{"id":992,"date":"2024-07-09T01:25:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-09T01:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=992"},"modified":"2024-05-05T14:27:29","modified_gmt":"2024-05-05T14:27:29","slug":"one-of-bbs-all-time-funny-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=992","title":{"rendered":"One of BB&#8217;s All-Time Funny Men"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">One of Baseball\u2019s All-Time Funny Men <\/span>&nbsp;[4<sup>th<\/sup> Inning]<\/p>\n<p>Watching baseball played on astro-turf inside a dome just isn\u2019t the same as when it\u2019s played on freshly mowed grass outdoors in the sunshine.&nbsp; There being so many outdoor baseball enthusiasts, my friend Julian was able to organize fans \u2013 of both sexes &#8211; by the bus load for weekend baseball treks to Milwaukee and Chicago.&nbsp; We\u2019d leave from Midway Shopping Center at 10 a.m. on a Friday, stop at the Leinenkugel Brewery for the tour and free beer, tailgate and attend a minor league game in Madison on Friday night, be at Wrigley Field Saturday afternoon, Comiskey Park Saturday night and a Brewers game on Sunday, telling baseball stories all the way.&nbsp; That\u2019s how I met Al Milstein, one of baseball\u2019s all-time funny men, on the bus getting us to name the all-fish team:&nbsp; Rainbow Trout, Catfish Hunter, Mudcat Grant, etc.<\/p>\n<p>The Twins would have a \u201cFan Appreciation Nite\u201d the last home game of the season and give away a brand new car to one lucky ticket holder.&nbsp; Kent Hrbek, the Twins great first baseman, was making extra money doing radio commercials extolling the virtues of Kennedy Transmission.&nbsp; Turns out Hrbek was the one on the mound after the game to give away the keys and Milstein was the lucky fan whose ticket had just been drawn.&nbsp; The mic was on for the presentation.&nbsp; As Hrbek handed over the keys, Milstein said loud enough for everyone in the park to hear, \u201cGuess I know where I\u2019ll take it if the tranny goes.\u201d&nbsp; Hrbek goes \u201cHuhhh?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Later, Mike Veeck, owner of the St. Paul Saints Baseball Club, the son of Bill Veeck, and just as much of a baseball maverick as his dad, hired Milstein to do the \u201ccolor\u201d at Saints games.&nbsp; Al would be up in the booth with the guy announcing the game to add a little color.&nbsp; This particular night Veeck had brought in a mime crew to mime the game of baseball between innings.&nbsp; About the middle of the 4<sup>th<\/sup> inning it was clear the mimes were doing a poor job of being entertaining, the crowd seemed restless, and so Al brought the house down when he announced, \u201cA mime is a terrible thing and a waste.\u201d<a href=\"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mime-combo.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-994 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mime-combo-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"mime combo\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mime-combo-300x199.jpg 300w, http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mime-combo-1024x682.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mime-combo-450x300.jpg 450w, http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/mime-combo.jpg 1337w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; One of Baseball\u2019s All-Time Funny Men &nbsp;[4th Inning] Watching baseball played on astro-turf inside a dome just isn\u2019t the same as when it\u2019s played on freshly mowed grass outdoors in the sunshine.&nbsp; There being so many outdoor baseball enthusiasts, &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=992\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=992"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1912,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992\/revisions\/1912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}