The Pecan Park Eagle

Ichiro Suzuki: Poster Boy for my 21st Century Club.

Today marks the fifth era MLB all-star team of this coverage. Previously, and in this order, we have gone through the (1) post-World War II (1946-1960); early 20th century (1900-1945); (3) afternoon 20th century (1961-1985); and (4) 20th century night train (1986-2000) clubs. All these teams and your comments are published here in The Pecan Park Eagle under separate posts over the past few days.

We will pick up the 19th century club later, but today’s 21t century club, to date, brings us up to the moment for now as we unplug here long enough to put the finishing touches on Christmas preparations. If you have the time, please post your comments of agreement or disagreement with my selections in the commentary section that accompanies this column.

Thank you, and if we do not meet again tomorrow, please accept my best wihes for a safe and happy holiday season!

Enough said. Here’s My 21st Century Dawn Team (2001-2009):

RH Pitcher: Roy Halladay

LH Pitcher: Andy Pettitte

C – Joe Mauer

1B – Albert Pujols

2B – Robinson Cano

3b – Chipper Jones

SS – Derek Jeter

LF – Manny Ramirez

CF – Torii Hunter

RF – Ichiro Suzuki

And Before We Go … Happy 100th Birthday to My Late Father, “Wee Willie McCurdy!”

Dad was born in Beeville, Texas on December 23, 1910. He also died there on July 7, 1994 at the age of 83, exactly five weeks following the sudden and unexpected death of my mom. Dad was doing fine until Mom died. Once she passed, he just seemed to shutdown and go, I still miss both of them, especially near their December birthdays and Christmas time. Mom was a South Texas girl, born on December 5, 1915 in Kenedy, Texas. She had a stroke on their 58th wedding anniversary, May 30, 1994, and died four days later on June 3rd at the age of 78.

Dad never played professional ball, but he was a pretty steady 5′ 6″, 135 pound, BL/TR outfielder for the St. Edwards Broncos in Austin back in the late 1920s and then for a few years of town ball with the Beeville Bees/Blue Jays. As I’ve written here earlier, my first memory was of Dad fielding a base hit in right field at the fair grounds field in Beeville and making the throw in to second base. I was about two years old at the time and it was also my first, but hardly the last, impression of baseball.

Dad never had his own baseball card so, years go, I made the one of him you see here from his old St. Edwards photo. He didn’t say much, but he smiled when I gave it to him. That was enough for me. I only I wish I could have done more in life, while he was still here, to let him know how much I loved him. Among so many other intangible gifts I received from my dad, baseball ws a big one. He’s the man who taught me the rudimentary rules of the game and encouraged my own participation in the sport. For that gift alone, I am now years deep into the business of working on the expression of my gratitude.

Happy 100th Birthday, Wee Willie McCurdy! Hope you’re still playing and following the game, wherever you may be. Just know that wherever that is, as always, my love still reaches out to you this morning as fast as a line drive rope off the left field wall.

Tags: Baseball, History, Wee Willie McCurdy

This entry was posted on December 23, 2010 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.