What Mike Shropshire (and Randy Galloway) Were Doing 33 Years Ago Today

The Last Real Season, Mike Shropshire’s wonderfully profane book about the 1975 Major League Baseball season, hits stores on May 14. The conceit is simple: it’s more or less the diary Shropshire kept while following the Texas Rangers as a beat reporter for the Star-T during the last year before free agency changed the game. After the jump is Shrop’s April 4 entry, featuring a cameo by one Randy Galloway.

Spring training was about over. It was getaway day. I sat with Billy Martin in his office and asked, “Who has been the most impressive player in camp this year?”

Martin said, “What the hell is this? Awards night?”

“No. But I got some quotes from [rookie infielder] Roy Smalley Jr. He’s the guy I’m writing about.”

“Okay,” said Martin. “The most impressive player in camp was Roy Smalley Jr. Does that satisfy you?”

“Yeah. thanks.”

And who said Billy Martin was an a- - to deal with?

I retreated to Surf Rider and, for the last time that spring, played Race the Six-Pack [Shropshire's game that involved trying to drink an entire six-pack of beer before his archaic "mojo" machine transmitted his copy back to the paper].

Then I packed and rode to the airport. The team was flying to Houston for a couple more exhibition games, but I wasn’t going with them. Randy Galloway, who covered the Rangers for the Dallas Morning News, sat next to me at the gate in Miami, waiting for a flight to DFW.

Galloway was deathly afraid of air travel, and he was drunker than Sam Houston. He stared at one of our fellow passengers, a nicely dressed man who carried an attache case. Then, Galloway spoke, loudly enough to be heard all over the airport.

“I’m not getting on the [expletive] plane. That [expletive] has a bomb in that briefcase,” Galloway shouted. “Just look at him. [Expletive], anybody can tell that he’s a [expletive] madman!”

The man with the briefcase smiled. The gate agent smiled. Randy Galloway had flipped out, and everybody seemed tickled. That was why those 1970s were a superior time to be alive. People were less uptight, and airports were fun.