Cleaning out the inbox: Baseball Passings

The inbox will hopefully be passings free for a while after this update.
I always feel a little uneasy when I do too many of these because even though I'm giving a tribute to a person, I don't want to be macabre' about these.
I look at these as a way of remembering a person to someone that may know the person I'm writing about and also a way of introducing them to a reader that may never have heard of them previously.

Goodbye to Al Kaline at the age of 85.
"Mr. Tiger" spent his entire 22-year career with the Tigers, making 18 All-Star teams, winning 10 Gold Gloves, and finished with 3,007 hits with 399 homers to earn induction into the Hall of Fame in 1980.
Known as one of the most gracious persons around baseball, Kaline won his only batting title in 1955 at the age of 20 in hitting .340.
Kaline finished his career with more walks than strikeouts and his arm was known as one of the American League from rightfield.
Kaline was the color analyst for the Tigers local television after his retirement following the 1974 season until 2002 and would serve as a consultant to the Tigers front office until his passing.
Tigers fans around the nation took the loss of the classy Kaline very hard and I think the reaction toward Kaline from those fans is very similar to how Orioles fans feel towards Brooks Robinson.
They certainly don't make them like that often anymore and when they do, the supply is very light.


Goodbye to Damaso Garcia at the age of 63.
Garcia started his sports career as a soccer player in college and captained the Dominican Republic team in the 1974 Central American games.
Garcia moved through the minors in the Yankees system but was traded to Toronto in a six-player trade in 1980.
Garcia would make two All-Star teams in 1984 and 85, hit over .300 in 1983 and 84 for the Blue Jays and in his final five seasons in Toronto, Garcia would not hit lower than .281.
Garcia also stole 54 bases in 1982 as part of his 194 steals with the Blue Jays and was traded to Atlanta after the 1986 season, but would only play 21 games for the Braves and following an eighty game 1989 season with Montreal, Garcia would not play in the big leagues again.
In 1990, Garcia was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was given six months to live, but after having it removed in 1991, Garcia would regain some functions although he wouldn't be allowed to drive a car and did have some speech difficulty for the rest of his life.


Goodbye to Jim Frey at the age of 88.
I remember Frey as part of Earl Weaver's powerhouse coaching staff in the 1970s that included fellow future big league managers George Bamberger and Billy Hunter before taking the difficult position of replacing Whitey Herzog as manager of the Kansas City Royals for the 1980 season.
In the only season that Frey completed in Kansas City, Frey would lead the Royals to their first World Series before losing to Philadelphia in six games.
Frey was fired in the second half of the strike season of 1981 despite the Royals leading the second half at the time of his firing.
Frey would next be given a shot at managing with the Cubs in 1984 and promptly took Chicago to the playoffs for the first time with an Eastern Division championship.
Frey's Cubs won the first two games at home at Wrigley Field against the San Diego Padres in the best of five NLCS, but would then drop the final three games in San Diego's Jack Murphy Stadium to lose the series.
Frey was fired as manager in 1986 and served as a color commentator in 1987 for Cubs games before being hired as the general manager in the winter leading to the 1988 season.
Frey made several trades that didn't work out, including trades that sent Lee Smith to Boston and Rafael Palmiero to Texas, but during his tenure as GM, Chicago won the 1989 Eastern Division before losing to San Francisco in four games in the NLCS.
Frey was fired in the middle of the 1991 season by Chicago and would never be more than a consultant in the game again.

Goodbye to Bobby Winkles at the age of 90.
Winkles built the Arizona State baseball program in 1959 and would coach the Sun Devils through the 1971 season winning 524 games, losing only 173 and coaching several future big leaguers including Reggie Jackson.
Winkles left Arizona State to join the California Angels coaching staff as a coach under Del Rice and would manage the Angels for 1973 and part of 1974 when Winkles was fired in June.
Winkles would later manage Oakland for portions of the 1977 and 1978 seasons. coach for the White Sox,  lead the player development department for the Expos and serve as English color analyst on the Expo radio network.

Cleaning out the inbox: More Passings

We continue with tributes to those that have recently passed with one that was surprisingly around our house for years with his work and voice.

Goodbye to Howard Finkel at the age of 69.
"THIS NEXT Match is for the WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION CHAMPIONSHIP"!
The booming voice that represented the -then WWF looked like the man that would be in charge of your utility bill, but for the everyday looks of the smallish and balding Howard Finkel, the voice of Finkel was as memorable to so many of the fans of the promotion as the grapplers in the ring.
Finkel certainly deserves the title of the best ring announcer in the history of wrestling and even ranks with the best to hold the mike in boxing as well.
Finkel was able to exude such drama and anticipation in his introduction and as he would name the winner of a battle that throughout the average card, a dramatic announcement by Finkel could often be the best-remembered portion of an evening.
Finkel was hired as the first-ever employee of the then-WWWF in 1975 and would take command of the lowering mike from the ceiling of Madison Square Garden in 1977.
Since almost all the title changes occurred in New York City, it was the voice of Howard Finkel that would be heard with the announcement of the new champion, when the title change would be televised on delay on the WWF's syndicated weekly programming.
Finkel began to announce almost all the WWF television programs in 1984 and kept that pace until 2000 when his schedule was divided among others.
By 2006, Finkel only made occasional appearances on special occasions, although he was employed by the company until his passing.

Howard Finkel's announcements were often standard through the years as his introductions were often copied at our house through the years.
Some of my best memories with Ryan when he was little, were shouting out "THIS NEXT MATCH, etc" and waiting a few seconds for this little fellow to come running out of his room or the living room to "attack" the bad guy with punches and moves that would send me bouncing around, bumping off beds, couches, and everything that I needed to make him have a good time.
I was not only younger then, but smaller too, so I was able to keep things moving pretty well against my "opponent", who almost always won in the end unless the dastardly bad guy hooked his foot on the couch for "leverage" for a temporary win.
I always smile thinking about those times with Ryan, which included one time that saw our hero wind up and knock the villain into the air and land on a bed- which promptly broke the endboard and resulted in the wrestlers coming together to get the bed out of the apartment before the "commissioner" got home for trouble that went beyond grappling!


Goodbye to Brian Dennehy at the age of 81.
Dennehy was known for playing tough guys in films and television and while the role that I've seen many remember him for was as Chris Farley's father in "Tommy Boy", I'll always remember his work as the first man to screw with "John Rambo" in "First Blood", which was the first and best film in the Rambo series.
Dennehy brought depth to "Sheriff Will Teasle" as the small-town Oregon lawman who decided to mess with what he thought was just another drifter and discovered that he was far over his head.
Still, you could feel Teasle's belief that he was only protecting his town from troublemakers crossing through in the early stages of the film and the anger-filled revenge hunt for Rambo after the accident that killed a deputy.
You could feel the rage in his voice as he grabbed a young David Caruso as another deputy and screamed "That's Art Galt, boy, we were friends when your momma was still wiping your nose!
Now he's dead and I'm going to pin that Medal of Honor to his (Rambo's) liver!"
And the relief when Rambo could have killed him and didn't or his arrogance when he believed Rambo had been blown up in a mine and the eventual acceptance that he was helpless against the dynamo that was destroying his town and was coming for him.
Brilliant and even though the stars of the film were Sylvester Stallone and Richard Crenna (In the European release of First Blood, it was Crenna with top billing), in my opinion, it's Brian Dennehy who stole the film.
Sports fans might remember Dennehy's attempt at portraying Bob Knight in the first of the few ESPN attempts to make sports movies.
Knight has to be a hard person to get right and Dennehy didn't quite get it, although he came closer than Tom Berenger did in his attempt to be Bear Bryant.


Goodbye to Doug Sanders at the age of 86.
The "Peacock of the Fairways", Sanders won twenty events on the PGA Tour but never won a major despite finishing in second place in four major tournaments.
Sanders is most remembered for his 1970 British Open loss to Jack Nicklaus, where he led entering the final hole but took four shots from inside 80 feet to finish the hole including a three-foot miss that would have clinched the win.
Nicklaus would defeat Sanders by one stroke in the following day's eighteen-hole playoff.
Sanders also is remembered fondly for his loud clothing on the course and Sanders made the claim that the lead character in the Dan Jenkins book Dead Solid Perfect is based on him.
HBO made a film based on the book with Randy Quaid in the lead role (Sanders) in 1988, which is hard to find currently and ranks with the best and better-known golf films.


Goodbye to Tom Webster at the age of 71.
Webster coached the Kings and Rangers in the 80s and 90s and was one of the better players in the World Hockey Association's history.
Webster played six years for the then New England Whalers and scored 220 goals for the green and white but would play only one game in the NHL after the merger for Detroit.

Cleaning out the inbox: Football Passings

During a crisis of health as we are going through now as a country, there will be more passings than usual and unfortunately, there have been enough from the football world only to carry their own post.

Goodbye to Timmy Brown at the age of 82.
The original Tim Brown was likely the best Eagle of the 1960s as Brown was not only the Eagles' best running back of the era, he also ranked with the best kick returners in the game.
Brown was the first player in NFL history to return two kickoffs for touchdowns in the same game for the Eagles in a 1966 upset of the Dallas Cowboys and made Pro Bowls in 1962, 1963, and 1965 for Philadelphia as a running back.
Brown was drafted by the Packers in 1959 but was released after one game.
Imagine the dimension that Brown could have brought to the Lombardi Packers!
After Brown finished his career in 1968 for the NFL champion Baltimore Colts, Brown moved into acting and was one of two actors in the movie and series based on M*A*S*H.
Brown played two different roles in the film and series but was released from the series from his role as "Spearchucker Jones" after one season when the decision-makers realized that in the actual Korean War there weren't any African-American doctors that served in the military.


Goodbye to Pete Retzlaff at the age of 88.
The Eagles top runner of the decade of the 60s was Timmy Brown, but their best pass-catching threat may have been Pete Retzlaff, although Tommy McDonald may have had something to say about that honor.
Retzlaff started his career at wide receiver in 1956 for Philadelphia before moving to tight end in 1963 for the final four years of his career, which were all spent with the Eagles.
Retzlaff, like Timmy Brown, played for the 1960 World Champion Eagles, which was the only team to defeat a Vince Lombardi squad in a championship game.
Retzlaff made five Pro Bowls, three of those in his four seasons as a tight end and Retzlaff's 1965 season is a season that would stack well today in the passing age, so imagine these numbers in 1965-  66 catches, 1,190 yards, and ten touchdowns.
Very strong numbers for an Eagles team that finished 5-9 in 1965.
Retzlaff retired after the 1966 season, but was back in 1969 as the general manager, but was a failure as GM as Philadelphia finished 4-9-1, 3-10-1, 6-7-1 and 2-11-1 with some of the worst teams in franchise history to go with using first-round draft picks on Leroy Keyes, Steve Zabel, Richard Harris, and John Reaves.
Keyes suffered a career-altering knee injury that likely cost him a good NFL career and Reaves was a solid USFL passer, but not an NFL starter and Zabel and Harris may have been slightly better picks than Steve Sabol of NFL Films fame and the actor that sung "Macarthur Park".

Goodbye to Willie Davis at the age of 85.
Davis spent two seasons with the Browns before Cleveland traded him to the Packers in 1960.
Davis would slot in as the best pass rusher of the Lombardi era in Green Bay, playing on all five world champions under Lombardi and making five Pro Bowls during his career.
Davis was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1981 and is one of those pass rushers that may still be holding records had the NFL kept statistics for sacks in his playing era.
Davis was very successful in business following his retirement in owning several radio stations and sitting on the board of directors for some very large corporations.
Davis is the father of actor Duane Davis, who seemed to show up in every sports movie of the late 80s and throughout the 90s and his grandson is Ohio State All-American guard Wyatt Davis, who could be a first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.


Goodbye to Bobby Mitchell at the age of 84.
Mitchell spent his first four seasons in Cleveland (Boy, the Browns fared really well in this post) as the halfback in the Browns backfield with Jim Brown.
When the Browns and their new owner Art Modell decided that they had to have 1961 Heisman winner Ernie Davis, who would tragically pass away and never play in a professional game, the price for Davis was Mitchell, who broke the color line for the Washington Redskins.
Washington would move Mitchell to flanker and Mitchell would go well over one thousand yards in his first two seasons.
Mitchell would not finish with fewer than 866 receiving yards or less than 58 receptions until his final season in 1967.
Mitchell made three Pro Bowls and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983.
Mitchell was well-known to fans that never saw him play as he was a regular panelist for years on the various local Redskin-related programs.


Goodbye to Tom Dempsey at the age of 73.
Dempsey is most remembered for his 63-yard field goal in 1970 that set an NFL record for the longest field goal that gave the New Orleans Saints an upset win at the gun over the Detroit Lions.
The Dempsey record was tied a few times before being broken by one yard by Matt Prater in 2013 in Denver, where the altitude could have assisted the kick.
Dempsey's record for the longest field goal for non-altitude remains with David Akers and Graham Gano making their 63 yarders outside of Denver.
Dempsey was born without any toes on his kicking foot (right) or any fingers on his right hand and his kicking shoe looked more like a stubbed brick than a traditional kicking shoe.
Dempsey was a straight-on kicker, which was slowly going away in favor of the soccer-style kickers and suffered from accuracy issues.
Dempsey made one Pro Bowl, which was for the Saints as a rookie in 1969, and while most remember Dempsey as a Saint, I've always thought him as a member of his next two teams in the Eagles and Rams (Dempsey would also kick for the Oilers and Bills).
I remember Dempsey's reaction as an Eagle after missing a short field goal that would have beaten Buffalo in 1973 on an NFL Game of the Week and I'll remember his kick in the 1976 NFC championship that was blocked by Nate Allen and taken the distance by Bobby Bryant for a Viking touchdown that swung momentum toward Minnesota in a 24-13 win.


Goodbye to Tavaris Jackson at the age of 36.
Jackson played for the Vikings, had two stints with the Seahawks, and the Bills before his retirement after the 2015 season following the Seahawks loss in the Super Bowl to New England.
Jackson was Minnesota's second-rounder in 2006 and started twenty games for the Vikings from 2006-2010, twelve of those coming as the starter in 2007.
Jackson signed as the starter for the Seahawks in 2011, but Jackson threw only 14 touchdowns with 13 interceptions and was replaced for the following year by rookie Russell Wilson.
Jackson was on the Bills roster in 2012 but did not appear in any games before returning to Seattle as Wilson's backup for the final three seasons of his career.
Upon his passing, Jackson was the quarterbacks' coach at 1-AA Tennessee State.

Browns new uniforms-Correcting the mistake

Photo: Cleveland Browns

 The nightmare of awful uniforms is   over for fans of the Cleveland 
 Browns, who might have finally gotten something right under the stewardship of Jimmy and Dee  Haslam.

The return to the traditional uniforms seems to be mostly welcomed by Browns fans, other than a few that have said "they are the same as before", which is the point of the whole thing.

The Cleveland Browns are a franchise built on tradition and even though almost all that tradition was earned by the stolen team that resides in Baltimore and their claim to these Browns are only notations in the team media guide, it's still cheered on by a fanbase that wants its team to look similar to those champions and perennial playoff teams from the past.

Almost all of the most popular teams are usually winning teams, but most of those teams have uniforms and helmets that are similar to the ones they used 50 and 60 years ago.
Teams such as Green Bay, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Oakland sell lots of merchandise and they don't look very different than they did then, yet they still sell plenty.
Every year, teams think they know what the fans will like more than the fans themselves and give them some of the worst looking uniforms you could imagine and many times those "fresh and new" uniforms last the required five years and get thrown away in favor of classic styles.

Many times, new owners want to put their "stamp" on teams and shove something down the fan's throats that they don't want with the stamp only reminding fans of the ownership's disastrous idea.
The classic look (or close to it) is what is usually wanted and the Browns did an excellent job in returning to the traditional togs.
Buffalo has beautiful uniforms after returning to their classic blue from a two-tone navy blue jersey and the Browns have followed.
There are several teams that I'd like to see a return to an older version with the Broncos, Cardinals, and Eagles at the top of the list, but for now, it's good to see the Browns off that list!

They aren't perfect though as I'd still like to see orange pants used with the brown jersey at least and the minor changes to the "color rush" uniforms aren't quite as nice as the previous version, but they aren't enough to get angry about considering the upgrade with the home and road uniforms.
They could use a little more orange as I mentioned, but I don't like the idea of the early 2000s orange jerseys making a return.

All things considered, I'm very happy with the uniforms and for all the decisions that the Haslams have screwed up since buying the Browns, I think they read the tea leaves correctly this time and made the right decision to correct their previous mistake.
Dee Haslam claimed during the process that they had a grasp on what the fans wanted this time (which raises the question of why did they make the change the first time without knowing what they wanted.)  and that the team was listening.
Now hopefully with their historic uniforms back in place, the Browns can work on returning to the winning tradition that those uniforms have stood for.

Catching the bug.

Finally, a few weeks into quarantine the sports bug is back as far as watching goes with a few events from the past.

Between DVD's and YouTube, there are tons of great events available to watch, it was just a matter of wanting to watch.

I completed the 1986 Masters today with Jack Nicklaus coming from off the pace for the surprise victory at 46 and I'm currently watching the opening game of the USFL as the Chicago Blitz travel to Washington for the return of George Allen to town against the Federals.
Later tonight could be some basketball or maybe even boxing as I'm going to rewatch what may be the best fight that I have ever watched and that could be my next post.

It's funny about classic sports when you rewatch them- it's not as much about the actual performance of the athletes, but the memories that return of you looking back at the person that watched that particular event.
That's not always the case because in some cases I might not have seen it before or if I did, I may not have remembered where I was watching, but often the fun in watching is the story-telling of viewing the first time.

I've tried to find a mix between events that I have personal memories and ones that perhaps I don't and would be fun to watch on a different level.
I'll be back from the work office tonight with either an inbox cleaning or a tributes edition.

Staying home

I'm not supposed to be here.
I'm not supposed to be at the road office and I'm damn sure not supposed to be bummed out about the state of baseball, the minors to be specific, and our country in general.

I'm supposed to be hanging out with my buddies after a day of baseball in Myrtle Beach and Charleston with three days to go in the official kickoff to the end of the downtime-I.E- Non-Baseball season and instead I'm sitting at work, bored, depressed, and generally discouraged about more than missing a trip.

Reality has set in and it looks to me that we will not have minor league baseball or live in-person baseball at all this season.
While this means more money for other things and less time spent on the road, the loss is the time with my friends and around the game that you can't get back.

And the final irony is this- I'm not sure what things will be like when baseball does come back.
A sport that even before Covid-19 that was in the middle of a campaign to lessen their player's contact with its fans will likely use Covid-19 as an excuse to go even further in moving their stars away.
Covid-19 makes sense for the time being to be very safe, but I have the feeling that things have changed for good with the players.
Place aside the drawn royal flush for Rob Manfred to get away with his planned demolition of the minors and think of this- Imagine a baseball world without players interacting with season ticket holders, autograph collectors, franchises not wanting their players to stay with host families, and players being separated by netting for now (I'm convinced that eventually the netting around the field will be changed to fiberglass similar to hockey) for a different fan experience at whatever level you watch baseball at.

I'm already trying to plan a summer without baseball and it's likely to be a summer without traveling as well.
That's unfortunate because I'd be more than willing to travel without baseball, but unless I'm surprised, it appears to be a local-bound summer.
While I'm struggling with so many things that we all are dealing with right now, I'm finding things to do, still have that metal detector to use, and playing a lot of games, which I'll update later this week.

While I'm disappointed about my summer travels going down the drain, I'm even dismayed about the current state of the political discourse.
I see so many people on the left and the right each thinking that the other controls the country that it's sad to see a lack of common ground.
Left-leaning people that won't vote for Joe Biden because their guy (Bernie Sanders) lost and there is no difference between Biden and the President and the right side of the crowd believing that Biden is no different than Sanders is both ridiculous and a non-starter.
It's saddening to see our country so splintered and unwilling to work together even on the most important topics, although the first stimulus did show some cooperation for a need that even the most fervent partisan couldn't be against.
I'll be very interested in seeing if this can be repeated for the next wave of stimulus packages, which is almost surely going to be repeated in the summer- if not exceeded.

I've been critical of the President and feel that my initial assessment of his character has proven to be correct, but I'm not rooting against him right now as so many are.
I'd much rather see the same folks put their energy into defeating him in a fair election in November rather than root for him to fail currently.
I've never understood the saying "not my President".
Win or lose, the winner is our President for four years and while we don't have to agree with policies, we should hope for the best.

Today's not a great day considering what I'd rather be doing, but there are so many people around that are far worse than me and my family are and it's hard to be too whiny when you think of others.
Here is hoping that that 2021 is much better than 2020 because the standard doesn't seem to be too hard to match.

This was the XFL...

Yet another victim was claimed by Covid-19 as the XFL announced the
suspension of their operations and their lack of plans for 2021.

The XFL didn't do poorly at the gate and even though their television ratings slid from their opening week, I believe that had the perfect scenario not occurred with Covid-19, the league would have returned for the second season and then who knows what could have happened.

I really enjoyed the XFL as I did the AAF and I'm sad to see the XFL go because I still think there is a market for spring football.
However, I'm at a loss on how best to present the product.
Both the XFL and AAF struggled with quarterback play and when the quarterbacks struggle, fans don't always stick with the product.
If you are going to be what is in effect a minor league, the casual fan doesn't seem interested and only wants to compare the league to the NFL.
That's a dumb reason because college football isn't the NFL either and it's plenty popular.

The USFL had some very good quarterback play with two eventual Hall of Famers in Steve Young and Jim Kelly, but that avenue has its problems as well.
Going after star players means you are stepping on the NFL's toes and having to pay to land those players.
Paying big money means even larger losses as you attempt to get the league off the ground and almost every new league professes a business plan and plenty of cash to offset the initial losses.
That lasts until the losses start coming in and that's followed by panic.

The WLAF tried in the spring with NFL backing and it too failed, although there were some successes with a few of the European teams.
The NFL's problem in these matters seems to come down to this- They would like to see a league like the WLAF (or the AAF, who they came close to an agreement with) be available for training and developmental purposes, but the teams are then skittish about potential injuries.
That concern alone would likely see only undrafted free agents allocated to a league and almost certainly not a quarterback with questions about the also developmental status of offensive lines in such a league.

Vince McMahon tried going gimmicky with XFL 1 and more football-based with XFL 2 and neither succeeded, although I'm going speculate that the reasons that the XFL isn't back for a second season are the losses from Covid-related cancellations and the recent huge tumble in WWE stock may have combined to make McMahon hesitant to continue with the venture.

I don't have an answer for what would work for spring football, but I wonder why these investors/owners start leagues/buy franchises if they don't have the stomach for early losses.
Any new venture in sports is going to lose money and lots of it- if you can't afford to lose money for years and one would think that you would know that before even considering getting into sports, why would you throw your money away knowing you are (no pun intended) out of your league.

In the end, it's another failed team to add to the graveyard of teams with the Kentucky Colonels, Cleveland Crusaders, Southern California Sun, Chicago Blitz, Arizona Wranglers, Memphis Showboats, San Francisco Demons, Arizona Hotshots and now the D.C. Defenders.
R.I.P.