Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Jon's other site:
Screen Jam
TV and more ...
1) using profanity or any euphemisms for profanity
2) personally attacking other commenters
3) baiting other commenters
4) arguing for the sake of arguing
5) discussing politics
6) using hyperbole when something less will suffice
7) using sarcasm in a way that can be misinterpreted negatively
8) making the same point over and over again
9) typing "no-hitter" or "perfect game" to describe either in progress
10) being annoyed by the existence of this list
11) commenting under the obvious influence
12) claiming your opinion isn't allowed when it's just being disagreed with
First Jack Snow, now Ron Jessie.
With Harold Jackson, before baseball took center stage for me, these were the wide receivers I was weaned on. An era where the Rams had gold on the helmets, but my older brother's play helmet still had white.
When I had my T-shirt that said, "McCutcheon: Lawrence of Los Angeles," and a blue and gold letterman's style-jacket not much bigger than a dishtowel.
When the Rams played in Los Angeles, California and won division titles but no Super Bowls. A rise and fall, every year.
* * *
Shav Glick once told me he liked an article I wrote, which surprised and smiled me. (At first I remembered his words more than the subject of the piece, but now I recall it was about Willy T. Ribbs.) After more than 70 years of sportswriting, Glick is retiring today, and he went out on a high note.
It seems to be that as one grows older, it's easier to recall events of youth than of last week. Perhaps that's why what I consider the most significant event in my career occurred when I was only 17.
It happened March 13, 1938, on a baseball diamond in Brookside Park, near the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
The Chicago White Sox had their spring training there, and as a fundraiser for the city's baseball school, the American Leaguers played a group of Pasadena youngsters in an exhibition game.
At shortstop for the Pasadena Sox was a skinny black junior college player named Jack Robinson. There was no mention of its social implications then. Robinson had played with and against white athletes all his life. It was only years later that Robinson became the lightning rod for the civil rights movement and black athletes in particular when he became the first of his race in the modern age to play major league baseball.
As a 17-year-old, it was heady stuff to be the official scorer for the game.
The White Sox won, 3-2, in 11 innings, but it was the teenager Robinson who sparkled. He had two of Pasadena's six hits, stole second and handled seven chances without an error at shortstop.
His fielding was spectacular. When American League batting champion Luke Appling bounced a hard grounder labeled base hit toward left field, Robinson cut it off and made a perfect throw to second base to start a double play.
Jimmy Dykes, the crusty old White Sox manager and himself a legendary third baseman, nearly swallowed his cigar. Later, talking with reporters, he said, "If that boy was white, I'd sign him right now. No one in the American League could make plays like that."
After hearing Dykes, I wrote in the Pasadena Junior College school paper, "If a black player ever makes it to the major leagues, that player will probably be Jackie Robinson."
When Joe Montana would throw 5-yard passes to Jerry Rice and John Taylor, with the Rams' defense allowing them to run the remaining 75 yards of the field for touchdowns. Time after time after time.
When my mother died, I found a box of stuff she had stored away in the garage. In it was a 1940 PCC yearbook, where she went to school. Flipping through the pages I saw that the sports editor for the school paper was Shav Glick.
Still hard to understand how the NFL can allow a team with a fifty year legacy to be mismanaged into a position that it can be relocated to a lesser market.
My 1st Ram memory was listening to them lose in the playoffs to the Viking and Joe Kapp when we were leading at 1/2 time 17-7 and Kapp hurdled the strong safety for an incredible run. I had just returned to US and it was the 1st football I'd heard in 3 years.
Same game.
That receiver was Billy Waddy. He had great speed, but he fumbled a lot.
4 I am equally amazed that the NFL allowed the Rams to move and LA to be left without a team.
Lucky to have been able to go that game.
What does this do for clubhouse chemistry? Maybe Danys hasn't had training or counsel on how to bite his tongue or how to deal with the LA media just yet.
If Gagne's full strength this year let poor Danys get his holds then go sign in Pittsburgh!
--------
Danys Baez soon will move across the country after getting traded from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to the Dodgers. He also will move from the ninth inning to the eighth, and to him that is akin to relocating to the moon.
So Baez is resigned to serving as Gagne's setup man, pitching the eighth inning, sometimes going two innings and occasionally working the ninth when Gagne needs a breather.
That doesn't mean he has to like it.
"If you ask me what I want to do, I want to be a closer," Baez said Sunday. "Now I've got to see what kind of situation we have. I'm not too happy about that situation, to be a setup man again when I've been a closer the last couple years."
"I'll pitch one more year, then I'll be a free agent and everyone in both leagues will know I can be a closer," he said.
Man, that Rams team was fun to watch for me. It was so easy to identify the players, to form an attachment. I was at a Shakey's Pizzeria in Santa Monica for a Boy's Club function and I showed up late... but just in time to catch Klein, Bertlesen (spelling errors might be happening). I remember being stunned that I was taller than Harold Jackson (I was six feet tall at thirteen. I grew another inch and a quarter over the next thirty years).
I loved that team. I feel a little guilty that I didn't know about Jack Snow and I'm sorry to hear about Ron Jessie. If the measure of a life is the memories provided to others, they did well by me.
Bradley, Baez... what is it with the letter "B" anyway?
1)For years they complained about bad weather and bad calls in Minnesota; they finally get a home playoff game against the Vikings and a typhoon hits resulting in a loss on a muddy Coliseum field;
2)They finally get a home playoff game against Staubach and the Cowboys, only to get humiliated 37-0;
3) They dump the young Jaworski in order to get the old Namath, Bert Jones, and Bartkowski;
4)They get the greatest RB of his time in Eric Dickerson, and waste it by having Dieter Brock at QB.
I want to thank Jon for allowing me to relive the frustration of my youth, and I hope Fran Tarkenton is miserable wherever he is.
It was always some new problem with the Rams
Some things never change.
And the year the Rams lost to the Vikings at the Coliseum, Tarkenton was injured and Bob Lee was the quarterback.
Tarkenton did run afoul of the SEC in 1999 (and not the conference that Georgia is in), but I don't think he ended up in any serious trouble. He did seem to be a bitter guy when Marino passed him up in career passing yards.
Don't get me started on Dieter Brock. Or phantom-sack Jim Everett either...
I get "That's Incredible" confused with "Real People."
Real People - Sarah Purcell
They could be a suffocating defensive team; they once held an opponent to -7 yards rushing.
Cute. I think they should now go with "The Los Angeles Rams of St. Louis."
Oh for the good ole days!
vr, Xei
The Dodgers da-da-da-da-da-da CHARGE! rallying cry drove me crazy, so I asked my dad what the opposite of charge was, so when the rallying cry came up, I would shout RETREAT! instead of CHARGE! haha!
The first MLB game I went to was in 1983 at Candlestick, Giants vs. Cubs. Atlee Hammaker was on the mound for the Gnats, and the fans would shout "Let's go At-LEE!" I, 9 years old at the time, responded with "Let's go Fat-LEE!"
I thought it was pretty funny until they dumped beer on me.
Later the Rams had a punt blocked and were down 17-0 but they mounted a great comeabck to make it 17-13 but then the terrible Tom Dempsey missed an extra point and the Rams had to go for a TD at the end instead of a FG and wound up losing.
A little into the second quarter my brother and I both thought "I wonder where dad and our mom's boss are?" At half-time my dad shows up and says he and the boss had been arrested for scalping and they just let him out to get us. He made us swear that we would not tell our mother. He stayed for the rest of the game and then we went and bailed the boss out of jail.
I'll bet THAT kind of father-son activity doesn't happen too often.
November 4, 1979.
The Rams beat Seattle and held the Seahawks to -7 yards total offense for the game, which is an NFL record.
On the other side of the equation, the Rams hold the record for total yards in a game with 735 against the NY Yankees in 1951.
Was that a Jim Zorn-led Seattle team?
No one at the major college level has two in a game.
The Seahawks rushed for 23 yards and were sacked 6 times for -55 yards.
The Rams had 29 first downs and Seattle had 1. The Rams ran 95 plays to Seattle's 35.
"It has been tremendous. The work ethic that has been put forth has been just great," said Tracy. "The environment was very loose, which is what I like to see, and yet within the framework of that looseness was a very businesslike approach."
Pittsburgh fans are in for alot of fun...
Who is the only MLB player to record two safeties in an NFL season.
Hint: it's not Jim Thorpe.
Other kids can play, too. If you Google, you're a cheater!;-)
Another hint, at the risk of a dead giveaway: there is a Dodger connection.
OBP is not just for nerds and geeks, it is for needs and geeks willing to pay the licensing fee.
then at the other end of the floor shaq threw a punch at bynum lol loL!
vr, Xei
Also the D-Train and the Fish avoided arbitration by agreeing to a 1 yr deal for $4.35. Why woulnd't Willis go to arb. How can he do worse? Tomko gets $3.6M. O.P. $9.5M. Lowe $9M.
Seems like he'd get at least $ 6M or 7M at arb. Am I missing something?
The record awards for arbitration in a players first eligible year are $5 million per year for Derek Jeter and Eric Gagne.
So, that's some pretty elite company.
That being said, tying arb to service time verses performance doesn't seem to make much sense. Isn't the arbitrator supposed to measure the value of the player to the team, not how long he has been in the league.
I saw some of the exhibits that the Dodgers used in the Gagne case. They were quite persuasive.
too bad bynum will probably now be the carrier of that gorilla.
at least mutombo is still a defensive force. shaq is too lazy to play defense.
...same for The Admiral, another 7' center who slowed noticeably in his last few years.
55 - But given how wacky the market for starting pitching is this year, how could an arb judge NOT come down on Dontrelle's side?
Willis will be making roughly $750k more than Tomko next year. This is why service clocks are so important for low-budget teams, no?
no.
Excellent stuff on the Great Shav Glick.
I had up until 5 years ago been heavily involved in drag racing for most of my entire life, starting out working on a friends bracket car down the street, and eventually working my way on to fuel funny cars.
It was a fun and memorable life in racing, but not nearly as poetic as Shav Glick's. He has been a hero to NHRA Championship Drag Racing. He stood by tongue and cheek, reporting the widely spurned outlaw sport as it has grown from the streets of Southern California to drag strps across the world. (For those of you that might not realize, Drag Racing is in fact a sport that originated in Southern California on the lakes of El Mirage and on the runway of Santa Ana Airport. (No longer existing) It was born here, raised here and flourished to it's fast approaching pinnacle (as the popularity seems to be gaining quite rapidly to a NASCAR level)
The press box behind the starting line at Pomona is named in Shav's honor. He was a much of friend to drag racing as Jim Murray was a friend to the Los Angeles Dodgers. What pains me most about his leaving the LAT is that it is signaling the very rapid decline of the news in print in Los Angeles. I don't blame Shav one bit for leaving, and if the NHRA was smart, they would hire him immediately. It would be the steal of the century! For they couldn't be getting a better reporter, writer, fan and friend to the sport of Championship Drag Racing.
Congrats on the retirement Shav, it was well deserved, but still way too early!
Comment status: comments have been closed. Baseball Toaster is now out of business.