3 strikes and you're out LOL :)

Well, I contacted Bob Moose's widow Alberta Moose Fox and she never wrote back (she ended up marrying Bob's best friend Tom Fox and, from all accounts, is a super nice lady [and has put up quite a few items from the Bob Moose estate on Ebay this year!]). I contacted Bob's only child, daughter April Moose Lasta via Facebook, and she never got back to me (she was 5 when Bob died). Finally, I also contacted April's husband Russ Lasta (who, obviously, never met Bob) via Facebook and, likewise, he never got back to me (incidentally, earlier this year, Bob's grandson was born, almost 36 years after his passing). For what it's worth, I had previously contacted Bob's parents, Bob Sr and Molly, back in 1997 and received no response, as well (Bob's father passed away in 2009 [they both had contributed to a wonderful 2007 local newspaper article about Bob, also on this blog, entitled "Memories of Moose"]). I think it might be a protective stance due to the nature of Bob's passing (an auto accident on his 29th birthday with two women in the vehicle who weren't relatives [they survived- see footnote]), but this is just pure speculation on my part. Perhaps this is why Bob's two close friends on the Pirates squad, Al Oliver and Jim Rooker*, never got back to me, while Steve Blass and Kent Tekulve, who did get back to me, avoided all Moose questions (Jerry Reuss was vague, saying he didn't really know him that well, while Dave Giusti was very brief and, incredibly, denied he was at Mazeroski's golf outing/ party waiting for Bob, when there is no question he did via countless newpaper articles of the accident; strange). Years ago (1997), the now-deceased Nellie Briles, reporter Bob Smizik, and fellow reporter Charley Feeney all DID answer my questions about Moose, but they are obviously the exception to the rule.



Ultimately, this is their perogative: I am, after all, a total stranger. That said, I wish them nothing but the best...and, hey- it was worth a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. :O)


* I do not mean this in a derogatory or defamatory way whatsoever (I am, after all, a huge fan, yet ALL human beings have flaws and alleged flaws, myself included); in fact, I hesitate to write this, as I had previously deleted a portion of a blog containing this information given to me second-hand, but Rooker and Moose both had reps as being ladies men, if you know what I mean. My dad made much of the "details" of the accident when I was little, as did local reporter Jim O'Brien and a blogger, while my mom said she waited on Bob and Jim at the old Anthony House and said they had an eye for the ladies. Finally, an old co-worker told me he used to see Bob down at the McDonald's in Penn Hills (or Monroeville) and he was with some blonde (however, Bob's wife was blonde, so this could be a non-issue LOL). Perhaps these "details" do indeed contribute to a veil of silence; who knows