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Is he a descendant of Typhoid Mary?
Former Cubs broadcaster Josh Lewin visited Wrigley Field last week and conceded some fans blame him for the Tigers’ slow start. After Lewin was hired to announce Cubs games last year, the Cubs got off to an 0-14 start. After he left to join the Tigers’ crew this year, Detroit got off to a 4-14 start. Lewin pointed out this is nothing new for him. Northwestern won six football games in the four years he was in school.
Finally, it makes sense
Oliver Stone will direct “On Any Given Sunday,” a film about pro football. Said comedy writer Jerry Perisho: “He will support the theory that the Jets’ upset of the Colts in Super Bowl III was a government conspiracy.”
Paybacks can be heck
Jack McKeon, who loves pulling pranks on the Cincinnati Reds’ front office and coaches, got some payback on Tuesday.
About 3-1/2 hours before a game against the Philadelphia Phillies, McKeon was in the manager’s office talking to his coaches when stadium security officers entered and told him he was under arrest.
The charges: smoking in a public place (McKeon loves cigars) and two unpaid parking tickets.
Moments later, McKeon was led out of his office in handcuffs. He was put in a car, driven around the block and then returned to Cinergy Field after the officers told him that the club’s general manager had set up the prank.
Sometimes bad is bad
Once the Ottawa Senators were hockey’s version of the early New York Mets, or of pro football’s early Tampa Bay Bucs - good for a laugh, not good for the game. The night the burglars stole the expansion team’s video equipment, they ignored the game tapes.
“Burglars with taste,” said E.J. McGuire, then an assistant coach.
When ESPN put together that 1992-93 season’s highlights, the Senators’ only funny moment showed Andrew McBain, having been ejected from a game, approaching the steep stairs to the locker rooms in Chicago Stadium.
“Be careful,” a stadium guard warned.
“I’ve been in this league 11 years,” McBain growled. “Don’t tell me how to go down these stairs.”
With that, McBain toppled down the stairs.
One of these guys is not a murderer
A Pittsburgh Pirates radio broadcaster broke into game coverage with the errant report that actor James Earl Jones had died.
Lanny Frattare said he misunderstood when his producer relayed news of the death of James Earl Ray, who was convicted of killing Martin Luther King Jr. Frattare corrected the mistake shortly after it was made during radio coverage of a Giants-Pirates game.
“I don’t feel glad about it. In fact, I felt like a real fool,” Frattare said Thursday night.
Frattare spoke nostalgically during the report about Jones’ role in the movie “Field of Dreams.”
“A lot of us in baseball have a lot of feelings about ‘Field of Dreams’ and the soliloquy he gave in it,” Frattare said.
The last word …
“If the NFL banned collegians with police records, there might be no draft. And probably no league.”
- Blackie Sherrod in the Dallas Morning News.