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Jan. 16, 2007 In 2003, in Los Angeles, I met a former major league baseball player, John U., who had functioned as a relief pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Diego Padres over a career that lasted only 5 seasons, around 1980. It was cocaine that ended John's career, a fact that he himself acknowledged. He said that, in his heyday, he had earned $75,000 a year at his regular job. Winters, he had had earned extra money by playing Mexican baseball. He explained that moonlighting American players are always in demand in Mexico, supposedly because of their superior skill. Even in 2003, John, still under 50, looked fit as a fiddle. Standing 6'-3" with a weight of about 210 pounds, he had a good physique and muscular arms. You would think that, with that kind of earning power, John could have lived comfortably. With a grain of sense, he could have invested some money, even in something as secure and unimaginative as a mutual fund, quadrupling his investment in the 25 intervening years. In addition to these sources of income, John was half-owner of a thriving liquor store on Los Angeles' far south side that he and his brother had inherited jointly from their father. But no, that wasn't the route John would take. John had a long-time girlfriend, whom I met and will call Maria, because I can't remember her real name. John and Maria snorted away all of John's baseball money. John also had developed a tendency to say out late at night at bars, and he quoted several times a teammate of his, who had said to him ominously, "John, you can't stay up late with the owls and fly with the eagles." But John didn't listen. John also did several years of prison time because of cocaine. Whether he and Maria just used or whether they got involved in sales, I don't know. So I don't know exactly what the charges were. Of course, by year 2003, John, born in 1955, was far too old to think about baseball, even if he had never snorted a line of cocaine. Moreover, he had an issue going with his brother. All the years John had been snorting, drinking and doing time, his brother had been manning the station at the liquor store. John still felt that he was entitled to half the business, but his brother told him he was not going to get a cent, he didn't care what threats, pleas or promises John made, or how many lawyers he hired. John said that once, walking around his neighborhood, which may have been around suburban Norwalk, near Los Angeles, two Hispanic youths-John is also Hispanic-called him over, and attacked him with baseball bats, putting him in the hospital for months. He didn't know whether they were just raising hell indiscriminately, or whether someone had put them up to it. John was a very likable, humble, amiable person to talk to, but Maria's relatives hated him. He couldn't go anywhere near her house, because they were on the alert for him. So John and Maria met at a distance from her house. On one occasion, they were caught necking in church on a Sunday morning, and reprimanded sorely by the priest. Yet both John and Maria were very faithful Catholics. They would go into raptures discussing the book called The Remnant, act as if I had been irreverent by dismissing the book solely on the knowledge that it had to do with Revelations in the Bible. It could have been completely different for them. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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