Jim Traber Reflects on Legendary Brawl in Japan

[Aristotelian]

Jim Traber is pretty much exactly like you would expect Jim Traber to be.

https://www.news9.com/clip/14926553/jim-traber-tells-story-of-infamous-japanese-baseball-brawl

[Ridgway22]

1 hour ago, Aristotelian said:

Jim Traber is pretty much exactly like you would expect Jim Traber to be.

https://www.news9.com/clip/14926553/jim-traber-tells-story-of-infamous-japanese-baseball-brawl

Awesome! Nice find. That was great.

[LA2]

2 hours ago, Aristotelian said:

Jim Traber is pretty much exactly like you would expect Jim Traber to be.

https://www.news9.com/clip/14926553/jim-traber-tells-story-of-infamous-japanese-baseball-brawl

I had no preconception of Traber, but after seeing that video, I surmise the other Japanese teams must have thought he was a pig.

[Jagwar]

I had no idea Traber could run that fast for that long. 

[Redskins Rick]

10 hours ago, Aristotelian said:

Jim Traber is pretty much exactly like you would expect Jim Traber to be.

https://www.news9.com/clip/14926553/jim-traber-tells-story-of-infamous-japanese-baseball-brawl

Super great story, awesome find.

 

[Aristotelian]

13 hours ago, Ridgway22 said:

Awesome! Nice find. That was great.

The things you come across on Nippon League subreddit... https://www.reddit.com/r/NPB/comments/dg6vtb/former_kintetsu_buffaloes_player_jim_traber_tells/

[Aristotelian]

5 hours ago, Redskins Rick said:

Super great story, awesome find.

 

Woah, never heard of the shaving cream thing. Is that for real?

[Tx Oriole]

2 hours ago, Aristotelian said:

Woah, never heard of the shaving cream thing. Is that for real?

I hadn’t either.

[Tx Oriole]

1 minute ago, Tx Oriole said:

I hadn’t either.

My grandfather told me to use neatsfoot oil. 

[Tony-OH]

Cool video. Thanks for sharing!

[cheecks]

Man Traber is great. I can listen to him all night. He should be on tv more.

[ChrisP]

7 hours ago, cheecks said:

Man Traber is great. I can listen to him all night. He should be on tv more.

He's on the radio daily (PM) here in OKC and the folks love him. They'll also have Kelly Gregg on sometimes. 

[Frobby]

I got curious why he was being interviewed about this now on Oklahoma TV.    Turns out that he went to Oklahoma State and is now a radio personality in Oklahoma City.   

[Moose Milligan]

I have a new favorite ex Oriole.

[TonySoprano]

Traber had serious medical problems this past May.  A benign brain tumor caused seizures which required surgery

Quote

“I don’t know what’s really happening,” a friend reported, “but Jim’s either had a stroke or a heart attack. They’re saying he’s unresponsive.”

Julie remembers her reaction: “This can’t be happening.”

She wound up making the 140-mile trip after all.

“I was told that (an ambulance) was 45 minutes away,” Julie said. “I thought, ‘If he’s had a stroke or a heart attack, he’s not going to make it.’ I was pretty emotional. I asked a friend in Norman to meet me and drive me to WinStar.”

About an hour later, there was another call.

“This probably was a seizure,” Julie was told.

“At least, she knew I wasn’t dead,” Traber said last week. “A lot of other people got text messages saying that I had died.”

Traber was transported to an Ardmore hospital. A brain scan revealed an extreme irregularity.

The plan was for a helicopter to take Traber to Oklahoma City, but the state was rocked by violent weather during the evening of May 25. The sky was too unstable for helicopter flight, so it was 4 a.m. before Traber was checked into Mercy Hospital in OKC.

For a few hours, Julie says, the Trabers feared that Jim had been stricken by a cancer that had invaded his brain.

“Jim was unbelievably calm,” Julie recalled.

“I was on some good drugs,” Jim explained. “It was as a surreal deal. That night, everything changed.”

That night, a specialist determined that Jim’s issue was a meningioma brain tumor. A benign tumor.

“(The specialist) told us, ‘This is the best-case scenario. It’s in the perfect location,’ ” Julie said. “I’m crying and hugging the doctor, and Jim wakes up and asks, ‘What’s going on?’ I told him, ‘You’re going to have brain surgery, but you’re not going to die.’ ”

Traber’s reaction: “You’re fired up because I’ve got to have brain surgery?”

Within a few seconds, he again was sleeping.

There was a delicate surgery on May 29, but the Trabers got the best possible result. Jim would live.

https://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/bill-haisten-incredibly-blessed-jim-traber-is-back-to-his/article_6d756dfd-632b-53b8-b359-6ac00bc36ecc.html