T. GAMBLE: Percy Sledge sang brokenhearted soul

Well, baseball season has once again begun and I am wondering: Why is there always someone named Mookie that plays pro sports?

I’ve never known a single Mookie in the real world, but we’ve had Mookie Wilson, Mookie Blaylock and, now, Mookie Betts, newest star for the Boston Red Sox.

I don’t know who in the hell names a kid Mookie to begin with. There must be a genetic link between people who love pro sports and naming a kid Mookie. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’d change my name to Mookie in a New York minute if It meant I could play pro ball, but I suspect it will take more than a name change.

The Braves don’t have a Mookie that I know of but started off 5-0. They traded every decent player they had — which, by the way, wasn’t much — and, lo and behold, they look like the 1929 Yankees.

Everyone moaned and groaned that we were throwing the season away, but at least early on it looks like they are ready to play. And, there could actually be a Mookie on the roster, as I don’t know but about three players on the team now. My guess is if you want to see them, you better go now ‘cause later in the year it may get ugly.

Usually this time of year turns my attention to baseball, but news today that Percy Sledge died has changed all that. I saw Percy Sledge play in a little night club in Macon back in 1988. He was dressed in a solid white suit and I thought he was about a hundred years old. Turns out he was only 46, but anybody over 30 back then was one step away from dead to me.

He sang all his old hits, including “When A man Loves A Woman.” I don’t know who she was, but you better believe that at some time in his life Percy loved some woman.

When I heard him sing “When A Man Loves A Woman,” I was single and I didn’t even have a woman that liked me as a friend. By time he got through, I was ready to marry the female bartender and she not only outweighed me, but shaved more regularly than me, too. Percy was singing about turning his back on his best friend and sleeping out in the rain. It was all I could do to keep from crying by the time he got through.

I read his biography and turns out the song was written about a girl that broke poor Percy’s heart. By the way he sang the song, I’d say it probably never really healed. He was singing brokenhearted soul like George Jones sang brokenhearted country in “He stopped Loving Her Today.”

There should be a federal law that you cannot listen to either of those songs within 100 yards of a loaded gun. Add a bar, a liberal sprinkling of beer, and you’ve got, at the very least, a barroom fight and a stalking charge just waiting to happen.

I understand Percy was singing right on up to the end. I hope the angels have a new singer in heaven and maybe, just maybe, he’ll find that woman he loved.

Who knows? She might be up there talking to ol’ George.

Email columnist T. Gamble at [email protected].