Congratulating Bink

My last blog was about my personal friendship with one of this year's Hall of Fame inductees at ETBU, Tony Cutright. I couldn't let this time pass, though, without saying something about another, Bink Grimes.

The other two members of this year's class, Jana Allen-Sims and Kathy Norris-Edwards, were great contributors to their respective sports of cross country and women's basketball and were highly regarded, obviously, by the selection committee. I personally never met Jana or Kathy prior to the banquet this year, however, so I can't really say I have a history with them. Both ladies are first-class, however, and they represent what ETBU and Lady Tiger athletics are all about. It was a pleasure meeting them and witnessing their induction last month.

But I knew Bink quite well when he and his wife Shelly lived in Marshall. Bink actually is a kind of trail blazer here, at least from my perspective: he was a full-time S.I.D. when his playing days were over while also working as full-time assistant coach in the baseball program. Actually, I guess that makes him part-time S.I.D. and part-time assistant coach, but trust me, he did full-time work in both places.

I was working at the Marshall News Messenger at the time, covering local sports, so I got to know Bink pretty well. As with Cutright, I came along just after Bink's playing days, but I'd heard everything about him as well on the field -- outstanding hitter, both for average and power, a pretty good defensive first baseman and an even better leader.

Bink wrote an outdoor column for us in the News Messenger. I am not the least bit interested in hunting or fishing anymore, personally. My hunting experience ended one cold, rainy New Year's Day back in the 1980s after I'd been left sitting in a deer stand with nothing but a soaked parka and an even more soaked hunting rifle. I sat there for three solid, frigid hours, and there were several points in the experience where I thought I'd actually been frozen to the tree. Probably three of the most miserable hours of my life, quite honestly. And nothing moved but the raindrops and iciclyes hanging from the trees. I'm sure there were deer out there in the woods, but they were huddled up somewhere, looking at me and warming up to their own laughter watching this idiot kid sitting up there freezing to death.

Anyway, I prayed to God that day that if he would just make me warm again, get me out of that tree, I'd never spend another second in the woods. He came through as He always does, and I've held up my end of the prayer.

But Bink -- he was an avid outdoorsman. Bink had been a hunting and fishing guide along the coast even before he came to ETBU, and he fit right in up here in East Texas with all the wildlife and outdoor action to be had on the area's lakes and in the pine forests. We struck up a pretty good friendship -- he was able to fill a lot of space for me every Sunday in the paper, and in turn I was able to get him in on a media pass to a Texas Rangers baseball game.

Bink and I drove to Arlington one sunny day with the opportunity to cover the Rangers. I can't remember who they were playing, but it didn't matter. My goal was simply to get out of the office under the premise of working, as it usually was back in those days when I occasionally covered the Rangers. Bink was actually working; he wanted to meet Will Clark, who was not only a first baseman by trade but also a very avid hunter.

The game wasn't unlike any in the past, really, meaning the Rangers probably lost. But Bink got to sit down for a brief moment with Clark and talk outdoors, hunting and fishing, and as I remember he wrote a very good article. You could tell that he was a natural, both as a ballplayer and as a writer.

Bink has gone on to coach high school baseball down in Bay City, and he and Shelly now have a daughter, Mallory, who looks just like her dad. Not sure if she can hit the fastball yet, but I'm pretty sure she knows how to bait a hook.

He also continues to write his weekly outdoor column as a freelancer. In fact he came up to me after last month's banquet and asked if there would be a way he could use my laptop to email that week's column to the Houston Chronicle. He got it sent off, and it just reminded me of the kind of things that make our Hall of Famers great -- they always are focused on what needs to be done, and they do whatever it takes to get it done.

Congratulations, Bink.