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Age was the theme of the evening — achieving in spite of it, overcoming it, not disregarding it, but embracing it as a virtue. Yes, that was the theme for Bobby Bragan’s birthday party at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel.
The doyen of managing turned 92 Friday, and he celebrated at the Bobby Bragan Youth Foundation Gala, tossing out stories as if they were Mardi Gras beads, including the one about being not just the oldest manager of a professional team but the oldest manager ever to be ejected from a game.Since 1991, the foundation has awarded $1,182,500 in scholarships to eighth-graders. And in keeping with Friday’s theme, the foundation honored Jim Morris, the Brownwood native who in 1999, at 35, pitched as a rookie for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. And Minnie Minoso, the "The Cuban Comet," who once played for Bragan with the Cleveland Indians, was a special guest. Minoso’s major league career spanned five decades; at 50, in 1976, for the White Sox, he got the final hit of his career.But, age was really just a subtheme because with Bragan and his foundation, the inveterate theme remains the encouragement of youth. And Friday that was evident even before the gala began, at a reception where Minoso tutored an enthralled 10-year-old Grayson Long, about life, heroes and baseball."If your idol does something bad," Minoso said, "don’t hate him — you hate nobody — but you should hate the bad thing he did."Removing his silver sunglasses and placing his hands on a table, his large rings commemorating his achievements looking like salt shakers, Minoso launched into a lecture. This was clearly the audience he came here for, all the way from Chicago, where he’s Mr. White Sox.Minoso once played, he explained, in a game moments after getting his upper lip stitched back together, but "a guy gets a blister now and he can’t play — c’mon. Always give 100 percent, everything you got."And the main thing: When you put on your uniform, in here and in here" — and Minoso touched his head and his heart — "you’re the best; so if a guy throws a hundred miles an hour, it don’t matter because you believe you’re the best."A couple of hours later, Morris, whose career inspired the movie The Rookie, stood at the podium and spoke of his grandfather’s ability to inspire. That, he said, is what people should strive to do, inspire others.Bragan, after playing the piano and singing, after charming the audience with stories, spoke about the youngsters who have received scholarships over the years — such as the Navy captain serving in the Middle East, the Ph.D candidate at Howard University, the professor at Stanford, all recipients of the foundation’s encouragement. And in the telling, Bragan smiled broadly, as only he can, almost luminescently, for this was his highlight of the evening and this its true and main theme.Gary West, 817-390-7760
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