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time Johnny Bench was playing catcher for them and so he did not make the team; that was just
not going to happen. Another one played for a number of years in the Detroit farm system, a
fellow I had played with back in Fargo, and he played behind Bill Freehan who at that time
was catcher. Now whether they had been in another area or something like that, they might
have done better is unknown. Plus when you are a professional athlete your time window is not
infinite. You can't wait for 10 years for something to turn out because at the end of that period
of time you have changed.”
That brings up the whole issue of how much luck, if you want to call it that, or randomness
of life comes into it, or if you are just at the right place at the right moment. Reading
autobiographies it is interesting how often people ascribe their great achievements to their own
work but don't see that there were a lot of other people with the same skill sets, but for the
grace of God, they would have been in a different situation also. There is a tremendous
randomness, and obviously the people who write the topics [on] how they achieve things are
the ones who made it, and they were lucky to do it. Any recent autobiographies that strike you
that you read?
“That has not been an area that I have been reading a lot of recently. First of all because
most of them are modern autobiographies and, you know, at this point in my life I realize how,
if not self-serving, how much they are written to try and explain to the world in usually
somewhat favorable terms why someone did what they did.”
It is interesting that the character of the persons comes through in their writing, even with
obviously many of these famous people using “ghost writers” to help them. I recently read
George Bush's topic and of course he comes across very favorably when he explains his own
decisions and the same with Edward Kennedy's book. One understands their behavior better
when you read their topics. I just finished a couple of weeks ago Marius
Barnard's topic about
his training in Houston and the first heart transplant and so on, and it is interesting. His
character comes through as it often does, even in medical manuscripts or topics. I actually had
to assist him when I was in the Army a few times and the complaints he had about other
surgeons, particularly DeBakey and Denton Cooley, both of whom I know well, could apply
equally to him.
“Is Chris Barnard still alive?”
No, Chris Barnard drowned off the Greek coast quite a long time ago. He supposedly had an
asthma attack and drowned. They never resuscitated him. A sailing friend of mine, you
probably know, Ed from Mass General, his father was a very famous neurosurgeon. He had
seen Chris about 2 weeks before this happened in Paris and Chris Barnard had asked Ed,
'what are you doing in Paris?' and Ed said 'I am at an academic meeting, what are you doing?'
to which Chris Barnard said, 'Well, I'm here in Paris looking for girls, what else is there to
do?” And that was when he was quite well up in his age. They talked a bit and Ed brought up
my name because I was originally going to do my cardiac surgery training with Chris Barnard.
Chris asked me to get my “primaries” before I started with him so that's what I studied while
in the Army. I had a job with him and I still have my letter from my appointment with him but
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