Subj : Johnny Oates
To   : All
From : Joe Siegler
Date : Sat Nov 10 2001 01:41 pm

One of my favourite baseball folks, Johnny Oates has been diagnosed with a
pretty agressive form of brain tumor.  The acutal name of the disease is one of
those freaky long technical names I can't remember, but when I read about it, I
checked up on the WebMD site, and it's NOT good.

The brain tumor affects just about everything that makes life good - memory,
speech, motor functions, and the kind he has is supposedly the most aggresive
form of brain tumor you can have.  Johnny's having surgery at the end of
November, but from what I've read, survival rate for this is around one year.
:(

It's a shame, because I REALLY liked this guy.  When I was a kid in
Philadelphia, Johnny Oates was a catcher for the Phillies for a year and a
half, and if my memory is right, he was the catcher at the first ever game I
went to as a kid, so that was a big memory for me.  Growing up then, I was into
baseball cards a lot, and I had this one Phillies card of Johnny Oates in a
Phillies uniform in their spring training complex in Clearwater Florida.
Anyway, for some reason, that card meant a lot to me as a kid, although I can't
remember why now.  I know it held a fascination, because of the picture of the
spring training complex.  Back in 1975, you didn't see a lot of the Florida
complexes on TV.

Anyway, I fell out of favor with baseball cards, although that card was always
burnt in my head.  Fast forward to 1992, and I move to Texas, 35 miles away
from where the Texas Rangers play.  OK, I have a new home team (although I have
to say growing up in an NL town, the DL rule was a bit bizarre, although I've
warmed to it pretty good).

One other remark about the Texas Rangers and baseball cards.   When I was a
kid, I always hated the Texas Rangers, because I always, and I mean *ALWAYS*
got excessive duplicates of Texas Ranger cards.  For some reason, I always had
a crapload of Julio Franco cards.  :)

Anyway, back to Johnny.  In 1994, Johnny Oates was named Texas Rangers manager,
and that's about when I started paying attention to the Rangers.  I've been a
big fan since, mostly because of Johnny.  I got to speak to him a few times in
Texas at various fan events and whatnot, and he was always cordial to me.  He
told me once where I could send his rookie card to in order to get all three
autographs needed on it.  The other two on Johnny's rookie card are Don Baylor,
and a guy who never much amounted to anything.  Johnny knew immediately where
the guy was - if I remember, the owner of a company in Atlanta, I think.

Anyway, one of my fav moments was at the 2001 Winter Carnival.  He was doinga
Q&A session with the fans, and I was determined to ask him a question he didn't
always get, and something he had to think about.  So I posed this to him..
"Johnny, when you were first hired by the Rangers in late 1994, your first
order of duty was to manage the replacement Rangers.  My question to you is
this - do any of those guys still play in the majors, and do you keep in touch
with any of them?"  Eric Nadel, who was hosting seemeed to try to go into
recall mode of who the replacement Rangers were, and Johnny was most definitely
stumped.  I succeeded - I managed to ask a question that made them think.  He
couldn't remember, but again was very gracious about it.

Johnny Oates quit (although admittedly probably would have been fired shortly
afterwards if he didn't quit) early in the 2001 season.  All the remaining
games of 2001, I felt weird when Chuck Morgan would announce the manager's name
after the starting lineup.  No slight to Jerry Narron (I like him a lot as a
manager, too), but after 6+ years of hearing "And the manager of the Texas
Rangers - Johnny oates", it seems a bit weird.

I really feel bad for Johnny and his family, I hope something can be worked out
where he can survive this, and survive it in a fashion that will allow him to
have a comfortable life, not a life where you're in constant pain, or your
person is so reduced, you don't really have any will to live.   He's been a
great person in my personal baseball past, was a great man, and will always
hold a place in my heart.

Joe Siegler

P.S.  If you hit my Rangers site at http://rangers.siegler.net - I have the
name of the disease on the main page, as well as a link to more info about it.
I also have several pics of Johnny on his picture page on my site, which is at
http://rangers.siegler.net/pictures/oates.html

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