"Brian Cashman holding on line 1..."

Don't laugh. They've called up everybody else. If your kid's in little league, keep your phone on.

There's no reason to believe the yankees will bounce back from their horrible April -- other than the fact that they always do. The season isn't over, and of course they've won the last 800 or so division titles. That being said, it was interesting listening to excerpts from Joe Torre's post-game interview today, during which he used every cliche known to man (recreated to the best of my memory).

"It's a 162-game season..."

"It's still early -- it's a marathon, not a spring..."

"I don't question the effort of my players..."

"It's all about momentum..."

"Everyone has to deal with injuries..."

etc. etc. etc.

The Future That Never Was

Here's an interesting blog brought to my attention by Jonah Goldberg:

paleo-future.blogspot.com

Of particular interest to those of us who grew up in the 1970's when talk of "The Year 2000" was rampant.

Thorne in the Flesh

You really have to be kidding me on this one.

Gary Thorne's biography is here -- I always thought he had a good voice and was a pretty good broadcaster. Although he's never worked for the Red Sox, he is a native of Maine and graduated from the University of Maine with a law degree. Although he'd been in broadcasting for several years, I first heard of him in 1990 when he was part of the broadcast team during ESPN's inaugural season of Major League Baseball. He called ESPN's final game of that season -- which happened to be the game in which the Red Sox clinched the AL East title on a miraculous catch by Tom Brunansky. I always felt that Thorne botched this call -- and ESPN botched the coverage -- but that's another story.

Thorne also called Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals on 6/14/94 when the NY Rangers won their first Cup in 54 years.

All this to say that I can't believe he would say something this stupid and uninformed. Curt Schilling has his take here. I guess he doesn't like the media anymore...

The Best and the Brightest

That may be overstatement, but David Halberstam was clearly one of the best historical writers I've ever come across. I read and enjoyed The Education of a Coach (scroll down) just before football season last year and, reviewing his bibliography, read about 5 or 6 of his books in total.

Bob Ryan has a tribute here. As does the NY Times. RIP.

Imus B. Goewin

For several years Don Imus was on a local station and, if I timed it right, I was able to catch his 7:30 am interview with a notable person (politician, journalist, etc.) on my way to work in the morning.

The rest of the show occasionally had some humorous bits, which were often re-played. I was never overly impressed with Imus' ability as a host (sensing he was propped up by his broadcast partners and production team), but he certainly never took himself too seriously, and he was certainly an "equal opportunity offender." He once described his show as "Hate Radio" -- because everyone on the show hated everyone else.

As for the photograph -- I captured this at Kings Dominion last week outside the Scooby Doo & the Haunted Mansion ride. It was amongst several phony tombstones with fake names, but I couldn't resist taking a picture, particularly given the timing.

The Other Wizard

In another ironic twist, Johnny Hart's partner Brant Parker died on April 15, 2007. Parker and Hart co-created The Wizard of Id in 1964. Brant's son Jeff Parker took over the Wizard in 1997. A full obituary is here.

Off the top of my head, I believe this leaves Mort Walker as the senior American cartoonist, but I haven't researched this. His official website is here.

Salad Days friend JB sent this link of one cartoonist's tribute to Johnny Hart.

Not too long ago, I read one commentator's observation (no source available) that cartoonists like Hart, Parker and The Greatest Of All Time were worthy of the title of "genius" not because of the complexity of their work, but because of its simplicity -- noting that the simple, unadorned strip required much more creativity than the over-elaborate cartoons that populate the funny papers today. An interest point. And of course, in all three cases, you have the simple matter of longevity. As The Greatest Of All Time said at the end of his career, "We have beaten every one of them."

BC and the Wizard

The great Johnny Hart has died. I was never a huge BC fan, but I thought the Wizard of Id was pretty clever. However, I always admired him for having no fear about running an Easter-oriented strip around that time of year. Ironically, not unlike The Greatest of All Time, Johnny died the day before (what would be) his final such strip appeared.

Coach Rob

Eddie Robinson died last week -- legendary coach at Grambling State University. He was portrayed by Harry Belafonte in the otherwise forgettable Grambling's White Tiger. My favorite memory of Coach Rob, however, was his appearance for the coin toss at Super Bowl XXXII (the John Elway game), shortly after he retired, for which he wore a PEANUTS football tie showing Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown.

The attached picture shows him wearing the same tie, while coaching one of his final games (if not the last) at Grambling in November 1997.

84

Darryl Stingley has died. He was the Patriots receiver paralyzed in a 1978 preseason game on a hit by Jack "They Call Me Assassin" Tatum of the Raiders.

About 15 years ago I read his autobiography, Happy to be Alive, which is hard to find but definitely worth picking up.

Bob Ryan has a nice obituary in the Boston Globe. Bob Kraft's comments (video link on the same page) are worth hearing.

He played before I was watching NFL games with any interest, but for whatever reason, my high school had a copy of a 1978 NFL Preseason Guide, which picked the Pats -- led by "Stevie Wonder" Grogan and Darryl "The Peril" Stingley to go to the SuperBowl against the Dallas Cowboys. I wish I'd smuggled that out under my graduation robe.

Oddly enough, he's not in the Patriots Hall of Fame, but I do recall them honoring him at the old Sullivan / Foxboro Stadium before a Monday Night Football Game. "Ladies and Gentlemen, please rise for a very special player introduction . . . . number 84 . . . . Darryl Stingley!"

A class act who never displayed a shred of hatred for a promising career so unfairly cut short. Rest in peace, number 84.