Sunday, December 29, 2013

R.I.P., "Motormouth"

It;s hard, if you're a baseball fan, to accept the game in its current, overpriced, uncompetitive, drug-laden condition.  Doing so, however, becomes almost unbearable when you think about the players from decades ago--not just the exceptional ones, but the everyday ones who played hard and found ways to make themselves indispensable to both their fellow players and their fans.

Paul Blair was one such player.  If you saw him play, as I had the privilege of doing, you didn't see all around greatness, but you saw someone who got the most out of his ability to read fly balls and, most of all, his speed.  As much as any other player, Blair showed that in baseball, speed is both an offensive and a defensive weapon.  I'll never forget the inside-the-park, grand-slam home run I watched him hit against the Kansas City Royals.  And Orioles pitchers who played with him will never forget the ways in which his fielding lowered their ERAs.

And, in his personal life, he was nothing less than a total class act.  It is somehow fitting that he died while participating in a bowling tournament for charity.  R.I.P., Paul.  Thanks for the memories.  And thanks for the personal example of how to live.

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