SIDE SALAD - Everything crunchy is good.

TUG AT THE HEART

Aww, damn. Tug McGraw has died.

I met Tug McGraw when I was a kid. He came to my Cub Scout meeting once, wearing a powder-blue leisure suit. He threw a pitch to one of the scouts who was a catcher and knocked the kid backwards with a fastball that made the air in the school cafeteria sizzle. We ate it up with a spoon.

After it was over, he signed my Little League ballglove, the one from Sears I played every game with. Then the photographer for the local paper shot his picture with us around him.

I still have the news clipping and I still have the glove with the signature.




I was never a big Mets fan, although they had spring training a bike ride away from my house. And I was never a big Phillies fan, either.

But I was a huge Tug McGraw fan. And I always will be.