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HALL OF FAME POSTER

Registered: 12-2007
Location: South Bay
Posts: 1935
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Blarney Stone kiss energizes Brian Wilson


Blarney Stone kiss energizes Brian Wilson
Henry Schulman, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, February 24, 2008


Scottsdale, Ariz. -- What a sight it must have been, Brian Wilson, the Giants' fiery closer with the 95-mph fastball and the frightful tattoos, as skittish as a little kid when it was his turn to lean backward over the edge of a 500-year-old Irish castle, 100 feet off the ground, and kiss the Blarney Stone.

Actually, that is not fair - to little kids. As A's pitcher Dallas Braden tells it, there was a family full of them standing atop Blarney Castle. As Wilson weighed the risks to his life and limb, muttering, "No way. No way," three little girls and a boy had to be restrained from running to the front of the line.

Braden looked at Wilson and sternly said, "We came all the way to Ireland, bro. We're right in front of the Blarney Stone. You're doing it.'"

And he did.

No country tugs at its expatriates and descendents more than Ireland, perhaps because of its beauty, its sorrows and its inseparable pairing of state and faith.

Wilson felt the tug last year. After his short but successful audition as the Giants' closer late in the season, he and Braden, who became fast friends in Puerto Rico when they played winter ball two years ago, spent three weeks backpacking and driving across the Emerald Isle.

It was not a typical ballplayer's vacation of huntin', fishin' and golfin'. Wilson and Braden, both full-blooded Irish, did not stay in hotels. They even bypassed the comfortable state-certified bed-and-breakfasts in favor of youth hostels.

"We wanted to breathe it in," Wilson said. "We didn't want to bring our 200-pound backpacks from Bass Pro Shop and stay in a four-star hotel. It just wasn't what we were looking for."

Braden, who thought up the trip, said, "It was just something I wanted to get in touch with. Americans are so self-absorbed and self-indulgent. I just wanted to get an idea of what life is like on another island."

Wilson truly had wanderlust last winter. He also took a short trip to India, organized by one of his endorsers, to teach cricket players how to throw hard. That was business. Ireland was a passion. His great-grandparents on both sides immigrated to Boston, the heart of Irish America and not far from Winchester, Mass., where Wilson was born.

He heard the stories and saw the pictures, and he understands the tug.

"Back then, South Boston was Ireland," Wilson said. "It kind of grew through you being raised that you're Irish. Take pride in it. You're not just Irish, you're full-blooded.

"This is what your grandparents did for you. This is why you get to be in America right now. I owed it to myself to learn what my family went through in order for me to have all of the things I have today."

So he and Braden flew to Dublin just after Thanksgiving and got two important sites out of the way quickly, the Jamison whiskey factory and a pub that served "real" Guinness. After all, these are two American boys in their mid-20s.

They saw the magnificent illustrations created by monks in the 1,200-year-old "Book of Kells." They traveled by foot, and in buses on trains, through the Wicklow Mountains, on to Waterford and Cork in the south, then along the Dingle Peninsula and Ring of Kerry and into Galway in the west. They saw cemeteries, churches and castles, and not just the touristy ones. The farther off the beaten path, the better.

They stuffed their backpacks with souvenirs. One did not go in the bag. It was a new tattoo, a Gaelic tribute to God with a Celtic cross, on his Wilson's wrist. Braden already had a pair of Irish tattoos, the cross and a braided shamrock.

Their favorite souvenir might have been the memory of the little red rental car that Wilson trashed. Backpacking is not as practical in the southwest of Ireland, where long peninsulas jut into the Atlantic and are best toured by car.

Problem is, the steering wheels in Ireland are on the right side of the cars, which drive on the left side of the road. As a wild card, the rental people gave Wilson a car a left-handed stick shift. He might have had an easier time at the controls of an F-16.

Wilson did the driving and Braden did the screaming. Every four seconds, it was "Drive on the left!" Eventually, Wilson got frisky enough to zoom up one hill a bit too fast. The car went airborne at the crest, and after it returned to Earth, Braden and Wilson knew what they had to do.

Wilson repeated the Irish Car Jump three times, with Braden videotaping it from the shoulder of the road, until an old man whose peace and quiet was disturbed by the racket bolted across his front lawn while calling the cops on his cell phone.

"We pretty much rolled the car into Galway when we dropped it off," Wilson said. "I burned the clutch. I'm pretty sure I dropped the transmission. I did buy the insurance. When I got there, I said, 'Sorry, guys, this is what you've got.' The Enterprise guy started cracking up. When we brought it back, it was torn apart."

But the friendship of these two pitchers was not. In three weeks of travel, they had only one spat, when Wilson fumed about Braden's absolute refusal to get behind the wheel of the car.

"Dude," Braden told Wilson, "you're on your own."

Both are young ballplayers with promise who have yet to make their mark in the game. But Braden said they share a similar world view that should help them along the journey.

"We both have an understanding of what we're here for, whether it's the big picture of what we're here on Earth for, or what we're here to do in this game," he said. "I think we both gravitated toward each other because it's a no-nonsense approach. It's making the best and light of anything that comes your way."

Such as the fear of leaning over a castle wall, facing a death drop, having your legs held by a man who looks old enough to have built the place in the 15th century and kissing a piece of stone because that is what your ancestors did.


-- A's: Oakland is turning into the White Sox West, with a roster full of former Chicago players. D4


E-mail Henry Schulman at [email protected].

---
Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap!!!
2/24/2008, 6:07 pm Link to this post   
 
Monkey51 Profile
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Bullpen Catcher

Registered: 02-2006
Location: hanging from the ceiling
Posts: 7581
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pretty funny about the driving..

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Hamels started toward the dugout after what he thought was a strike. Lincecum didn't get the call & buzzed ump Dana DeMuth w. a fastball that slammed off the backstop & then froze Hamels w. another 3rd strike. 4/28/10 Timmy the ump killer.
2/24/2008, 6:12 pm Link to this post
 
Weill Profile
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HALL OF FAME POSTER

Registered: 07-2006
Location: San Francisco, CA/Roanoke, VA
Posts: 1390
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Sounds like a fun trip

Thanks for posting!
2/24/2008, 6:17 pm Link to this post   
 
billabong2 Profile
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HALL OF FAME POSTER

Registered: 10-2006
Location: Johannisfriedhof
Posts: 2354
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Re: Blarney Stone kiss energizes Brian Wilson


Great piece, thanks for posting the link.

If it works we start shipping every bullpen arm to Ireland to kiss the damn thing.

I like the kids attitude and hope it translates into huge success for him this year.

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What beauty is, I know not, though it adheres to many things.
2/26/2008, 1:00 pm Link to this post   
 
chefjuan Profile
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HALL OF FAME POSTER

Registered: 04-2006
Posts: 3718
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Re: Blarney Stone kiss energizes Brian Wilson


Everything I read about Wilson impresses me. He's not the typical hunting and fishing good ole boy jock. We need more athletes like Wilson and Braden.


quote:

Braden, who thought up the trip, said, "It was just something I wanted to get in touch with. Americans are so self-absorbed and self-indulgent..."



effin A, Dallas.

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"If the Pilgrims had landed in California the East Coast would still be wilderness"
2/26/2008, 1:04 pm Link to this post   
 


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