IT’S ROD, STUPID The high-and-mighty Orioles of 1969 won 109 games during the regular season before sweeping the Twins in the first-ever ALCS. Meanwhile, the Miracle Mets completed a three-game sweep of the Braves in the NLCS after winning 38 of their last 49 regular-season games to capture the NL East. The Orioles weren’t afraid of the red-hot Mets heading into the World Series. “Bring on Ron Gaspar,” Frank Robinson crowed before Game 1. “It’s Rod, stupid,” replied Brooks Robinson near Frank’s media huddle. “OK, bring on Rod Stupid,” retorted Frank. Gaspar, a fleet-footed outfielder and defensive standout, hit a mere .228 in 128 games in 1969, his rookie season. He saw little action in the postseason as manager Gil Hodges started Cleon Jones in left and Tommie Agee in center while platooning Ron Swoboda and Art Shamsky in right. But when the Mets absolutely, positively needed to score a run in the World Series, Hodges inserted Gaspar into Game 4 as a pinch-runner after Jerry Grote led off the bottom of the 10th with a double. Moments later, Gaspar scampered home with the winning run after Pete Richert threw away J.C. Martin’s bunt attempt. That play – along with the tremendous throw he made in San Francisco down the stretch – forever made him part of Mets lore. The Mets won the World Series the following afternoon, back when World Series games didn’t start at 8:07pm and end at 12:02am. Gaspar played just 11 more games with the Mets after the World Series, but he was a must-get for the book as far as I was concerned. He was easily found on Google, thanks to Rod Gaspar Insurance in California. We set up an interview and engaged in a wonderful 90-minute conversation about his career. Now married with kids and grandkids, I learned that, in addition to being an outstanding handball player, he was a born-again Christian who experienced the death of one of his children at an early age. He explained how he grew a little cockier after the World Series and expected to be handed a roster spot in 1970, only to be supplanted in the outfield. The Mets had outfielder Ken Singleton waiting in the wings and had just acquired Dave Marshall, one of Gaspar’s longtime friends from their days playing youth baseball in California. That spelled the end of Rod as a Met. As I did with every player, I emailed Rod a PDF of his bio for his approval since I did not want any factual errors. He made a few changes and played me a copy of Bob Murphy’s call of Gaspar’s great throw at Candlestick Park, part of the “Miracle Mets” album produced by Fleetwood Records. He also called once I made his revisions, only this time it was to ask if I needed any help finding other players. He steered me toward Marshall and Bobby Pfeil, giving me contact numbers for both. Not only was Gaspar happy with his bio, he was giving me access to other players! That was a first for the book, and his help got me a nice interview with Pfeil. Fast forward a few weeks. I had written my bio of Tom Seaver, which included some 45 footnoted quotes and eventually created 10 pages for the book. Happy as I was with the research, I hoped to rewrite the bio by getting quotes directly from the source. I sent the bio to Tom, along with a note explaining what I was doing and how I hoped he would be able to find the time to grant me an interview. I had a phone number for Tom, but I felt better about trying to reach him through the US Postal Service. Weeks passed when I got a call from Gaspar. He wanted to know if I had gotten in touch with Marshall and Pfeil. I told him where I stood, then let him know that I had sent a package to Seaver without hearing back from him. Of the Mets’ 1973 pennant-winning rotation, I already had obtained interviews with Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack and George Stone. I even got Craig Swan, who pitched in just one game that year. But Seaver? Nada. I told him this knowing that he was another California baseball product who lived in the area and remained in touch with Tom. “Rod, should I try to cold-call Tom?” I asked. “I feel very sheepish about it since he is the Mets’ icon and probably gets interview requests every day.” “No, I wouldn’t do that,” Rod replied. “If he’s going to call, he’ll call. I wouldn’t press it.” I got an email about a week after my conversation with Rod. It was from Nancy Seaver, who was very apologetic about not getting in touch with me sooner. She said she had just unearthed a pile of mail from Tom’s office desk and came across my package. Nancy also said that it was Tom’s busy season at his Vineyard as they harvested grapes for his wine company, but she would help me arrange an interview once he was free. Unfortunately, I was at my book deadline and couldn’t complete the interview once he was free. As soon as I read the email, I realized that the only people who might have compelled Nancy to comb through Tom’s stack of mail were Gaspar or Pam Frisella, my California contacts. Gaspar didn’t accepted credit for my contact with Nancy, but he didn’t deny it. For a person who is a born-again Christian, Gaspar is quite the mench! Next up, my musings on “The Stork.”
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 06:49:12 +0000