We lost a fan and a 20-year TOT on January 17, 2025
The article below from 2014...Rest in Peace, Larry!
Take, for instance, 82-year-old Larry Tagg. Larry sustained a brain injury a few years back, and he was forced to retire from the active list. However, he still makes the annual luncheon every year and attends all the "dress out" games (every three months, we play a game in our full uniform—followed by a cookout—all the honorary TOTS and former players are also invited and partake in our yearly Christmas party).
So, like a good historian, I checked up on Mr. Tagg. He was the TOT of the Year 2000 and the team manager in 2001-02. In 2005, at 74, he played in 63 games, collected 30 hits in 127 at-bats, knocked in 11 runs, and batted .236. In 2006, his average slipped to .193, but he did step to the plate 166 times, had 32 hits, walked 25 times, and was hit by a pitch four times.
As for his life before the TOTS, well, that's a story in itself.
Larry was a serviceman...and I mean a military serviceman.
Tagg, born and grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, allowed his early "baseball playing" days to be interrupted by enlisting in the Army in 1948. After his eight-year stint in the Army, he returned home and played for some independent baseball teams, traveling around Western Iowa and Eastern Nebraska. It wasn't long before he ended up at a small college in Denver and met Donna Gensler. They married, and he subsequently joined the Air Force and served as a chaplain for 20 years.
While on active duty, Tagg served in Alaska and Germany and was stationed close to home at Davis-Monthan AFB, just to name a few of the bases. He retired from the military in 1976 and eventually made his way to Tucson with his wife, Donna, and his two sons, Philip and Martyn.
And then along came the TOTS.
I admire all the TOTS, past and present. Now that I'm the club historian, I continue to sift through the archives, looking at pictures and faces of men who have come before me. Due to medical issues way beyond their control, a few of the honorary TOTS who are still alive and kicking show up and sit in the bleachers every week to cheer us on.
Take, for instance, 82-year-old Larry Tagg. Larry sustained a brain injury a few years back, and he was forced to retire from the active list. However, he still makes the annual luncheon every year and attends all the "dress out" games (every three months, we play a game in our full uniform—followed by a cookout—all the honorary TOTS and former players are also invited and partake in our yearly Christmas party).
So, like a good historian, I checked up on Mr. Tagg. He was the TOT of the Year 2000 and the team manager in 2001-02. In 2005, at 74, he played in 63 games, collected 30 hits in 127 at-bats, knocked in 11 runs, and batted .236. In 2006, his average slipped to .193, but he did step to the plate 166 times, had 32 hits, walked 25 times, and was hit by a pitch four times.
As for his life before the TOTS, well, that's a story in itself.
Larry was a serviceman...and I mean a military serviceman.
Tagg, born and grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, allowed his early "baseball playing" days to be interrupted by enlisting in the Army in 1948. After his eight-year stint in the Army, he returned home and played for some independent baseball teams, traveling around Western Iowa and Eastern Nebraska. It wasn't long before he ended up at a small college in Denver and met Donna Gensler. They married, and he subsequently joined the Air Force and served as a chaplain for 20 years.
While on active duty, Tagg served in Alaska and Germany and was stationed close to home at Davis-Monthan AFB, just to name a few of the bases. He retired from the military in 1976 and eventually made his way to Tucson with his wife, Donna, and his two sons, Philip and Martyn.
And then along came the TOTS.
Thanks, Denny. I was able to change it. I had Lee Moser's pic in there by mistake.
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