Doesn’t seem like almost four decades since he played in the MLs.
2 Likes
Mark Bailey
Fuck cancer.
3 Likes
My late friend and I went to a ton of Astros games in the mid 80s, our highest attend total being around 25 games in 1986 (hey, $3 pavilion seats and $5 parking, you couldn’t beat it). Everytime the announcer said “Mark Bailey” it sounded like “Bob Bailey” and he and I called him Bob Bailey ever since. RIP good ol’Steve (my friend), Bob (Mark) Bailey and the PA announcer whose name I know but can’t remember.
ETA, we must have been dedicated because at the time we both lived in Spring. A bit of a haul to the Dome.
1 Like
No “Bump Bailey”?
1 Like
Didn’t Milo call him “Beetle” Bailey?
1 Like
I’ll believe it
Claude Lemieux, 60
1 Like
Raymond Berry on 5/25. Age 93
2 Likes
Slow, awkward with one leg shorter than the other, small hands, and maybe the best receiver of his era. If he could touch it, he could catch it.
About 30 years ago we drove up to the top of Mount Blue Sky.
At the summit the family went off in different directions.
When we got back to the car my dad told us that a man stopped him near the summit and asked him to take a picture with another gentlemen, “Mr Raymond Berry”.
My dad did so and shook Berry’s hand etc.
4 Likes
Rick Adelman, 79.
Good coach. I thought about him just yesterday after seeing something about Yao.
1 Like
I wonder if a Ray Berry clone could make an NFL team today.
He was considered undersized and slow even for the 1950s. It would be next to impossible.
I question the viability of Unitus today, too. Mobility is more important today than in his time.
For the sake of argument: Let’s say that Berry had the same quality diet and training facilities as modern day high schools, colleges, and the NFL. Let’s say he was able to put on 20 pounds of muscle. The GOAT Jerry Rice is 6’2" 200 pounds and ran a 4.71 time in the 40. Berry, known for his precise routes, great hands, relentless determination, and gameday preparation; ran a 4.8 40. If he had grown up competing with todays’ players and had utilized their modern day training techniques, who’s to say he couldn’t make the NFL.
2 Likes
I think you hit the nail on the head.
Want an apt comparison?
Yesterday’s athletes get AAU competition and modern training/video/tech, today’s athletes get bubkas.
While I don’t disagree and even enjoy those types of theoretical arguments (Babe Ruth with modern diet and training, and all that), that wasn’t the question as I read it. It was “plug 1958 Berry into 2026 and what are his chances?”. Slim to none, given that, IMHO.
Yeah, while it’s fun to think about these things, it’s just hard to compare. That’s why I’m an “eras” kind of guy. Did a guy dominate his era, against his competition?
1 Like
I agree. However, if 1958 Berry, as opposed to a modern day clone, were to have traveled forward in time to the present day, it would still be pretty cool.