![]() ![]() That will be a huge moment, to use my best understatement. If anyone knows Roy Dixon, tell him I said hello.Īs for “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” we continue to move along toward having a full proof of the entire book within the next week or so. He was a lanky outfield from North Carolina State, but I’ve never been able to find him on the Web. Of all the guys I played with who I considered to be solidly good friends, and who shared my own skewed and screwy sense of humor, Roy was one of the best. Roy Dixon is a guy I’d also really like to reconnect with. UPDATE: After trading emails and phone numbers, my phone just rang and the screen said “Howie Bailey.” The last 20 minutes have been 90% laughter. Social media and the internet can be such a good thing.Īfter his career was over, according to the interwebs, he became an expert skeet shooter and was actually inducted into the Skeet Shooting Hall of Fame. I fired off an email to the main info address at Buy Right and heard back from my old teammate in mere minutes. They are a packaging supply company in Grandville, Mich., which is not too far from where he grew up in Grand Haven. Over the last few years, I had scanned the Web for any sign of him and always come up blank (other than baseball cards and stats) but today I Googled him again and saw his photo on a website for his company, called Buy Right. I was thinking about Howie lately because he’s in the book. He clearly wasn’t as eager to get into his uniform as I was. This is Howie and me on the field at Marchant Stadium in Lakeland before a game. I did all I could to lighten it up and make it presentable, but it’s still pretty lousy. I know this is a horrible photo, taken with an old Polaroid in ’79, but the print itself is actually much worse than this. I had summer coverage of that league and Howie and his roomies were gracious enough to have me over to their apartment for lunch one day. The last time I saw Howie was the summer of 1982, when I was scouting for the Toronto Blue Jays and he was in Triple-A for the Tigers, at Evansville in the American Association. We kept each other entertained and motivated, and every now and then we’d head out on an off-night to have a beer or two at a local establishment. Howie and I hit it off right away, and he helped keep me sane while I scratched my head trying to figure out why I was relegated to the bench night after night. The best player on that team was probably Howard Johnson, and we got along great, but the best guy was Howie Bailey, a lefty pitcher who would make it to Detroit a few years later. But, I was there with some terrific teammates who were on their way to the Major Leagues and who were really great guys. I had six entire at-bats in about 10 weeks. For some reason, I was paid real money to play baseball but I rarely got to play. I did make the Lakeland team, but as you’ll read in “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” it didn’t go as well as I’d hoped and planned. I had a number of buddies from ’78 there with me, including Roy Dixon and Dan O’Connor who had spent the previous summer with me in Paintsville, Ky., playing for those pesky Paintsville Hilanders. That team was the Lakeland Tigers, so making the leap would at least mean I was “already there” once spring training ended. in ’79 hoping to move up the ladder to the organization’s advanced Class-A club in the Florida State League. After my first season as a professional baseball player in the Detroit organization, in 1978, I went to spring training in Lakeland, Fla. Thank you all, for your incredible support. We’re about to have a bouncing baby book. I’ll keep you posted when I hear of a pre-order or on-sale date. I can almost feel the paper when I stare at the screen. It’s beautiful to look at and a marvel to even consider. I apologize for that up front and with honesty. And in the end, I’m relatively sure I’ll miss a few typos or extra spaces. This week, I’ll go through it all, page by page. Finally, I was getting blurry-eyed enough by 6:00 to put it away. But I couldn’t stop reading and analyzing. In what seemed like a blink of the eye, I looked at my watch and saw it was 3:00 pm. Yesterday, I dove in earnestly and eagerly, with a touch of intimidation and a dose of nervousness. After nearly 15 months of dedicated work, what’s a few more days to make sure I get it right? I do have one last chance at editing before it goes into production, and I’m taking my time with that. In the email was a link to a PDF of my entire “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” proof, from copyright page to the final photo. I was a bit surprised to receive something from them so early in the morning on a Monday. Yesterday, I turned on my laptop in the morning and immediately saw an email from Outskirts Press. Considering my last update was more of a “check in to see how we’re doing” thing, it’s only fitting that this one comes just four days later and is four times as important. ![]()
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