Who Needs Baseball?

The Mets will likely send Jacob deGrom to the hill on Opening Day

                                          
 

By Harry Cummins

     The Major League Baseball season is at our doorstep.  For those of you who possess an innate understanding that hitting is all about timing... and pitching is about upsetting timing, and that home is where one must always start from, then there awaits a lifetime burning in each calculated pitch and each unpredictable swing of this most anticipated of baseball journeys.

     'Blue Moon' and 'Oil Can' have long since departed the sport but a new cast of characters has captured our imagination..  What will be the nicknames we lovingly attach to the likes of Wander Franco and Bobby Witt, Jr?  

     It should be noted straight-away that baseball is not an obvious game.  The poet Walt Whitman uncovered profound things in the game while Thomas Boswell claimed, more than any other American sport, baseball creates the illusion that it can almost be understood.  Leo 'The Lip' Durocher simply said baseball is a lot like church.  Many attend, few understand.

     Your opportunity for enlightenment, and maybe even a swing at salvation, begins on April 7.  May you celebrate your team in victory, and stay faithful in defeat  It may be just what our contentious culture needs right now. 

      As James Earl Jones once opined, "baseball reminds us all of what was once good.. and that could be again."    

     It's Opening Day. Time your season swing for the fastball but you better be ready for the bender. Faith and doubt, blessings and curses, all in the daily striving to find home. 

     I need baseball!          

    

     

     

Here We Go...Again!

Hello from Eugene. I'm back and, not trying to brag, better than ever!!! (One can only hope.)

For those here for the first time, please allow me to introduce myself. I'm Bill Crawford. I'm 65 years of age and live and work in Eugene. I'm a native Oregonian, born in Medford on November 8, 1956. I'm a 1974 graduate of Winston Churchill High School in Eugene (Go Lancers!) and a 1978 graduate of what was then Southern Oregon State College, now Southern Oregon University (Go Raiders!), where I earned my Bachelor of Science degree in Speech Communications. 

I'm married with two daughters and two very handsome (if I do say so myself) grandsons. 

I'm a long-time member of the broadcast media, 45-plus years in radio. I also have experience as a voiceover artist. I currently work as a radio personality, account executive and sportscaster at a small, locally-owned combo in Eugene, KKNX (FM 105.1, AM 840, radio84.com) and KEED (FM 104.3, AM 1450 and keed1450.com). KKNX is a full-service classic hits radio station with live and local Oregon Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame personalities in morning and afternoon drive and the only Eugene radio stations with a local staff meteorologist, plus local and national news, up-to-the-second traffic updates during drive times and Oregon State Beavers football, men's basketball and baseball games. KEED is a classic country station with live personalities 24/7. I also am an account executive for locally-owned KORE Fox Sports Eugene (FM 95.7, AM 1050 and foxsportseugene.com. It's a Fox Sports Radio affiliate featuring Dan Patrick, Colin Cowherd, Doug Gottlieb and from Portland's 750 The Game, the Rose City's own John Canzano. KORE is also the Eugene affiliate of the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Chargers. Why the Chargers? Simple. QB Justin Herbert is a Eugene native, a graduate of Sheldon High School and a former Oregon Ducks quarterback. (See, I told you it was simple.)

During the summer I'm the radio play-by-play and stadium voice of the Emerald Overhead Door Challengers American Legion baseball team. Games are on KKNX as we usually carry 25 regular-season games plus all post-season games. The Emerald Overhead Door Challengers are the defending state champions based in Eugene and was one day away from playing for the championship of the NW Regionals and possibly going to the American Legion World Series. 

It's actually fun and rewarding to be able to be a positive experience in people's lives. With this Craw's Corner blog (named for Greg Crawford, no relation except he's a great person, cares about people and puts on some outstanding sports luncheons every so often featuring the cream of the Northwest crop), my goal is to be a positive influence on a reader's life. Hopefully yours.

For now, thanks for reading my first blog in several months. There'll be more to come. I promise.

1962 World Series MVP Ralph Terry Dies

 

By Harry Cummins

     The chance to skip a week's worth of college classes in 1962 in order to attend the World Series was an easy decision for me at the age of 19.

     Sadly, I learned this week that the MVP of that terrific World Series, Ralph Terry, passed away in his hometown of Larnard, Kansas at the age of 86.

     I was lucky to witness Terry win 2 of the last 3 games of that Series for the Yankees, including his famous 1-0 shutout that ended the decisive Game 7 on a Willie McCovey line drive into the glove of second baseman Bobby Richardson.

     Ralph Terry was named to the All-Star Game in 1962 and led the American League that same season with 23 victories. He was a member of the Yankees pitching rotation on five consecutive league champions from 1960 to 1964.

     After baseball, Terry became a professional golfer, playing in both PGA and Senior PGA tour events.

     I will never forget Ralph Terry and those two wonderful World Series wins he authored. I have no memory of the college classes I skipped that week but still treasure the recollection of Terry on the mound and the sight of Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays patrolling centerfield for their respective teams in that classic 1962 World Series.

     Rest in Peace Ralph Terry

Dispensing Hope Amid Catastrophe

 

By Harry Cummins

     I cannot begin to understand the deadly wickedness unfolding right now in Ukraine. I think many of us are sent scurrying as we try to solidify those things that have sustained our past existence. This is the kind of catastrophic world event that can easily disarm and propel us toward apocalyptic projections.  The whole of Europe, it seems, is facing a potential reshuffling of allegiance and authority, while the United States lingers in the long, benevolent shadow of it's past roles.

     I certainly can't suggest what is the "right" military strategy in order to end this conflict. I am haunted hourly by the images from this war-torn land streaming from our television screens. Why are millions forced to flee their homes in terror while my thermostat remains at at comfortable 68 degrees?

     I do believe there are new beginnings hidden in all this destruction. I do believe they can be found thru the discovery of  lasting hope in each human heart.  Right now, that is very difficult..for so very many. I wish it were as easy as handing out blankets at the border.

     The globe huddles in fear of expanding violence, but thank God for those very individuals among us who await with arms full of blankets and clothes.  Articles of kindness, wrapped in hope for all who make their way in a shattered world being made new.

hcummins@aol.com