This Date(ish) in GTB History

Contra Florence Welch, the dog days are most certainly not over. The doldrums are full upon us, in more ways than one. Leave it to the community of Gheorghies to liven up this stagnant portion of the calendar.

During a text thread this morning 'twixt Marls, Whitney, and your humble tiny dictator lamenting the Mets' current
run of substantial suckitude, our man in Norfolk started reminiscing about the Tidewater Tides. In particular, the unique skills of one Chuck Carr, who hit a triple in the Tides' old ballpark moments after Whitney and I concluded that the yard's dimensions were such that it was impossible to get three bags. We were just as smart about sports then as we are now.

The discussion led Marls to dig up this article about Carr, who was flakier than a General Mills cereal. The nut grafs:

Outfielder Chuck Carr cemented his legacy with the Milwaukee Brewers on this day 20 years ago.

In the 8th inning of a game in Anaheim, the Brewers were trailing 4-1 against Angels' ace Chuck Finley. Leading off the inning, Carr had a 2-0 count and was given the signal to take a pitch. He ignored the sign, swung and popped out.

Brewers manager Phil Garner who had already had two dustups with Carr in the still-young season confronted the player at his locker about the at-bat, the Journal Sentinel reported.

Carr responded in the third person: "That ain't Chuckie's game. Chuckie hacks on 2-0."

Whitney hacks on 2-0, as well, as anyone who played softball with him over the years can attest. Or maybe not, actually, as very few counts got that deep.

Marls' text got Whitney to reminiscing about another Tides game we attended with some other friends (and notably, with Whitney's mother - to this day, we have no idea why she wanted to hang with me, Dave, FOG:TB Buck, and Whitney at a baseball game). The on-field highlight of that game was Tides' infielder Tim Bogar's playing all nine positions, capping his day off by striking out one batter and hitting another in the face with a pitch.

That memory, in turn, sent me down a rabbit hole, searching first for 1991 Tidewater Tides stats, and then for G:TB posts on the topic. I was certain we'd blogged about that game previously, particularly about the off-field event that was far more entertaining than anything on the diamond.

I was correct.

Just over nine years ago, I wrote a post about the five most memorable sporting events I'd seen in person. It included this story:

In September 1991, the Tidewater Tides took on the Richmond Braves in the final week of the season. G:TBer Whitney, our friend Chris and I made the short trip down I-64 to meet Whit’s mother and stepfather for a leisurely afternoon at the ballyard. Normally, a late season minor league ballgame wouldn’t hold much allure, but two events made this one noteworthy. First, by the 3rd inning of the game we realized that the Tides’ Tim Bogar was switching positions every inning. He took the mound in the 9th having played everywhere on the field, and then proceeded to strike out the leadoff man before hitting the next batter in the head. At which point the entire stunt took on a decidedly less whimsical bent. Far more amusing than Bogar’s misadventure was the action that took place in the stands.

The aforementioned Chris stands roughly 6’6” with a wingspan to match. Midway through the contest, lefty Kelvin Torve lofted a lazy foul ball towards our bleacher seats midway down the third base line. Were we not there, the ball would have landed in Chris’ seat. The big fellow stood to his full height, spread his legs in a textbook block out of Whitney’s mom, and clapped his hands together while talking a full menu of shit – and he’s an accomplished shitriloquist. The ball descended gracefully, landed in his waiting (and freakishly large) mitts…and bounded 15 rows forward into the waiting hands of an 8 year-old boy. Whitney’s mom led the parade of grief givers for the rest of the game, and when we returned to campus to share our story, the local sportscasters beat us to it, showing footage of our friend’s ignominious moment at 6 and 10.

Nine years on, I'd have to amend that list a bit. I'd certainly need to include a couple of Tribe hoops games I watched, notably Marcus Thornton's buzzer-beater at Drexel in Teejay's company and Daniel Dixon's double-overtime winner in the CAA semifinals against Hofstra. And very sentimentally, I'd add watching my daughter score her very first travel soccer goal, a game-winner late in regulation to send her team to a tournament final.

In that post back in 2008, a number of you chimed in the comments to offer your best in-person sporting memories. Rhymenocerous was there, for one. I wonder what's become of that guy. In this slow sporting time, I wonder if any of you would care to update your lists, or if those that didn't weigh in back then have something to offer.

Whattya got, Gheorghies?