12/22/24
January 06, 2004
Frank Edwin ... er ... "Tug" McGraw dies at 59 of brain cancer. You gotta believe heaven's got a pretty good rec league.
For me, all of the wild-and-crazy guy stories about Tug McGraw lost their luster when I found out what a total SOB he was to his son Tim McGraw (the country singer). After Tim found a birth certificate at age 11 that revealed his parentage, Tug denied it twice when they met and then arranged to pay the kid off if he never claimed Tug was his father or tried to contact him again.
posted by rcade at 08:42 AM on January 06, 2004
rcade, they must have made up because Tug was living at the kid's place when he got promoted to the astral leagues...
posted by billsaysthis at 01:21 PM on January 06, 2004
From that VH1 page rcade linked to: [i]"The supposedly final meeting proved the turning point, as Tug finally saw himself in his teenage son and finally realized that he needed to be a part of his life. "[/i] McGraw is the third guy who played in the 1980 World Series to die of brain cancer, the others being the Royals' Dan Quisenberry and Ken Brett.
posted by Motown Mike at 02:53 PM on January 06, 2004
Heard it this morning on the way in. Tug was one of my favorites growing up, he was a very colorful guy and a hell of a pitcher for quite awhile. Ten million years from now, when the sun burns out and the Earth is just a frozen iceball hurtling through space, nobody's going to care whether or not I got this guy out. shigpit, nice job working in the Tug quote in the post...