Ten absurd things Oil Can Boyd says …
… in his book that don’t relate to drugs or Wade Boggs.
1. [Quoting his father, whose viewpoint he seems to share] Jackie Robinson was a modern-day Shaka Zulu — he was the King who sold his own people into slavery — so all Jackie did was sell us to Major League Baseball the same way. (pg. 28)
2. [On getting passed over for Bruce Hurst as the starter for Game 7 of the 1986 World Series] Bruce would tell you right now that I would have won that ballgame. I was a better pitcher than he was. I didn’t pitch behind him in the rotation. He pitched behind me. (pg. 85)
3. If I was talking to [Josh] Beckett — and he would listen to me — I’d make him a great pitcher overnight. Not a really good pitcher, a great pitcher. He’d go out there overnight and turn unhittable. And if he let me call pitches from the dugout, he’d throw a no-hitter. (pg. 135)
4. Best teammate I ever had was Eddie Jurak. (pg. 137)
5. Ellis Burks was not a better baseball player than Lee Graham. (pg. 149)
6. Ellis Burks was not a better baseball player than Chico Walker. (pg. 149)
7. Sammy Stewart — can’t get a better guy. (pg. 167)
8. Wes Gardner — can’t get a better guy. (pg. 167)
9. It astounded me when I met Johnny Pesky. He knew the dap handshake, the whole soul-brother handshake, tapping on your and and all that. (pg. 158)
10. [On Bill Lee] Right now, at 65 years old, he could walk out there in the major leagues and he could do what Jamie Moyer did. (pg. 167)
Actually, I completely buy that one. And the one about Pesky, too.
I’m not sure whether to file “They Call Me Oil Can” under fiction or non-fiction, and The Can, as memorable and charismatic as he was, isn’t accountable for much of anything.
It’s not “Ball Four” or Dirk Hayhurst‘s “The Bullpen Gospels,” but it’s a fairly enjoyable read.
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