Hit Man

My ol' buddy who lives in Montana -- but sure knows his American League history -- swears to me that Earl Weaver was known to give post-game locker-room interviews while buck naked and smoking a cigarette. True?

Am new to this site, so apologize if this has been asked and answered many times previously. How well did Andy Etchebarren speak Euskara? And, in a related vein, was he known to harbor animus toward the Franco regime?

I confess to needing additional telemedicine. My eyes are ok. The sting they felt upon seeing the name "Brabender" has abated. But the rest of my morning since then has, unfortunately, found me distracted by a swelling in my tongue and tinnitis in my inner ear. That arises, I suspect, from the last few hours' almost ceaseless repetition of that name, in a so far futile effort to understand how it was pronounced. It looks to me like a Dutch name, which makes me want to think the accent is on the first syllable. BRA - ben - der. But is it BRAW - ben - der, sounding like a nickname for somebody who works in a ladies' lingerie shop ... or for a dame with a really big rack? Or is it BRA - ben - der rhymes with lavender? Or maybe the accent is on the second syllable... Bra - BEN - der rhymes with Sg. Mel PEN - der? Or, hell, maybe he was of French extraction and wanted to be called Eugène Brabender? I need to find a philologist. Fast. Somebody who either knows or can reconstruct the pronunciation of "Brabender" based on proto-Indo-European glottology. Of, it not, need to send some contact tracers out among wizened MLB fandom. Maybe somebody there remembers hearing the name spoken, on radio or TV, back in the day.

I confess to needing some telemedicine. I was rather shaken up, shall we say, this morning. It happened when somebody happened to send me an e-mail containing a 1966 Orioles rookie card featuring Frank Bertaina, Davey Johnson and Gene Brabender. My eyes are ok. The sting they felt upon seeing the name "Brabender" has abated. But the rest of my day since then has, unfortunately, found me distracted by a swelling in my tongue and tinnitis in my inner ear. That arises, I suspect, from hours of almost ceaseless repetition of that name, in a so far futile effort to understand how it was pronounced. It looks to me like a Dutch name, which makes me want to believe the accent was on the first syllable. BRA - ben - der. But is it BRAW - ben - der, sounding like a nickname for somebody who works in a ladies' lingerie shop ... or for a dame with a really big rack? Or is it BRA - ben - der rhymes with lavender? Or maybe the accent is on the second syllable... Bra - BEN - der rhymes with Sgt. Mel Pender? Or, hell, maybe he was of French extraction and wanted to be called Eugène Brabender? Can anybody in this forum help me? Maybe somebody remembers hearing Brabender's name spoken aloud, on radio or on TV, back in the day. If not, I am going to have to find a telephilologist. Fast. Somebody who can reconstruct the pronunciation of "Brabender" based on proto-Indo-European glottology.