Remember, kids: Mike Maksudian has a World Series ring, unlike Ernie Banks, Ted Williams and Carl Yazstremski...
I lived in Toronto for most of the 1990s, giving me the opportunity to see a lot of great Jays baseball in 1992 and 1993. When the team won the '93 World Series the city threw a big celebration at SkyDome (it's too cold to have an outdoor event in October) at which every player was given a minute to address the crowd.
Pitcher Todd Stottlemyre gave a speech that ended with an announcement that he was going home to have sex with his wife. In Calvinist Toronto this didn't go over very well. Stottlemyre had a reputation as a headcase, best exemplified in a game four 15-13 win over the Phillies in which he slid awkwardly into third base, ripping open his chin and missing the bag by several feet.
But the best speech of all came from September call-up Mike Maksudian, a catcher who played a total of three games with the Jays. He immediately became a media star when the press reported that he had eaten a huge insect he had found crawling around right field. This earned him the nickname "Bugsy" and made him a freaky sideshow on the local news for about a week.
Upon receiving his ring Maksudian announced that he was going to live up a commitment to get a Blue Jay tottooed on his ass if the team won. It was unclear with whom this deal had been struck. Two weeks later Bugsy was released by the organization, and he played a few games the following year as a Cub. He then entered the minor leagues and has long since left pro baseball.
» Richard is a writer in San Francisco.
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Copyright © 2003 by Richard J. Berman. Posted November 18, 2003.
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