[Muncle]

I remember many, many years ago when Vida Blue was asking for what seemed at the time an outrageous amount of money. Charlie O., of course, said it was a team game and no individual player was worth that much. So Vida pulls out a bunch of spreadsheets (pre-computer, no Excel) that show how many more fan attend when he pitches v. when bums like Catfish Hunter pitch, and how much more money Finley makes in tickets, parking, and concessions when he's on the mound. I think even Charlie conceded Vida's point and gave him most of the money.

I loved and closely followed baseball all thru the 70's and 80's until I moved to Europe (after game 5 of the World Series between my beloved Cardinal and my even more beloved Royals. Since returning to the States in '94, the only game I have seen in its entirety was the Cal Ripken game on September 6, 1995, and even I got teary eyed when he did his thank you lap.



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