October 3, 2021

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

For most of my life my favorite player was third baseman Eddie Mathews.

I tried to play third base like Mathews. His picture, along with those of many of the World Series champion Milwaukee Braves, hung on my bedroom walls at the corner of College and Johnson streets in Kingston.

Above my headboard were catchers Del Crandall and Del Rice. On the wall to my right were infielders Joe Adcock, Red Schoendienst, Johnny Logan and Mathews. To the left were pitchers Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette, Bob Buhl, Joey Jay and closer Don McMahon. And at the foot of the bed were outfielders Wes Covington, Billy Bruton and Hank Aaron.

Mathews was elected to Cooperstown along with Aaron, Spahn and Schoendienst.

Mathews was a 12-time all-star, led the National League in home runs twice, hit 512 career homers and was the seventh member to join the 500 club along with Hall of Famers Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams and Mel Ott. That’s when 500 homers was a big deal.

One other accomplishment, Mathews hit the most home runs for a player 22 years of age or under when he hit 47 in 1953, the Braves’ first year in Milwaukee. It was a record Mathews held alone until Vladimir Guerrero homered Saturday for his 47th home run as the Toronto Blue Jays whooped the Baltimore Orioles 10-1 Saturday afternoon at the Rogers Centre.

Now had he had an extra slice of pre-game protein he would have tied Mathews’ record Thursday and broke it Saturday. Facing Corey Kluber in the fifth inning, Guerrero had an RBI double off the top of the centre field wall, 400 feet from home plate. We’ve seen some bounce over after hitting the fence and we’ve seen some go straight up and then out. This one came back to Brett Gardner.

There was not any doubt facing John Means in the first with a 450-foot, first-pitch drive to left field. The ball landed below the Tony Fernandez sign on the Level of Excellence. One great Blue Jay trying to play tag with a Blue Jay great.

With the homer Guerrero moved to within one of Kansas City’s Salvador Perez for the big-league lead. That would be more important than equaling Mathews’ mark. Not to me.

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Of course there is a reason Mathews, who played 2,391 games and had 10,101 at-bats in his 17 year career, lost his status as my favorite all time player.

I thought so much of Eddie Mathews I named my favorite son Robert Hewitt Mathews Elliott ... Robert after my father, Hewitt after his grandfather and Mathews after Edwin Lee Mathews of Texarkana, Tex.

Besides being inducted to upstate New York, in addition to the 500-homer club, there was another reason to follow Mathews. From 1957 until 2018 he was “my guy.”

On Feb. 2, 2018, I was giving a bad speech at the annual Okotoks Dawgs banquet and suddenly I went down. I was a goner fireman Geoff Scott told me a week later. Dawgs coach Lou Pote, the former Anaheim reliever sprinted to the front of the banquet hall and returned with a defibrillator.

Meanwhile photographer Angela Burger and trainer Savannah Blakley, whom I had never met, sprang into to action. The zapped me once and I came back to life. After I crashed Scott, whose response time was 90 seconds, zapped me back to life again.

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On Tuesday I received a text from Pote, one of my personal Okotoks Angels.

Hey, so a friend of mine in Chicago who is 45 gets off the plane from Cleveland (after attending the Bears game) and isn’t feeling great. He tells his buddy he thinks he needs to get an ambulance and once in there goes into cardiac arrest and he basically died three times on his way to Christ hospital in Chicago. They revived him and he is doing a lot better today than yesterday and is having conversations. They had to put a balloon in his leg as his artery was clogged. I told his sister about how fortunate you were when you went down on stage and not at hotel. She never even thought about how fatal it could have been if it happened on plane or when he got home. There are Angels everywhere! Their dad passed 14 years ago at his house with no one home of a massive heart attack. Pretty sure his Dad had my buddy hand and said you have way to much to live for!

Hope your well buddy.

Lou

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This season Guerrero — the last player I had a 1-on-1 conversation with prior to the pandemic — went deep twice against three-time former Cy Young award winner Max Scherzer, when he was with the Washington Nationals, as well as Dean Kremer of the Baltimore Orioles and Garrett Richards of the Red Sox. Other homers came off ...

Adam Plutko, Matt Harvey, Keegan Akin, Tanner Scott, Chris Ellis, Marcos Diplan, Jorge Lopez, Zac Lowther, Means and Kremer (twice) of the Orioles.

Hirokazu Sawamura, Nick Pivetta (Victoria, BC), Ryan Weber, Matt Barnes, Phillips Valdez and Richards (twice) of the Red Sox.

Tyler Glasnow, Diego Castillo, Ryan Yarbrough, Ryan Thompson, Jeffrey Springs and Adam Conley of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Domingo German, Corey Kluber, Jameson Taillon, Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Heaney of the New York Yankees.

Vince Velasquez, Aaron Nola and Brandon Kintzler of the Philadelphia Phillies,

Kyle Finnegan and Scherzer (twice) of the Washington Nationals.

Kyle Zimmer and Mike Minor of the Kansas City Royals,

Griffin Canning of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim,

Bryse Wilson of the Atlanta Braves

Sandy Alcantara of the Miami Marlins

Jose Urquidy of the Houston Astros,

Tyler Alexander of the Detroit Tigers

And Michael Pineda of the Minnesota Twins

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That first year the franchise was in Milwaukee, Mathews took Gerry Staley of the St. Louis Cardinals deep four times. The third baseman tagged Cincinnati Reds’ Herm Wehmeier and Phillies’ Steve Ridzik three times each.

Mathews homered twice against Jackie Collum of the Reds, New York Giants’ Al Corwin, Chicago Cubs’ Warren Hacker, the father of former Blue Jays third base coach Rich Hacker, Pittsburgh Pirates’ Paul LaPalme, Brooklyn Dodgers’ Billy Loes, Cubs’ Turk Lown and Harry Perkowski of the Reds.

The other pitchers he victimized were: Roger Bowman, Murry Dickson, Elroy Face, Bob Hall, Johnny Lindell and Jim Waugh all of the Pirates; Bubba Church, Howie Judson, Bob Kelly, Joe Nuxhall and Harry Perkowski of the Reds; Al Brazle, Jack Faszholz, Stu Miller and Joe Presko of the Cards; Jim Hearn, Monty Kennedy and Dave Koslo of the Giants, Joe Black and Carl Erskine of Brooklyn, Johnny Klippstein, Paul Minner of the Cubs and Karl Drews and Hall of Famer Robin Roberts of the Phillies.

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In conclusion ... Mathews remains a Hall of Famer ... he remains my favorite position player ... Pote surpasses him as my all-time fave ... Guerrero is something really special to watch ... And we wonder how many sons of ball fans will have children named Vladimir.