RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Tim McGraw in concert at Target Field. (MARLIN LEVISON/STARTRIBUNE([email protected] (cq )(Photo By Marlin Levison/Star Tribune via Getty Images) | Star Tribune via Getty Images
First Chuck: 3:10 PM (new anthem each week!)
The Tube: Twins.TV
The Dial: Treasure Island Baseball Network
Spies ‘R Us: Gaslamp Ball
I’ll be at a ballpark today—but I won’t be seeing any of this Minnesota Twins versus San Diego Padres clash. How is this possible? While the Twins battle on the West Coast, I’ll be heading to Target Field with my sister to see the Tim McGraw concert! As a kid who grew up on 90s country radio, I’ve been looking forward to this shindig.
Tim McGraw actually has some very intense and interesting connections to baseball. Born in Louisiana in 1967, McGraw was the son of Frank Edwin “Tug” McGraw and Elizabeth Ann D’Agostino (a waitress who lived in the same apartment as Tug).
If simply because the moniker “Tug” is memorable, you may recall him as an MLB hurler. For the early-1970s New York Mets, the lanky reliever coined the “Ya Gotta Believe!” tagline. In 1980, he fired the sphere that clinched the first-ever World Series championship for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Sadly, Tug’s on-field heroics didn’t always extend past the white lines. After Tim’s mother Elizabeth was sent to live with relatives following the pregnancy, she re-married Horace Smith, who Tim grew up believing was his dad. That is, until—as the story goes—eleven year old Timmy was rifling through a closet looking for sweets and instead found his birth certificate indicating Tug as his father. Despite meeting his adolescent son soon after, Tug denied parentage until Tim turned 18.
Tim would attend Northeast Louisiana University on a baseball scholarship—perhaps channeling his genetic gifts in that realm. Alas, a knee injury prevented that avenue from flourishing. Fortunately, McGraw discovered guitar picking soon after and, well, the rest is history.
Following his debut album in 1993, McGraw rocketed to the top of the country music charts and has stayed at or around that lofty perch ever since. In 1996, he married fellow country songstress Faith Hill. The two remain betrothed and have three daughters. Recently, McGraw has been steadily moving towards acting. Beginning with sports flicks like Friday Night Lights & The Blind Side, a somewhat-recent turn on 1883 showed tremendous talent and range .
Circling back to Tim’s baseball lineage, he and Tug did find some reconciliation in the later years of the elder McGraw’s life. After Tug’s death in 2004, Tim spread his father’s ashes on the mound at Citizen’s Bank Park in Philadelphia during the 2008 World Series .
A fact as interesting as it may be tragic: Tug McGraw died of glioblastoma, a brain tumor condition. Six other of his Phillies teammates succumbed to the same condition—and there has been speculation that chemicals given off from the AstroTurf at Veteran’s Stadium may have played in role in that hard-to-ignore “coincidence”.
While I’m singing along to “ I Like It, I Love It ”, here’s hoping the Twins will share similar sentiments by squelching the Friars! James Fillmore will be providing the encore with a recap so I can get “ Down on the Farm ” all night.
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