Journalist Schieffer loved Cats and game

By Drew Davison

ddavison@star-telegram.com

Awards and honors aren't anything new to Bob Schieffer.

The CBS newsman who grew up in Fort Worth has won seven Emmy Awards, was given the prestigious Paul White Award in 2003 for lifetime contributions in electronic journalism and saw his alma mater, TCU, name its journalism school after him in 2005.

And the list goes on.

Schieffer will add to it Wednesday, but in a non-journalistic manner.

The Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation will honor Schieffer with a lifetime achievement award.

Schieffer's brother, Tom, the Texas Rangers' president from 1991 to '99, will help honor him, as will former Rangers general manager Tom Grieve, at Ridglea Country Club.

The Star-Telegram caught up with Schieffer about receiving an honor named after one of his childhood idols, Bragan, the late famed Fort Worth Cats manager.

What does this award mean to you?

"Well, it's my first baseball honor. Bobby Bragan came to the Cats in '48 as a manager and he had been a second-string catcher for the Dodgers. I played catcher when I was young, so I tried to imitate everything that Bobby did. The way he threw, the way he held his bat.... And probably the reason I identified with him most is because you always put the slowest guy on the team at catcher. He might have been the slowest player to ever play, and I was slow. I had no trouble imitating his speed."

Did you get to know Bobby later in life?

"Yes, we came to know each other. When my brother was with the Texas Rangers, Bobby was an adviser and he was just a great guy. He was a role model not just for kids but everybody. He had a great affection for kids and did so much for young people. I really not only identified with him as a little guy but after I grew up, too."

How did you get interested in baseball?

"Well, I think it was because there was no air conditioning in those days, at least in our neighborhood in River Oaks. LaGrave Field was the coolest place that time and we would go almost every night. I always played baseball, never had any interest in football. I was just too little, so baseball was my game. I played at North Side High School, and played my first year at TCU on the freshman team. That was the highlight of my career."

Why were the Cats so popular in those days?

"People really took minor league baseball seriously in those days. For one reason, you didn't have television where you could find baseball games. There was a bitter rivalry between Fort Worth and Dallas, and the Texas League was a great league. Duke Snider, who was Eddie Snider back then, was 19 and hitting home runs for the Cats. Dick Williams was there and he went on to become a good player and Hall of Fame manager. Chico Carrasquel became a Hall of Famer. And Carl Erskine came through Fort Worth, and he was the best pitcher I saw in those days."

Now that you live in Washington, how nice is it to see the Nationals contend?

"It's been a great thing for Washington and people have just latched on to the Nationals from the start. It was a fun year to follow them. Bryce Harper is here and everybody is comparing him to Mickey Mantle. I'm not ready to declare this guy the next Mickey Mantle, but their first years are very, very similar if you look at the numbers. Then they have Gio Gonzalez and Stephen Strasburg and Ryan Zimmerman. Not only did they win this year, but they are entertaining to watch."

Finally, as a TCU alum, what do you make of the move to the Big 12?

"I love college football and love seeing the Frogs play, so I was beside myself when they got into the Big 12. I'm a Gary Patterson fan from start to finish and, if anybody can put a team together, it's ol' Gary. What a blow for that [Casey] Pachall deal to come up like that, but I think Gary did exactly the right thing. You just can't have that. It's tough, but Trevone [Boykin] has come in there and settled down and taken over.

"And the stadium is just unbelievable. You have to go a long way before you're going to find a better stadium. I went to the first game there against Grambling and was very impressed. TCU has become a hot school. When I went there, it was a parking lot with a school built around it. Now, it's just one of the most beautiful campuses in the country and, may I say, one of the best journalism schools in the country."

Drew Davison, 817-390-7760

Twitter: @drewdavison

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