bearup said:
SFCityBear said:
UrsaMajor said:
I went to high school with Johnny's younger brother (who was a track guy). Really nice guy; don't know what happened to him.
I remember Ralph Mathis too. I was pitching in a slow-pitch softball game at Julius Kahn Playground, and he hit two home runs off me, maybe in the same inning. I also struck him out once, I think, and the last words he said to me were, "The score is 9 to 9 in the bottom of the 9th. Gimme my glove, sucka, so I can go and play the outfield." We later won the game, and I never saw him again.
I"m now acting as editor of whatever fake news outlet you might submit your manuscript to.
Dear Mr. CityBear,
Besides the "strike-out issue", we find the number of innings somewhat off-putting. We're certain you have
a cogent explanation, but slo-pitch softball games (indeed, any softball games) are for 7+ innings. Are we to believe that the game was already in extra-innings.........without you raising drama-quotient by actually saying that?
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Best,
You go to great lengths to cast aspersions and discredit, even for an "acting editor" of a "fake news outlet"
The only place I have chosen to tell this story is on the Bear Insider, and I hope you don't think our respected forum to be a fake news outlet. Perish the thought!
And there was nothing fake about the source for the story, a quote from the brother of Johnny Mathis. I had long since forgotten the game, when a few years ago, a former basketball teammate of mine recalled the game and Ralph Mathis' quote, which my friend repeated in one of the best imitations of ebonics I've ever heard, and we all had a laugh, just as we did 60 years ago when Ralph uttered the words himself.
I submit my friend as a trustworthy source, even though he is a Stanford grad. He recently retired from his practice of psychiatry in Oakland and Berkeley, and in fact, lives almost on the border between the two cities. He now spends his time as a flaming Leftist political activist, and attending all the Cal football and basketball games he can. He is an avid and rabid Cal fan, and therefore trustworthy, especially since we was raised by Stanford graduates, graduated from Stanford, but is now fully reformed and reborn.
I had never heard that slow pitch softball games were 7+ innings. But I never said the game went to extra innings. You are the one who said that. The game was a pick up game, not a league game. I'm not sure we had 18 players. As to Ralph mentioning the 9th inning, he just related the facts as they were: It was the 9th inning, and the score was 9 to 9, making three nines and a coincidence which did not go unnoticed by the musical and lyrical Mr Mathis. Three nines makes a good poker hand sometimes and my friend and I were avid poker players back in high school days.
As for me raising the drama quotient, I'm a story teller by nature, and I'll go to great pains to make a story interesting. If Ralph Mathis had not uttered all those words, that game would have remained forgotten.