Remembering Bobby Cox as a player...

Bobby and I go back a long way. I never met the man and chances are I never will. But we still go back a long, long way.

Last week, Bobby Cox retired from active duty as the manager of the Atlanta Braves. It's been a long haul for him...and for me that matter. Bobby is 69 years of age and I'm 65. But I still remember the man when he played for the Yankees in 1968. I was 23 and I guess, if my math is correct, Bobby Cox was a 27-year-old major league player with his whole baseball life ahead of him. I would love to meet him and spend just one hour at his home...in his den, surveying all the memorabilia that is pasted on his walls and throughout all his trophy cases.

I have lived a life with baseball, while Bobby Cox has lived his in baseball. My goodness, he played on the field and along side Tom Tresh, Greg Nettles, Joe Pepitone, Mickey Mantle and even, in 1969, the great catcher Thurman Munson -- just to name a few. Bobby took his spot at third base and watched such guys as Mel Stottlemyre and Bill Monbouquette throw the pea.

See, I told you, Bobby and I go back a long way.

Streak over in Fantasy League

My Fantasy Football League: Team Big Red took down Team Priceless and Team Smith upset the Big Dawgs in the UPC Hood Fantasy Football League in Week 5 to throw the family league into a four-way tie for first place.

The Big Dawgs, Team Priceless, Mega Powers and Team Smith are the league leaders, all at 4-1, as we head into Week 6 in our make-believe league and the National Football League. Team Big Red moves to 3-2 after edging my Team Priceless, 137-130 in fantasy points. It came down to MNF once again, only this time it wasn't in the cards for my team, thanks mainly to Minnesota's Percy Harvin, who collected 21 fantasy points for Team Big Red. It looked like I was going to pull it out and move to 5-0 as my fantasy kicker and former Arizona Wildcat Nick Folk booted five goals and two PAT's for 19 fantasy points. But Mark Sanchez, my fantasy quarterback, collected only seven points on the night and that turned out to be the difference, allowing Team Big Red to escape with a 7-point win to send the fantasy league into a four-team pile up at the top.

Of course, in real life, Sanchez and the Jets held off the Vikings and escaped with a hard-fought 29-20 win on Monday Night Football. It was an exciting game as Minnesota's Brett Favre connected on three TD passes -- number 500, 501 and 502 in his illustrous career. As for Folk, his five field goals, one of which was 53 yards helped seal the win for the Jets. Back in 2005, Folk helped the Wildcats beat USC when he booted a 52-yard field goal, a personal-best in his four years at the UofA.

In another close battle in the UPC Hood League, the Grey Ghosts(2-3) held on for a 141-140 win over Team Army (0-5). It was a real nail-biter as the Vikings' Randy Moss piled up 14 fantasy points. He was the only player involved for the two fantasy teams on MNF...another pass reception or two would have given Team Army its first win. Fantasy Football can sure be cruel!

Tucson Tinfoilman Triathlon

My oldest son, Michael, is 45 years old. And of course, he does things I can only dream of. At 65, I do pretty well when it comes to playing baseball. It is pretty well documented by previous blogs on Bookemdanosports, that I take the field and continue to play the sport I love. And, I like to think I'm not too shabby for an old timer...going up against other old coots in my age group, of course. But Michael, he is over the top and gets involved in all kinds of stuff. His latest adventure: The Tucson Tinfoilman Triathlon, held this morning on the University of Arizona campus.

For Michael, it all started at 7 a.m. as he nervously prepared for the first event, a leisurely swim (just kiddin') at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center. My goodness, 825 yards of swimming (that's eight football fields...plus a couple of first downs). I would need the fire department to pull me out, after that event alone! Of course Michael is a Captain with Rural Metro Fire, so I would have an in there, at least. Next up: He crawls out of the pool, races over to his lightweight, European cycle and takes off on a 12 mile bike-ride around the UofA campus. He battles his way in and out of traffic, completes the race, scoots into the transition area, takes off some of the gear he no longer needs and then proceeds to boogie by foot -- off on a 3-mile run thru the UofA campus.

At this point, I would not only need a fire department to my rescue, but probably an undertaker. Michael completed the triathlon with only a minor hitch -- a muscle spasm at the end of the running event. Still, he reached his goal of 1 hour and 28 minutes. Pretty darn good for his first attempt at a triathlon. I'd still be back at the Hillenbrand pool...coughing up water! Michael, job well done!

Triathlon Update: The Tucson Tinfoilman Triathlon is sponsored by Holualoa Real Estate Properties and is put on by Trisports of Tucson. The race is a USAT sanctioned event. Read more about such events at www.TriTucson.com or at trisports.com.

Lookin' for a miracle...

In the Stands Report by Bookemdano: At the very end, in the closing moments of the Arizona-Oregon State game, the 56,000 plus at Arizona Stadium were looking for a miracle.

Instead, like I said in my previous blog, it turned into a pre-Halloween nightmare. How do you lose a football game when your quarterback throws for 440 yards and three touchdowns at your home, on your own field with everyone in attendance pulling for you.

That's college football and you've got to hand it to the Beavers...and to Jacquizz Rodgers, he's got the heart of a lion. Score OSU 29, Arizona 27. What was my prediction? Well, it was Arizona 34, OSU 31. Wrong again, Bookemdano!

I remember Mr. Rogers' neighborhood...

In the Stands Report by Bookemdano: The only Mr. Rogers I can remember off the top of my head is the one that had an impact on my children way back in the mid 1960s. Children all over the country sat down near the family TV and watched Fred Rogers perform on his weekly television show for kids. It was all about Mr. Rogers and his neighborhood. The show certainly got the full attention of the younger set from all over the world for that matter.

Fred Rogers died in 2003 of stomach cancer at the age of 74. And where am I going with this on Saturday morning, October 9th?  Well, this a stretch...but fun.

This afternoon, another Mr. Rogers will show up in our neighborhood at Arizona Stadium. Okay, so you spell his name Rodgers as in Jacquizz Rodgers, the fleet-footed running back for the Oregon State Beavers. That's who the Wildcats need to stop this week. Rodgers will try to turn our neighborhood into a pre-Halloween nightmare as the Beavers will be trying their hardest to knock off the ninth-ranked and unbeaten Wildcats.

Rodgers has rushed for 398 yards and six touchdowns this season. Compare that to the Wildcats' Nic Grigsby, Greg Nwoko and Keola Antolin who have combined for 437 yards and seven touchdowns this year.

Still, my prediction: Arizona 34, Oregon State 31.

Seven TOTS players prepare to grind it out at MSBL World Series

As we edge closer to the MLB World Series (my goodness its only a couple of weeks away), seven 65-and-older members of the Tucson Old Timers (TOTS) baseball club will head for Phoenix, Arizona, next week to participate in the other series: the Mens Senior Baseball League (MSBL) World Series.

Representing the TOTS in the Phoenix affair are: Arnie White, Chico Bigham, Dave Rhoades, Floyd Lance, Jeff Helzel, Jerry Hamelin and yours truly, Danny Price. Five of the seven have been nursing one injury or another through out most of September, but all seven are ready to do battle and participate in the annual series, which will once again involve more than 3,000 players and somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 teams.

The MSBL World Series, which not only includes the real old timers, but the much younger groups from 18-and-over to 55-and-over. Of course, the younger the teams, the quicker the game becomes, and by the time you get to say the 50-and-over teams, well, let me just say, it's a wee bit slower brand of baseball. But believe you me, it remains just as competitive as the play of the younger studs, who show up in Phoenix to represent their city or state...or country for that matter.

The oldest TOT participating in the MSBL World Series this year is Lance, who at the age of 85, can still pick it at first base. Lance, a member of the TOTS since 1999, batted .385 during the month of September. He played in 11 games and led the TOTS in runs scored with 12. Bigham,72, catches, pitches and plays the infield for the TOTS. He batted .630 last month and led the team in hits with 17 to go along with his nine runs-batted-in (RBI).

Helzel,70, also plays first base for the TOTS, but has been nursing a knee injury for the past two months. The injury has kept him out of the lineup, but he recently returned to active duty and swears that he's ready for action. Helzel, a lefty, has a sweet swing and when he joined the ball club in 2009, he quickly showed off his batting skills as he popped a round-tripper out of Tucson Udall Park in his third at bat as a member of the team.

Hamelin, 69, batted a hefty .667 during the month of September and was second on the team in hits with 16. White, 68, and Rhoades,66, saw limited action last month, due mainly to away-from-the-ball-park issues, but still made their presence known. White, who pitches and plays the infield, batted .375 during September, while Rhoades, an outfielder, batted a hefty .444.

That leaves yours truly,65,who is still nursing a back injury, but just like my teammates, will be ready to gut it out for the two weeks in Phoenix from Oct. 17 to the 31st. I managed to play in nine of the 12 games, during the month of September, collecting 10 RBI, scored 10 times and batted .680.

White is a professor at the University of Arizona; Lance is a retiree from the U of A; Rhoades is still working and is a Financial Planner. Hamelin is a retiree from IBM; Helzel is a retired salesman from New York; while Bigham is a retired state of Arizona employee and is currently, when called upon, an umpire in Tucson and the surrounding area, working mainly on the high school level -- handling games as far away as Hayden-Winkelman and Casa Grande.

And that leaves me, a retired state of Arizona employee; a retired airline worker and a former sports writer in Phoenix (the writing job -- my favorite undertaking -- occurred during the mid 1990s). So there you have it. Seven old timers off to battle. We all hope to come back in one piece with some stories to tell. Wish us luck!

I watched it in black and white at 11...in living color at 65

I was 11 years old, a wide-eyed young boy, who thought there was nothing better in life than to grab my glove, my bat and my ball, hop on my bike and head for the park. The only thing that came close was to sit in front of our black and white Zenith or Curtis Mathes television set (don't hold me to which came first in our family, I just can't remember) and watch the Game of the Week, or better yet, the World Series.

And now you know where I'm going with this.

There I sat, in 1956, not on the sofa, but on the floor, three feet away from the tube, as I watched the New York Yankees' Don Larsen hurl a perfect game against my favorite team, the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series. Fast forward 54 years and I just saw it again, yesterday afternoon, another no-hitter -- not a perfect game -- but the second no-hitter ever thrown in postseason play. This time, I saw it in living color, in HD, on my Vizio. Every pitch from the 7th inning on seemed to jump out right at me...and no, I was not three feet away this time, but maybe 20 feet away, sitting in my favorite chair with my feet dangling over the coffee table.

The Philadelphia Phillies' Roy Halladay was perfect in my book, despite one lone walk to the Cincinnati Reds' Jay Bruce --it was just downright perfection. It's close to impossible to throw a no-hitter in any league, much less two in the same season (as Halladay has done). The only thing harder that I can think of: it is hitting a baseball.

At 65 years of age, I'm still trying to hit that pea, that piece of cowhide...that little dart that's coming at you, which moves left or right...up or down at speeds up to 100 mph (well, in my league 55 to 60 at the most). I'm sure you old timers out there get my drift. Hitting a baseball has been and always will be the hardest thing to accomplish in sports. No matter what league you're in, if you fail two out of three times you step to the plate, you're an all star at 1 for 3....a hefty .333 batting average. Hats off to Mr. Halladay and to all those major league players that step to the plate every day and fail one out of three times. They make it look easy when they rip the ball up the middle for a hit.

Believe me...it is not that easy!