Quote:
Originally Posted by Rainmaker
A former Negro League player who had a (failed) tryout with the 1962 Mets, and currently a part-owner of the Texas Rangers, this frustrated ballplayer found another career better suited to his skills: singer and Grand Ole Opry member Charley Pride.
Pride, who was closely associated with the Rangers for years, wound up in a Milwaukee Brewers uniform and the subject of Doug McWilliams' camera -- and a pair of postcards issued in 1973. His biggest hit, 1971's "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'" hung in at Number One for five weeks. He became a part-owner of the Rangers in 2010.
Ironically, his final No. 1 hit, in 1983, was "Night Games."
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Charley was a fixture in Spring Training from at least 1971 forward. He was good friends with Dave Bristol and, later, with others in the Brewers front office (then, of course, he moved on to Spring Training with the Rangers, once he'd bought into that team). And Charley took it seriously, too. He wasn't a "celebrity pro" like Will Ferrell. He worked out with the players, did all the calisthenics and running they did, sat on the bench in uniform during games. I'm not sure if he ever got into a game. But he honestly believed that he might get a contract offer if he worked hard enough. Baseball was his first love.
If you go to Charley's web site, you'll see that his bio says something like "...after a tryout with the Mets, Charley decided to head home to Montana". That's a hoot. Charley had been writing the Mets for a tryout for months upon months...and was flatly refused, when his requests weren't completely ignored. He even sent bats to the clubhouse with his name engraved on them, but to no avail.
"I'm not runnin' a tryout camp," was Casey's answer. So Charley (and I'm thinking it was 1963) snuck onto the team bus, Willie Mays Hayes style, when they were about to leave for a game. He figured there were so many unrecognizable faces in Spring Training that no one would notice. Well, Casey noticed. And he was none too pleased. The story goes that Casey, himself, threw Charley off the bus, though I suspect its more likely he had him removed, rather than removed him himself. Thus ended Charley's "tryout" with the Mets, after which he "decided" to head home. Some re-tellings of the story suggest (or outright claim) that Casey didn't like Charley for racial reasons. But Casey treated white ballplayers who wanted a tryout the same way (though I doubt any of them were so brazen as to board the team bus). Unless he got specific orders from the front office, well, he
wasn't runnin' a tryout camp.