader's stormy tenure in Texas.

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1068656/index.htm

 

Don't know about Harrah except my memories of his playing days as a little kid. He managed the Rangers for just the 1992 season, which was right about the time in my life when I paid very little attention to sports. My main memory of Harrah is the Harrah-Bell trade with Cleveland. Holy shit did Cleveland ever fuck the dog on that one.

 

That part about him freaking out in the presser and a pair of pants landing on a writer's head rings a bell. I think that was Jim Reeves of the Telegram, but I might be wrong.

 

I liked the part about answering a reporter's question with the same profane answer for 12 straight days and threatening kids who were swearing in line waiting to see Batman.

Great story by Gammons.

 

Those guys with palindromes for last names are always douchebags.

Mark Salas kicks cats, I've heard, and Robb Nen refuses to give his seat to old ladies on a city bus.

 

The SI vault rocks. It's like a sports geek/sportswriters Google. Just for fun, I typed in "Biff Pocoroba" just to see what popped up. There's was 15 stories in which he is mentioned.

 

Perhaps I'm giddy from the lateness of the hour but this seems pretty damn solid.