The one ... and only Gos

"K is for Keeler,
As fresh as green paint,
The fastest and mostest
To hit where they ain't."

That is one of the verses of Ogden Nash's 1949 poem: "Line-up for yesterday: An ABC of Baseball Immortals." Glenn Gostick, who was found dead in an apartment in Colorado yesterday, used be recite that stanza ... and the 25 others in Nash's poem by heart.

Gos was 83 and, I suspect, went out with a smile on his face. I hadn't seen him for many years but I am still a bit saddened by his passing. You see, Gos was one of last of a dying breed. He was an American original who did things his way.

He had no phone at his house in Minneapolis. I am not sure he drove a car. Yet he was one of the most informed people I ever knew. He had one of the best baseball memories of anybody I ever knew. I had been told this was the case when I met him. I decided to give him a test.

"Arlo Brunsberg," I offered tentatively.

"One of the very few Minnesotans who made his debut in home state," Gostick replied with annoyance. "Lined out to shortstop off Mudcat Grant. Went 1-for-3 in his career."

I only knew this because Brunsberg's brief career was with the Tigers. Indeed, Brunsberg, who was born in Fertile, MN only appeared in one more big league game, getting a hit off Paul Lindblad in the bottom of the ninth inning in the last game of the 1966 season. Had I asked, I am quite sure Gos would have told me that fact, too.

I didn't know very well. But I was always charmed by him. He umpired baseball well into his 70s, running a brisk game in which he expected players to be respectful and hustle.

For a while. he served as an official scorer for Twins' games. But that didn't last long because Gos expected major leaguers to make major league plays. A half-assed effort on a ground ball earned you an error in Gos' book. The big leaguers didn't cotton to that much and Gos was soon back umpiring and poring over statistics.

Their loss, he figured. He was right on that one, too.

He was adamant in his view that most sacrifice bunts were a waste of an out, offering up a study a Yale professor did in the early 1960s as evidence. He had equally strong views on Hall of Famers. He definitely thought Don Drysdale, for example, was undeserving of the honor and rode in on his charming personality and the fact he followed Sandy Koufax to the mound for several years.

To Gos, it was always about the numbers. They told the stories of most baseball games.

He was a trainer for years, working with Dick Siebert and the U of M baseball team and later, the WHA Fighting Saints' hockey team. he took the job seriously, often leading the charges on runs himself. Gos did nothing at half-speed. He liked it that way and couldn't understand that others didn't. (Or at least he pretended he didn't understand.)

The bottom line was simple: here was a man who, in Sinatra's words, did it his way all the time. How many of us get to say that today?