This isn't a great bit of sports writing or anything. I knew Rick Honeycutt in his years with the Rangers as a starter. He played in a city softball league with my Dad during the strike and became friends with my whole family. It was one of those "old-guy cooler of beer in the dugout" leagues, and I can rember to this day him taking a ball off the fence in deep center and firing a lightning bolt to home without a bounce to make the play on a runner coming from second.
I sat countless games behind home plate in the family section of the old ballpark watching him toss a great bit of baseball history. I remeber watching him on TV leaving the stadium during the Bay Series after the earthquake, and I remember evey game he pitched in those championship years. He isn't the name that pops into anyone else's memory when they think back on the history of the game, but he was a great guy.
Talking to him over the rail before the game, getting a ball autographed by the team for my birthday every year and my name on the scoreboard - that's how I grew up with the game. I remember it as a better experience than just going to a game now and then with my Dad, but that's because it really was more. He had a 20-year career, a great family, and a love for the game that will never die. He really was a very good player, but he was a better example to the players of today on what the game should mean to the fans and how they can help with that.
The debate over how much is too much for a player contract and how much of that gets passed beyond the TV contracts and to the fans will not be easily settled any time soon. Players work very hard all their lives and make many sacrafices to get payed what they do. The fans are always more important than anything else in the game though. This game is a part of America because of the way we grow up with the game, with our Dads catching a foul ball before it smacks us in the head. I wish more players could spend time reaching out to fans the way Rick did with us. There's a million reasons why, but not the least of them is because it keeps baseball a part of our country that can never leave us. Thanks Rick!
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Posted June 15, 2001.
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