Sad Day for a Good Guy Ball Player

Guys, Just wanted to post this and ask for your prayers. This is an article in todays Ashland, KY Paper:

Couple’s life together was just beginning

Brandon Webb’s college roommate, new bride killed

By MARK MAYNARD
The Independent

A former Kentucky baseball player who was an ex-roommate of major leaguer Brandon Webb was among the 49 killed when a commuter jet crashed during takeoff Sunday morning at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington.

Jon Hooker and his new wife, Scarlett Parsley, were on the flight heading to Atlanta to connect for a honeymoon trip to California. They were married before 300 friends and family members Saturday night, according to former Kentucky baseball coach Keith Madison, who was in attendance.

The bride-to-be had arrived in a horse-drawn carriage for a fairy-tale wedding to Hooker at Lexington’s Headley-Whitley Museum.

“It’s so tragic because he was so happy last night,” Madison said. “It’s just an incredible turn of events. It’s really painful.”

Webb’s parents, Philip and Dreama Webb of Ashland, also attended the wedding. Brandon Webb learned of the tragedy prior to Arizona’s game with the Los Angeles Dodgers in Phoenix on Sunday.

“You never expect anything like this,” Philip Webb said. “He and Brandon were best friends. They roomed together (in a dorm) and had an apartment together in college. Their last year, they had an apartment and I had to go down and clean it after Brandon got drafted and Jon signed a free-agent deal. They had two dogs in the apartment so you can imagine what it was like.”

When Brandon was in the minor leagues, he spent some time with Hooker in the London area during the offseason. Hooker had lost his father at an early age in a car wreck, Philip Webb said.

The news came to Brandon on Sunday through Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin, who called him into the office and told him what happened. “He told Brandon he didn’t want him hearing it any other way,” Philip Webb said.

When asked how Brandon took it, his father hesitated for a second and then said “Not good.”

Webb is scheduled to pitch tonight against San Diego but his father wasn’t sure what his son was going to do.

“I’m not sure if Brandon knows what he’s going to do,” Philip Webb said.

The wedding on Saturday night was spectacular, Philip Webb said.

“For some reason, last night one of the songs that they played was ‘It is Well With My Soul.’ It was kind of strange at the time because you don’t hear that much at weddings. But, like Dreama said, it was like a testimony right there.”

The 27-year-old Hooker pitched at Kentucky from 1998 to 2001, posting a 5-5 career record with a 3.23 earned run average. He signed a free-agent contract with the Chicago White Sox in 2001 and played professionally for Independent League teams in Fargo, N.D., and Joliet, Ill., before going back to his hometown of London.

Hooker played for the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks from 2002 to June 2004 when he was traded to the Joilet JackHammers. He was a member of the RedHawks’ league championship team in 2003.

RedHawks general manager Josh Buckholz called Sunday a “sad day for Fargo.”

“Jon was a class guy and a great guy to have in Fargo,” he said. “He touched a lot of people’s lives. He was a fantastic teammate, he was a wonderful representative of our ballclub.”

Buckholz said nine members of the RedHawks roster, coaching staff and clubhouse staff were around when Hooker was with the team.

“There are a lot of people who knew him and loved him, and are dealing with this today,” Buckholz said.

There was a moment of silence prior to Sunday’s RedHawks game.

While at Kentucky, Hooker played not only with Webb but also Joe Blanton of the Oakland Athletics.

Hooker was working as a parole counselor and social worker while Parsley was in graduate school at Kentucky after graduating from Centre College, where she was also a cheerleader.

Philip Webb said Brandon has lost a dear friend. He said he gets choked up thinking about it.

“WSAZ was showing some clips of Jon at Kentucky and on one of those Brandon was giving him a high-five,” Philip Webb said. “Whenever you saw one, you saw the other at the school.”

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS contributed to this report.

RETROSHEET

For purists, historians and stat-junkie extraordinaires, I just ran into Retrosheet via Blog of Danny. I was amazed by the amount of stats like box scores dating back to the 1871. Will and Andy, your New York Gothams (pre-Giants) didn't do so hot their expansion year, 1883, finishing 6th and 16 games behind division leader, Boston Beaneaters. :-)

Randall, The Red Birds, as most of us know, started as the St. Louis Browns in 1882. They fared even worse than Will/Andy's Gothams that year, finishing 18 games behind the Reds.

Donnie, your Bronx Bombers began in 1901, but were then the Baltimore Orioles. Go figure. Their first season, they were in the cellar, trailing the Reds by 32.5 games and behind Randall's Browns.

James, I'm ashamed to admit that our beloved Blue was called the "Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers" back in 1884. Our first year we ended up, uh, um.....oh look at the time! Wow, I gotta get going....

9th place, 33.5 games back.

We all had very humble beginnings in this grand pastime that has transcended multiple generations. And the rest is history!

What's Wrong With *This* Picture??

You'd think the Little League would impose some sort of size rule after this mammoth of a 13 year old got in......

In the words of Harry Caray...."Holy Cow!!!!"

# 725

I agree - it's a troubling photo.

Once again, Will and I were there, sitting in the stands of AT&T Park, watching the Giants' Noah Lowry pitch a 2 hit complete game shutout, leading the Giants to a 5-0 win over the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks.

Of course, we also saw Bonds' career home run # 725 - I had witnessed # 722 and both Will and I witnessed # 723.

I arrived at the game just as the opening pitches of the game were thrown. As soon as I sat down, Will said, "You should've come here earlier. We could've gone down to the fence and said hi to Brandon Webb for Donny."

A missed opportunity. But Webb will be pitching Tuesday night against Matt Cain - should be an excellent game.

And on a side note - anyone catch the in-dugout tunnel brawl in Toronto between pitcher Ted Lilly and manager Josh Gibbons? Seems like the manager might be the problem in that town...

Hell Froze Over Today

Well, it's official, Hell has frozen over! I didn't think it would ever in a million years happen but it did thanks to Mr. Steinbrenner. This morning they broke ground in the Bronx on the new Yankee Stadium. I'm a bit upset as you can tell because they will eventually knock down the "House that Ruth" built to provide parking for the new, state of the art stadium. In my mind, it is the equivalent of knocking over the birthplace of George Washington to build a bigger house next door that glorifies his life.

It's a sad day for die-hard Yankee fans. It's a happy day for all the rest of you.

Comiskey II

Tonight I was at U.S. Cellular Field - formerly the "new" Comiskey Park - in the southside of Chicago. I picked up a ticket from our firm's payroll manager, whose brother is a Chicago police officer, with the police officer's association selling tickets as part of a fundraiser. We sat in the LF bleachers, watching the defending world champ White Sox take on the hapless Kansas City Royals.

Of course, the Royals were far from hapless this evening - they hung on to win 4-2, with the Chisox playing a sloppy defensive game that included a dropped fly ball to Jermaine Dye early the in game which allowed the inning to continue and the Royals to score a run. AJ Pierzynski, beloved by the southside, bemoaned by Giants fans, did what I saw him do waaaaay too many times in a Giant uniform...grounded into a double play.

However, I must say that the experience of attending a game at this ballpark is quite nice...I was surprised to see how wide the concourse was on the main level, as compared to AT&T Park in San Francisco, which has relatively wide concourses (compared to Candlestick), but is a much more intimate park that is squeezed onto a 13 acre site. I was awed at the size of this ballpark, which is much taller than AT&T Park, mainly due to the double-decker luxury suite level.

Awhile back, when Will had a Categories question about items from other sports that would make baseball more appealing (tongue in cheek of course), a couple of respondents suggested cheerleaders. The White Sox come closest, as they had young women, in very short shorts and Sox tee shirts, prance around the field throwing T-shirts into the crowd and dancing atop the dugouts (along with a couple of male "cheerleaders" - not unlike those you find in college squads, only without the gymnastics).



Food was good - I had a grilled hot dog with grilled onions and a diet soda, which only set me back $7.75. While my newfound Chicago friends thought that pricey, I found it to be a tremendous bargain compared to San Francisco, whereupon the same combo (with kraut added in addition to onions) will set you back nearly $12.

All in all - a good evening at the ballpark. While it's not a particularly intimate ballpark, it is a pleasant place to watch a game.

And for someone like me, it isn't often that I can say I'm watching the defending world champs. Sure am not going to say that about my Giants anytime soon...

Friday Baseball Category

Here is a nice simple one...

Name three baseball player nicknames you would never want to be called?

Get to it... Moonman!

Baseball V. The "X" Games.

Bill Gnade has an interesting essay up on the above topic. It's worth the read.

Cheers.

R. Sherman

Will the Real Dodgers Please Stand Up?

Following up on this post, the Dodgers have now won 10 in a row after losing 13 out of 14, hence, the title of this blog. This ties them for the Wild Card race with the Reds. Jeff Kent returned to the lineup and hit a two run jack and an RBI double last night. Nomahhhh returns from the DL tomorrow so the offense will be intact. And Maddux is coming off a 6 inning no-no.

Can these guys really win the west? Borrowing a line from ESPN's baseball tonite show, and you're the analyst, do you buy or sell?

OK, I'm Shocked!!

I know you guys are not very fond of the Yankees.....but, I must share Saturday night with you. My family and I went to Columbus,OH for back-to-school shopping and just to goof off. Since I have been a life long Yankee fanatic, I used this trip as a chance to finally see the Columbus Clippers play. The Clippers are the AAA Yankees and their past rosters are a who's who among the home grown Yankee talent.

With visions of Mattingly, Jeter, Williams, Posada, Soriano, and others dancing in my head, we headed to the park at 4:00 Saturday. It was hat day so we made sure to get there early and yes we got hats. Also, for some reason they had an autograph session going on with George Foster, Ken Griffey Sr, Bert Campineris, and Fergie Jenkins. I wanted to get them to sign a ball and ask Fergie about pitching on acid but the line was too long, and I'm a Yankee fan......

But, here is the big kicker: the stadium where the baby Yankees play sucks! I know it is old and nostalgic, but the field looks like a nice high school field and the bathroom and the area around it stunk of stale pee. I was shocked by how crappy the old stadium really is! I've been to Single A fields that are much nicer. I guess Steinbrenner spends so much on buying good players that he can't improve the field where his guys come up.

That's the bad but the good was that atmosphere. Friendly fans that love their team was the norm and the place was maybe 1/3 full. The neat thing about the field was that the fences are the same measurments as in Yankee stadium with the short porch in right. It was fun though. It's always a good time at the ball park.

A GIFT FROM THE HEART

With the recent love and attention given to Dodger blue the last few postings, I wanted to give back the love to my baseball brotherhood. Especially my Giants comrades.

A gift for Will and Andy.

If it doesn't load, try this link.

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. ..." :-)

The Dodgers will take it all now!

Gregg Maddux is a Dodger......it's all over but the shoutin' in the NL West!