Death in the family

Doyle Rodgers of Smyrna, Georgia passed away Wednesday. If you watched the Braves back in the early days of Superstation 17, you may know him as the Wolfman. Ever since I was a baby, I would see the Wolfman (later joined by his daughter Donna) shilling furniture on Braves games and all sorts of other random local programming. Each commercial would feature the Wolfman, usually with some corny prop or absurdly fake backdrop, encouraging you in his stilted delivery to shop at Gallery Furniture ("2511 Roosevelt Highway in College Park and 1600 Browns Bridge Road in Gainesville") and Hey- Ask for the Wolfman! In later years, the Wolfman and Donna would joust back and forth. "Ask for the Wolfman!" "No, ask for Donna!" Touche.

I drove down around midnight last night and left some flowers in front of the door to the College Park store. I have no idea if the Wolfman and/or Donna are good people, although in my mind they are good natured and funny like they are on my TV. I also don't know why I miss the Wolfman so much. I guess I just appreciate people who are there for me, especially at the good times like watching baseball. The local rag reprinted a profile of the Wolfman from a few years ago. Its worth checking out even if you never saw the commercials, just for the stuff on the relationship between the Wolfman and Ted Turner back in their respective early days.

Thanks for 26 great years, Wolfman. You'll be missed.

posted by Scott at 12:17 PM : |

 

In Roger we trust, if we are really gullible

Roger Clemens, a man who has made a career out of leaving teams in the lurch, left a team in the lurch today as he signed a one year deal with the Houston Astros. I wonder if he will demand an Astros cap on his Hall of Fame plaque. I suppose Clemens has the right to sign with whomever he wants and I obviously shed no tears for the Yankees, but I will say that this will make it even easier to root for his failure than it otherwise would be. Sadly, that failure is no sure thing. He made 33 starts last year and struck out over eight batters per nine innings. Only two pitchers in baseball struck out more in at least as many starts.

Meanwhile, the Cubs stand still. They've made moves- Hawkins, Floyd, Walker, Barrett- but only around the periphery. There hasn't been one bold move that turned a weakness into a strength, and time is growing short. I don't want to be writing epitaphs so early, but so far this is looking like offseasons after past Cub playoff runs. Let's hope I am wrong.

In other news, the revenue continues to pour in for the Trib. The Sun-Times and ESPN.com both report that the Cubs have reached a deal that will net them some $2M a year from the folks sitting out on the rooftops. When the team first said they would be erecting barriers to prevent the rooftops from "stealing" their product, I said the only thing that made sense was to share the revenue rather than throw up barriers and kill the goose laying the golden eggs. Score one for me!

posted by Scott at 1:43 PM : |

 

Safe at home

I have gone to Times Square for New Year's Eve and lived to tell about it. Actually, I have gone about nine blocks north of Times Square for New Year's Eve, but I could see a tiny little ball descending a mile or so down Seventh Avenue and I was ahead of a few hundred thousand other folks so I say it counts. I have called Atlanta home since the day I was born and I love it here, but every time I visit New York City I find myself pondering Whether I can find a way to live there permanently. Manhattan is alive in a way I've never seen anywhere else and maybe one day I can live it for more than a few days at a time.

While I was gone, Pete Rose has shocked the world by admitting that he not only bet on baseball but the Reds as well. There are few subjects I am less capable of objectivity on than Rose. I have read extensively about him and his gambling problems, and his behavior over the years infuriates me to the point that I can't understand why anyone would ever defend him.

I am pleased to see that some writers including the crazy old man himself have finally been pushed over the edge by this latest ugly episode of the Jerry Springer show that is Pete Rose's life. It is for the best for baseball, the Hall, and my blood pressure that they choose to not vote Rose in. Still, I find myself wondering why this was the straw that broke the camel's back for people. Rejecting Rose because he broke rule 21-d is a perfectly rational argument. Rejecting him because you don't like the nature of his apology is just silly. Politics make strange bedfellows, so I'll accept the 'nay' votes of these misguided sportswriters, but I still wish they were doing it for the right reason.

Footnote Hall-of-Famers

On a trivial side note, Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor were elected to the Hall of Fame the other day. I don't object to either one I don't see either as an inner-circle Hall of Famer either. As you probably know, Ryne Sandberg narrowly missed election with 309 of 506 votes, 71 short of the cutoff. Sandberg was the best second baseman in baseball both with the bat and with the glove in his decade of prominence. He won nine gold gloves at one of the toughest defensive positions, even as he put up a career 114 OPS+ and six seasons over 130. I think he is an easy choice, but they've been screwing an even better Cub in Santo for decades so this shouldn't come as a total shock. Hopefully they rectify both situations as soon as possible.
posted by Scott at 2:45 PM : |