tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3301111177105932342.post5428385362950470068..comments2023-09-17T20:31:56.132-05:00Comments on '59 topps: one f/g card at a time: #136 Jim O'Toole The Sporting News Rookie StarCommishbobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18069472376708715755noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3301111177105932342.post-40488176691603821802011-05-21T11:20:57.290-05:002011-05-21T11:20:57.290-05:00Nice, I'd forgotten that he WAS a character in...Nice, I'd forgotten that he WAS a character in the Ball Four, even if only in passing. Bouton and his family lived close to me during his Yankee years. I played against his nephew. <br /><br />I got the book as a graduation gift from a friend and fellow baseball nut. I read it that summer and at least once since. It's stayed on my shelf through the years, surviving moves and 'used books donated to the library' trips.<br /><br />Thanks for posting that quote.Commishbobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18069472376708715755noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3301111177105932342.post-20353204293728367982011-05-21T11:08:17.372-05:002011-05-21T11:08:17.372-05:00Here's the quote from the end of Ball Four:
“...Here's the quote from the end of Ball Four:<br /><br />“And then I thought of Jim O’Toole and I felt both strange and sad. When I took the cab to the airport in Cincinnati I got into a conversation with the driver and he said he’d played ball that summer against Jim O’Toole. He said O’Toole was pitching for the Ross Eversoles in the Kentucky Industrial League. He said O’Toole is all washed up. He doesn’t have his fastball anymore but his control seems better than when he was with Cincinnati. I had to laugh at that. O’Toole won’t be trying to sneak one over the corner on Willie Mays in the Kentucky Industrial League.<br /><br />Jim O’Toole and I started out even in the spring. He wound up on the Ross Eversoles and I with a new lease on life. And as I daydreamed of being the Fireman of the Year in 1970 I wondered what the dreams of Jim O’Toole are like these days. Then I thought, would I do that? When it’s over for me, would I be hanging on with the Ross Eversoles? I went down deep and the answer I came up with was yes. Yes, I would. You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.”Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com