OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - ISLANDIAN PRO ALLIANCE (RUTHLANDIA and TYCOBBIA BASEBALL UNIONS)

Eugene Church · 09-09-2023, 10:23 PM

MY LIFE IN 2023
EC's Life's Filled with Glee in '23

EC just finished "Man on Spikes" by Eliot Asinof... it is very well written and gives you a real sense of what it was like to be a minor league baseball player in the 1940s and 1950s... "Man on Spikes" is a realistic novel about a baseball player who struggles for 16 years of personal crises and professional ordeals before finally appearing in a major league game... your heart will ache for Mike Rutner and his life as a career minor leaguer... the character is based on a real player Mickey Rutner.

Reading it was bittersweet for the idealistic EC... the good old golden days of baseball of my youth were really not so good... players had to work in the off-season to support their families... baseball did not pay them a decent salary at that time.

Thought you might like to know that Mickey Rutner played for the Birmingham Barons in 1947... EC knows that because I replayed the 1947, 1948 and 1949 seasons of my beloved Southern Association.using OOTP.. I used actual players in those years and tried to do an accurate reply... A great guy, Spritzer, shared with me all the Southern Association stats and rosters from 1947 to 1959... he had the entire collection of the Spaulding Baseball Guides, which contained all of the stats of minor league baseball... they were published yearly from the early years of organized baseball... sadly Spritzer passed away 2 or 3 years ago... he was a great member of the OOTP family.

EC just started "Veeck As In Wreck" by Bill Veeck and Ed Linn, an accomplished baseball writer... it's the baseball story of the eccentric major league and minor league owner, Bill Veeck, who was a super promoter, who made going to a baseball fun with wacky promotions... sadly and historically, Bill Veeck is remembered as the guy who used a midget for one at bat in a MLB game in 1953 for the St. Louis Browns, which Veeck owned.

Read the book and I think you would agree Bill Veeck was a baseball genius and deserved a much better reputation... yep, he went too far on occasion and was a pain for the MLB owners... but Veeck created some good ballclubs... the minor league Milwaukee Brewers in the American Association and the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox in the American League... Bill wasn't just a wacky promoter, he was a pretty astute baseball man, too.

"Wit, Quips and Quotes from the Diamond Minds"

Excerpt from "Veeck As In Wreck" by Bill Veeck and Ed Linn:
"It's not the high price of stardom that bothers me... it's the high price of mediocrity"... Bill Veeck speaking about the cost of major league players in the early 1950s.

In my opinion It is truly outrageous today where we have many mediocre MLB players that are millionaires... players are grossly overpaid today. .

09-09-2023, 10:23 PM	#9679
Eugene Church Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 36,225	MY LIFE IN 2023 EC's Life's Filled with Glee in '23 EC just finished "Man on Spikes" by Eliot Asinof... it is very well written and gives you a real sense of what it was like to be a minor league baseball player in the 1940s and 1950s... "Man on Spikes" is a realistic novel about a baseball player who struggles for 16 years of personal crises and professional ordeals before finally appearing in a major league game... your heart will ache for Mike Rutner and his life as a career minor leaguer... the character is based on a real player Mickey Rutner. Reading it was bittersweet for the idealistic EC... the good old golden days of baseball of my youth were really not so good... players had to work in the off-season to support their families... baseball did not pay them a decent salary at that time. Thought you might like to know that Mickey Rutner played for the Birmingham Barons in 1947... EC knows that because I replayed the 1947, 1948 and 1949 seasons of my beloved Southern Association.using OOTP.. I used actual players in those years and tried to do an accurate reply... A great guy, Spritzer, shared with me all the Southern Association stats and rosters from 1947 to 1959... he had the entire collection of the Spaulding Baseball Guides, which contained all of the stats of minor league baseball... they were published yearly from the early years of organized baseball... sadly Spritzer passed away 2 or 3 years ago... he was a great member of the OOTP family. EC just started "Veeck As In Wreck" by Bill Veeck and Ed Linn, an accomplished baseball writer... it's the baseball story of the eccentric major league and minor league owner, Bill Veeck, who was a super promoter, who made going to a baseball fun with wacky promotions... sadly and historically, Bill Veeck is remembered as the guy who used a midget for one at bat in a MLB game in 1953 for the St. Louis Browns, which Veeck owned. Read the book and I think you would agree Bill Veeck was a baseball genius and deserved a much better reputation... yep, he went too far on occasion and was a pain for the MLB owners... but Veeck created some good ballclubs... the minor league Milwaukee Brewers in the American Association and the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox in the American League... Bill wasn't just a wacky promoter, he was a pretty astute baseball man, too. "Wit, Quips and Quotes from the Diamond Minds" Excerpt from "Veeck As In Wreck" by Bill Veeck and Ed Linn: "It's not the high price of stardom that bothers me... it's the high price of mediocrity"... Bill Veeck speaking about the cost of major league players in the early 1950s. In my opinion It is truly outrageous today where we have many mediocre MLB players that are millionaires... players are grossly overpaid today. . Last edited by Eugene Church; 09-09-2023 at 10:29 PM.