Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Cleaning out the inbox:Passings

The fall is always the busiest time of the year at TRS.
When you have two football teams, the occasional basketball, and hockey posts, and the everyday writings, things almost get into a rhythm.
Friday is the PPM, Saturday morning is boxing challenge if needed, Saturday night/Sunday has Ohio State's recap, Sunday night/Monday leads with the Browns and somewhere in there, I'll do the boxing recap.
SO... that leaves Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for things like cleaning out the inbox or any other news or items that I feel like writing about and we'll clean things out a bit with a few passings of late.

Goodbye to Bill Daily at the age of 91.
Daily was the featured member of the supporting cast of one of my favorite comedies-"I Dream of Jeannie" in the '60s as well as a regular cast member of the "Bob Newhart Show" in the '70s and a recurring actor on an 80's silly favorite on the program "ALF".
Daily's "Roger Healey" added so much to the zaniness of "Jeannie" and played off Larry Hagman so well in the comedy skits with the two of them together, along with playing the playboy girl chaser that seemed to be a part of every episode in some way.
His "Howard Borden" character on the "Bob Newhart Show" was a little different, but there were a few similarities.
Daily had the ability to be part of the scene, be hilarious, yet not dominate the scene to the point of taking the entire segment away from the star and that's not always an easy thing for an actor to do.
Daily also was a regular panelist on the "Match Game" game show but was only given one chance to star in his own show.
"Small and Frye" saw Daily star in a 1980 comedy, but it would last just three months before being canceled.


Goodbye to former Indians skipper Doc Edwards at the age of 81.
Edwards was one of those old-school baseball lifers that had been around and saw almost every minor league town you could think of before finally receiving his shot at the big time in 1987 when the Indians brought him from the bullpen (Literally, he was the bullpen coach) to replace Pat Corrales in mid-season.
The Indians had been surprisingly decent in 1986 with an 84-78 record and over the winter, Sports Illustrated put the Indians on the cover and picked them to win the American League.
This was more than an exaggeration, but the Indians had raised expectations and they responded with a 61-101 record in 1987, pushing Corrales out the door and giving Edwards a chance to take over.
Edwards improved the Indians in 1988 to 78-84. but another step back in 1989 saw Edwards canned late in the season.
Edwards had been a vagabond catcher in the 1960s in his playing career, seeing time with four teams but never played more than 97 games in a season.

Goodbye to Bob Bass at the age of 89.
Bass coached three teams in the ABA (Miami, Memphis, and San Antonio) before moving into the front office for the Spurs and earning two NBA executive of the year awards as the Spurs general manager.
Bass was one of the main sources in Terry Pluto's oral history of the ABA and also would win a third executive of the year award as GM of the first edition of the Charlotte Hornets.

Goodbye to Chris Champion at the age of 57.
Champion was a professional wrestler best known for his late 80's tag team "The New Breed" with partner Sean Royal before injuries and Royal leaving the business essentially ended Champion's career as a possible star.
Champion and Royal were just entering a program as turned "babyfaces" against Jim Cornette's Midnight Express when the pair were in a bad car accident that took much of the steam out of the pair and the Midnights moved on to grapple with another team.
Champion also would team with his brother Mark Starr as "Wildside" in the Memphis territory and independents before using the name "Yoshi Kwan" for a short run in WCW before injury struck again and sent him from the big time for the last time.

We wrap up with a goodbye to "Graubauer's Boker", who played the dog "Bear" on "Person of Interest" for the final few years of the show.
Bear was used as the bodyguard for Michael Emerson's "Finch", but I always loved the scene that introduced him to the show.


I'll try to be back later with more inbox cleaning if I can.

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