The Man Who Made Me a Baseball Fan

Abraham “Bob” Tubin with Red Sox second baseman Mike Andrews at Fenway Park in the early 1970s. Tubin was making a donation to the official Sox charity, The Jimmy Fund, on behalf of his fellow Boston Herald truck drivers.

To my Grandpa Bob Tubin, every Red Sox player who wasn’t Ted Williams or Yaz was an overpaid bum or “primadonna,” but the TV was always on Channel 38.

I used to fall asleep on his couch and get woken up when Butch Hobson or George Scott would go deep.

Awesome that he got to see the 2004 Sox win the World Series before he died. Here he is with 1967 second baseman Mike Andrews, making a donation to The Jimmy Fund from his fellow Boston Herald drivers.

Andrews went on to become president of The Jimmy Fund and my grandfather went on to turn his grandson into a baseball fan. He would have LOVED the World Series victory last night!

When the Red Sox took bribes…

Abraham "Bob" Tubin discreetly hands over the cash to Red Sox star Mike Andrews.

Speaking of Red Sox Opening Day, I coincidentally just stumbled across a copy of one of my favorite family photos of all time — my Grandpa Bob with 1967 “Impossible Dream” second baseman Mike Andrews.

The picture looks like he’s handing over some money to treat Andrews to a few Fenway Franks. The stack of Fives and Ones — even in 1969 or 1970 when this was taken — hardly made my grandfather come across like Donald Trump or Daddy Warbucks. He was a delivery driver for the Boston Herald and drove a cab on his day off to raise money for The Jimmy Fund, the official Red Sox charity for cancer research.

Mike Andrews later became the chairman of The Jimmy Fund.

But as nice as all that philanthropy stuff is, the real reason I love this photo is because Grandpa Bob is solely responsible for brainwashing me to be a Red Sox fan. I still can picture myself as a 9-year-old dozing off on his living room couch as Butch Hobson or George “Boomer” Scott went deep.

In later years, he became disgusted by player salaries and called them all “primadonnas.” But he still watched.

You can read more about my amazing Grandpa Bob here.

And if you’d like to send your own bundle of cash to The Jimmy Fund, it would be most appreciated!

If this photo were taken today, my grandfather would have been posing with Tim Wakefield and Clay Buchholz.