This is Bob Kendrick. The past week, we at the Negro Leaks Baseball Museum lost a great talent,

a great storyteller, and a great friend, Jim Mudcat Grant, at age 85.

My memories of Jim Mutkett Grant are varied and plentiful and funny.

For nearly the last two decades, I've been going out to Binghamton, New York, upstate New York,

to participate in the annual Jim Mutkatt Grant Celebrity All-Star Golf Classic.

He put it together really to honor the Black Aces and to raise money for some really great charities there in that Binghamton area.

But after all, that's what Muttgart Grant did throughout his entire illustrious life.

The many times that we had him at the Negro League's baseball museum,

he was a dear friend of the late great Buck O'Neill, and I think for me, most of the connecting

points with legends of this game somehow are tied to Buck O'Neill. And every time Buck called, Muttcat Grant was there.

And then after Buck O'Neill passed away 15 years ago,

every time I called Jim Muttcat Grant was there,

whether it was playing in a celebrity golf classic in memory of Buck O'Neill,

whether it was coming to make an appearance for whatever it was that the museum was doing, whether it was the opportunity for him to sit in the Buck O'Neill legacy seat at the K. This giant of a man was oftentimes just blown away by the notoriety that he was getting.

But two of my favorite stories that I wanted to share, because when I remember Jim Muckett Grant, I think about the grace, the dignity, the class, but also the wit, the charm

that he had.

And so I've been around him telling baseball stories for quite some time.

And these are two of my favorites.

And he was pitching at this time for the Cleveland Indians.

And he decided that he needed a little bit of extra help.

So he had rub soap.

It took a bar of soap and rubbed soap all over his uniform.

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