Another Tug McGraw Circle Change

I don't think Tug ever used a circle change. It's vogue came after him, but I think that Circle Change is a good classification for these little stories that I post. I talked about Tug McGraw before, but I have a thing for lefties. I’m one myself. One of Tug’s teammates on the “Ya Gotta Believe” Mets was Ron Hodges. If you’re a Red Sox fan, think of Ron as Flushing’s answer to Bob Montgomery. A career backup catcher who played his whole MLB career for the same team. Monty was a Tennessean and Hodges was a Virginian. But I have no clue if Ron is broadcasting AAA games.

Hodges last season for the Metropolitans was 1984. They had an outfielder who had a cup of coffee that year and the next. Went by the name of Billy Beane. He went on to more fame off the field as the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics. A lot of that fame was due to a book written by Michael Lewis. Moneyball was the title.

Although he is mainly a business writer (Liar’s Poker is a particular favorite of mine), Lewis has written about sports on other occasions. Another one of his books was The Blind Side. This discussed the evolution of the left tackle position in football and focused in particular on a young man named Michael Oher. Taken in by a family off the streets of Memphis, Oher went on to go to school at Ole Miss and was an NFL rookie last year. They made the book into a film last year, starring Sandra Bullock as Leigh Ann Tuohy; Oher’s adoptive mother.

Her husband was played by Tim McGraw, the country singer and Tug’s son.

Thanks go out to Rob from Portland for inspiring this whimsy.