Flashback Friday: It's a long, long way to Davenport (1978)

This week's Flashback Friday is something from the Chicago Tribune of August 13, 1978. These days it would be called a "longform" piece. Back then, it was an article.

Clifford Terry spent a lot of time with the Appleton Foxes and rode the bus with them to Davenport, Iowa for a series with the Quad City Angels.

Also, this Flashback is a bit different. An excerpt to the article is below this introduction. But, for the whole article, please head to this link at the Chicago Tribune archives. There are plenty of photos and the entire article is worth the read.

It's a long, long way to Davenport
At least it is if you're on the Appleton Foxes of the Class A Midwest League, whose basic conveyance between cities is a bus a well-worn bus.

The man in charge of this collection of 25 youngsters is manager Gordy Lund, a 37-year-old Chicagoan who has two children of his own - daughters, aged 5 and 9 - and certainly doesn't need the extra aggravation of being a Class-A den mother, except that he likes it. He must, because managerial salaries in the Midwest League wouldn't pay for Tom Lasorda's transfusions of Dodger Blue. A compact man who drinks low-cal beer in a fight against the universal malady that might be known as National Guard Supply Sergeant Stomach, Lund himself spent 11 seasons in the minors and had slightly more than the proverbial "cup of coffee" in the majors. A carafe, perhaps.

"I've never met anybody who doesn't have anything nice to say about him," observes Dave Hersh, the Foxes' fledgling, effusive general manager. "I've been told he's exactly the same this year with a first-place team as he was last year with a last-place team. He obviously can keep his cool." It is true that Gordon T. Lund maintains about as high a profile as George Bamberger high a profile as George Bamberger, who, as you may remember, is manager of the Milwaukee Brewers. There are times, however, when he turns into a modified Billy Martin. Says Trainer Jack Hughes: "When Gordy's been run from a game by an umpire-and it's already happened twice this season- he can put on a real good show."

…

At 7:30 a.m. one hot, sunny Friday several weeks ago, it was more Martin, than Bamberger, time. Fortified by takeouts from Mister Donut and sports pages from the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Foxes boarded a fading Fox River Lines bus for a 285-mile, 5-1/2-hour trip to Davenport, where they would play a series with the Quad-City Angels. The night before, they had played Waterloo at home in a doubleheader that had ended at 11:20. "I must have gotten all of three hours sleep," groused one player. "I hope we get rained out tonight."

As the bus rolled on past farmhouses and Pizza Huts, the noise level was still deceptively low. Some players replaced the Sentinel with the Sporting News (apparently there is some sort of a decree from on high prohibiting ball- players from reading books and magazines), while others tried to catch a nap. Dewey Robinson, a 23-year-old pitcher out of Chicago's Sullivan High and Southern Illinois University, had stretched out in one of the overhead luggage racks, and pitcher Clay Hicks. a 20-year-old from Edmond, Okla., who answers to I the nickname "Waylon Goober," was occupying the other, his head resting on a "Peanuts" pillow. Suddenly, somewhere between Appleton and Oshkosh, a minor crisis arose. A minor crisis always seems, to arise in this league - "only in A ball" - being a constant refrain.

Five years ago, when I was on a trip with the now-defunct Quincy Cubs, the driver got lost five miles out of town and the bus broke down in-Danville. Now, the driver, a no-nonsense man named Bob Koett, was announcing that he had smelled the scent of snuff, or "dip," which is to neophyte ballplayers what Bubble Yum is to first-graders. Lund - sitting in the front row across from and slightly behind the driver - quickly turned around. "If I catch any of you with that - Skoal, It'll cost you $25," he announced in a voice that knocked out the sounds of a just-activated tape deck.

For the rest of this article head to:

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1978/08/13/page/210/article/its-a-long-long-way-to-davenport