Already stopped by and donated. Thanks, Larry.

Mine says "The Last Action can't Be Completed." Is anyone else getting that?

Yeah, the link is FUBARed and Larry probably submitted this the same time he posted to the Brattain thread, i.e. before he knew it was FUBARed.

The good link is prominent on THT's main page.

Best Regards,

Justin

Me too, Dan.

I emailed Studes asking for a direct link -- I'll post it here when he shares it, and Szym or someone can update the link.

For now, I recommend changing the link to the THT homepage.

I changed the link to what the donate button links to, but I'm not sure how long that will work, since I assume Larry did the same thing. I'll keep checking and change it to HT if it doesn't "stick" this time.

Nope, didn't work, Szym.

Already have it changed to THT.

Direct link to the THT Live post

Just going to the THT page does the trick.

Yeah, I just wanted something a little more permanent.

The Memorial Fund is fine and good, and I've already contributed (again, just going to the THT homepage will get you there), but if we really want to honor Brattain by making life better for his teenage daughters, we need to find a way to prevent meatwad from crossing the Canadian border.

Just found out about this from robin and donated via paypal, which takes about ten seconds.

The Memorial Fund is fine and good, and I've already contributed (again, just going to the THT homepage will get you there), but if we really want to honor Brattain by making life better for his teenage daughters, we need to find a way to prevent meatwad from crossing the Canadian border.

I can do that well enough. And if he escapes, I'll call the border patrol.

But who will protect John's raccoons from meatwad?

I said I think everything I have to say in the post that Dial so graciously put up for me (and on the main page, no less.) I just realized today that I'm running way short on cash this month and I feel terrible waiting until the 1st, is anyone close enough to John's family or someone who would know to know if they're in need of anything else for the short term?

I said I think everything I have to say in the post that Dial so graciously put up for me (and on the main page, no less.) I just realized today that I'm running way short on cash this month and I feel terrible waiting until the 1st, is anyone close enough to John's family or someone who would know to know if they're in need of anything else for the short term?

All that I know is that they've raised enough so far that they can wait a week for you. (Of course, we'll have never raised "enough", but you know what I mean)

Fair point. Though, I learned after my dad's funeral that people often all think the same thing, when it turns out that what would help the most is something completely different that no one would think of. So, if anyone finds out something like that, please let the rest of us know. After my dad's funeral, someone gave my mom a week's worth of food from some service that deep-freezes restaurant quality meals. She had a few days where she didn't have to think about what to do for dinner, and a few more months of random treat-yourself type meals, which really picked up her spirits.

Though, I learned after my dad's funeral that people often all think the same thing, when it turns out that what would help the most is something completely different that no one would think of. So, if anyone finds out something like that, please let the rest of us know.

They need a robot that makes smartass remarks.

Ain't it just like John to kick the bucket when just about everyone is strapped for cash? As usual, his timing could use some work.

Thanks for linking this up, Larry. I chipped in what I could.

Just thinking aloud here, but for all the writing John generously shared with us over the years, the potential for publishing collections on various themes or as random commentary on hot topics must be a possibility. I for one really enjoy books of anectotes, and with John's brand of good natured (almost throwback in style) wit and recognizable 'voice', it's certainly a collection I would want on my baseball shelf.

I recognize it's quick to go down this road, but if it is a means to providing needed relief over a longer period to his family, and if it's viable economically, perhaps one of the THT team can scope out the idea....

I recognize it's quick to go down this road, but if it is a means to providing needed relief over a longer period to his family, and if it's viable economically, perhaps one of the THT team can scope out the idea....

This is a great idea to put in the tickler file. Don't forget this idea... it probably is a bit quick to get started, but something that I think would be really, really nice. Don't forget to grab Larry's post from the tribute thread (#606). John's email to him would make a wonderful forward for the book.

Thanks for setting this up.

The book idea is a good one. If you can't find enough to string together for a coherent book, you could ask some of his friends to donate an essay, maybe with targeted themes to segue between collections of John's stuff, to round it out.

I emailed Studes with that general idea. I have a couple of things he published on my site, include everything he wrote for THT, maybe try to work with Jim to get some of his best comments on here (the entire Nomar thread, for example), too.

Forget about making money, a document like that would be a very nice gift for his wife and children.

When does the donation window close? If it's past the end of the month, I'd like to put another quarter in the machine.

When does the donation window close? If it's past the end of the month, I'd like to put another quarter in the machine.

I'll have the link on the top of my site until March 24, 2010, and I plan to donate fairly regularly over the summer when I get my MLB paychecks.

Apologies in advance if this is inappropriate but has anyone found a newspaper obit for John?

Apologies in advance if this is inappropriate but has anyone found a newspaper obit for John?

Not a full obit by any means, but his passing was mentioned in the Toronto Star:

BRATTAIN PASSES AWAY: John Brattain, one of the best-known Canadian voices covering baseball on the Internet, died Tuesday of complications due to heart surgery.

Brattain, 43, worked for highly regarded sites like The Hardball Times and Baseball Daily Digest. He was a pioneer of the irreverent, impassioned style that has come to define Web coverage of sport inside and outside the mainstream media.

The only newspaper site I have seen with a reference is this Toronto Star story. (John's passing is noted midway through the article.)

I never paid a cent for John's writing while he was working, so I'll make up for it now. Cheers everyone.

Did John have another job or was baseball writing his sole livelihood? Just curious.

I think that he was solely a writer at least the last few years, Td, but I'm not 100% certain. I guess I knew him pretty well for someone I never met face to face, but I still didn't really know him.

They need a robot that makes smartass remarks.

The AJGLU-3000 from Browne-Walker Amalgamated Humor would be perfect.

"I emailed Studes with that general idea."

that's perfect, Larry. thank you.

Jim was kind enough to return this to the top of the page. If you haven't made a contribution yet, please consider making one.

Donation made

I was listening to the Det-Tor game last night as I was driving, and the Tor broadcasting team did a quick tribute to John. I was absolutely flabbergasted - goes to show that sometimes the truly great ones have an impact on the game and its participants.

john r,

the guys on the broadcasting team all knew him, and (like all of us) they all liked him, they REALLY liked him.

the Tor broadcasting team did a quick tribute to John.

That is just too cool for words.

Thank you for the link, Larry. Donating to a good cause, and in a small way thanking John for the smiles his posts gave me.

Done. Wish it could've been more -- lots more -- but I'm handicapped by what appears to be a morbid fear (aided & abetted by my mortgage co. & the IRS) of having more than a few cents to my name before pay day.

Brief obituary of John in the Globe and Mail, written by Dave Gassko

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090410.OBBRATTAIN10ART1953/TPStory/?query=obituaries

and an obituary for john from me (starring john and his sandy Dog)

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like Mother of Pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.

He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out,
"Excuse me, where are we?"
"This is Heaven, sir," the man answered.
"Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked.
"Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up." The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

"Can my friend," pointing to his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."

The man turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog. After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road which led through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

"Excuse me, Sir!" he called to the man. "Do you have any water?" "Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there". The man pointed to a place that couldn't be seen from outside the gate. "Come on in."
"How about my friend here?" the man pointed to the dog.

" Sure. There should be a bowl by the pump." They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The man filled the bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree waiting for them.

"Where are we, anyway?" asked the man.

"This is Heaven," answered the man with the book.

"I'm confused" the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was Heaven, too."

"Oh, you mean that place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's Hell."

"Don't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?"

"Nah. I can see how you might could think so, but we're just happy that they screen out the folks who'll leave their best friends behind."

I'm an old internet buddy of John's from back when he was Odie the Wonder Dummy on the Blue Jays boards at Fastball.com.

Anyways, I was digging through an old computer and found this link to an old website of John's. There's a bunch of his old pre-BTF writing linked to at the bottom of that page. I know a lot of you folks were good friends with him and might be interested to see where it began...