They are two of my dearest friends in the whole world – and Irish Catholic as any married couple of a thousand years and twelve children later could ever possibly hope to be. Their devout Faith has born them through the greatest most core values of joy – and it has also carried them through the grief of every loving parent’s worst nightmare come true, the loss of their two oldest sons, Rory and Larry Joe, before them. The Miggins family is very close, God’s Love in motion at all times, if you please. They have, what we all may have, if we choose to live as the Miggins family does – in humble strength – always working to do the right thing in their contacts with the world, but sometimes encountering the jaded side of life that is not their normal contact patter between family, friends, and other close acquaintances.
As a Houston Buff in 1951, Larry Miggins once refused to escort a beauty contestant to home plate for an introduction because he felt she wasn’t modestly dressed. That young lady, Kathryn Grandstaff, was later best known as actress Kathy Grant and the wife of singer Bing Crosby. But to Larry, back in 1951, she was a woman who was making a public appearance “almost naked.” – She was wearing a one-piece early 1950s women’s bathing suit.
Most of you from SABR, and those of you who are longtime readers here, also know Larry’s story about the time at Columbus, Ohio in which he helped an umpire reverse a double call and turn it into a HR against his own club because the doubtful umpire asked him as the left fielder” “Did that ball bounce off the wall in play – or did it go over the fence and bounce back on the field. It cleared the fence Larry told the umpire. He could not tell a lie – even if it meant absorbing the unhappiness of his own manager and teammates.
We could go on and on, but the point is made. Larry Miggins is a great storyteller, but guess what? “You ain’t heard nothing yet” until you have had a chance to hear of one of his dear wife Kathleen Miggins express in her own brogue and Irish point of view. She sent me a story a couple of days ago that I begged her permission to share with the readers here. She needed some reassurance that the two new words that were added to her vocabulary by a stranger from this experience would not reflect upon her own soul by committing them to public print. As best I could, I shared my view with Kathleen that she was merely reporting the words chosen for use by the man in this story. And that he any negative reflection, if there was any, was upon him. – It was our best answer. We are The Pecan Park Eagle, not the Vatican, but our reasoning made good sense to dear Kathleen. – There is nothing wrong about sharing a funny story publicly if it makes some people smile and harms no one.
The “I Love Lucy” writers would have loved this scenario for their classic sit-com. I can just see Lucy Ricardo suddenly finding herself in the same situation that Kathleen Miggins is about to describe and behaving pretty much the same way. She would try to be of help. But let’s allow Kathleen to tell the story in her own words. If you enjoy the story, please leave a comment upon this column so that Kathleen may know that you did::
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My Astrodome Telephone Tale
By Kathleen Miggins
You did the right thing as far as I’m concerned, Kathleen. I’ve often wondered about the hundreds of people I saw professionally during my career as a therapist, although I never had anyone pull me into a marriage conflict as your stranger at the Astrodome phone bank did in this instance. In general, none of us have the power to help people who don’t want our help – and neither can we help those who say they want help, but still refuse to take responsibility for their own behavior in a problematic relationship.
As for your lady in this case, all I can think of at this moment is Jimmy Durante’s great old and mysterious sign-off message:
“Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are!”
Houston, Baseball, & Other Musings.
The Pecan Park Eagle 