Bottom of the Bird Cage 4/16

We’ve reached day No. 106 on the year.

And in future years April 16, 2009 will be remembered as the day John Madden retired from broadcasting football games.  That news came down Thursday morning from NBC, as he’ll hang up his microphone after 30 years.

Born on this day in 1928 was Dick “Night Train” Lane, one of the best players in the history of professional football. Born on April 16 in Austin, Texas, he was discovered as an infant in a dumpster by a woman who went on to raise him. He played 14 years for the Rams, Cardinals and Lions and was named to seven Pro Bowl teams. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974.

Born on April 16, 1947 was Lew Alcindor, who became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Born on this day in 1952 was Bill Belichick.

And on April 16, 1881 in Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fought his last gun battle. Remarkably, he would go on to become a sportswriter, eventually writing a column for the New York Morning Telegraph. In fact, he died at his desk while typing his column in 1921 at the age of 67. Funny, but he survived as a gun fighting but sportswriting killed him … that’s what this business can do to a person.

Masterson’s most famous written lines:

• “Every dog, we are told, has his day, unless there are more dogs than days.”
• “New York is the biggest boobtown there is. They will buy any damned thing here.”
• “When a man is at the racetrack he roars longer and louder over the twenty-five cents he loses through the hole in the bottom of his pocket than he does over the $25 he loses through the hole in the top of his pocket.”

From the St. Joseph News-Press: Politics is more like professional golf than football. Football’s a team sport. Golf’s all about the individuals And that’s why jeopardy hangs around St. Joseph’s latest — and, until recently, best — chance at landing the Kansas City Chiefs’ annual summer training camp.

Politics too often isn’t about making things happen. It’s about whose interests are getting served and who gets to take credit. That’s something I learned while covering it for about four years as a Statehouse correspondent. You can pick up the same lesson by watching with a passing interest for about three minutes.

Gov. Jay Nixon, whose administration assumed office after the state and Missouri Western negotiated the deal with the Chiefs in December 2008, had a two-inch putt to make something good happen for this city, the state of Missouri and Western. It’s starting to look as if he’d rather walk off the green than even take a swing.

 

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Here’s a hometown look at what has become simply a silly political disagreement. Missouri Democratic Governor Jay Nixon is trying to make his Republican Lt. Gov Peter Kinders look bad because Kinders was part of the board that voted to give the Chiefs $25 million in tax credits so this training camp in St. Joe could happen.

From the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram: Texas Rangers broadcasters Tom Grieve, Eric Nadel and Steve Busby all have different memories of Merle Harmon. But the trio agreed on one trait about the former Rangers broadcaster, who died Wednesday at Arlington Memorial Hospital from complications stemming from pneumonia, according to his son, Keith.

He was one of the nicest people each had ever met.

“I don’t mean to make anybody else mad, but he was the nicest man I ever met in my life,” said Busby, who partnered with Harmon on television broadcasts from 1982-85. “He was a genuine, honest, hard-working man.”

I met Merle Harmon a couple of times and he was one of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet. And he had a story for every occasion. I once saw Harmon and his old broadcasting sidekick Bill Grigsby try to out-story each other at an event, and I must say they could sling the b.s. better than 99.9 percent of the people on the planet. Any kid who grew up in the Midwest spent at least several moments of their lives in one of Merle Harmon’s Fan Fair stores in the mall, whether it was Des Moines, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Topeka or Omaha.

From the New York Times: On his visits to the old Yankee Stadium last season, Yogi Berra brought along a little jar to collect peculiar souvenirs. “I’ve got the dirt,” Berra said of his soil samples from the basepaths and the pitching mound. But he is still seeking a larger prize. “I told them I’d like to have the home plate,” Berra said. “They said, ‘Well, maybe.’ ”

Berra will throw out the ceremonial first pitch Thursday afternoon to open the new Yankee Stadium. Randy Levine, the team president, was asked if Berra could have one of the old plates, behind which he worked so well for so long. “Absolutely,” Levine said Wednesday. “We try and accommodate Yogi. Whatever Yogi wants, we try and give to Yogi. This is the first I’m hearing about it. But we’ll do everything we can. Yogi’s so important to the Yankees.”

Indeed, Berra, who will turn 84 on May 12, is the living embodiment of America’s most famous professional sports team, an approachable and unpretentious Hall of Famer who represents a proud franchise not always associated with such qualities.

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What a great story about a guy that’s become an iconic figure in American sports. Amazingly, it’s really come since he quit playing. Berra was a very good player, but his personality has far eclipsed anything he did on the field. I mean, how can you not love a guy who has said “A nickel is not worth a dime anymore”, or “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.” Or my personal favorite: “He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious.”