Death waits for us all, and in an age of pandemic it’s nearer than ever. This weekend we’ve seen it take Tom Dempsey, NFL placekicker, Bobby Mitchell, NFL halfback and wide receiver, and Al Kaline, rightfielder extraordinaire for 22 years with the Detroit Tigers.
Dempsey set the record for longest field goal in NFL history at 63 yards in 1970 when he hit it in the closing seconds of a game against the Lions to give the Saints the win. It held up until Jason Elam of the U of Hawai’i and the Denver Broncos matched it in 1998. It has since been extended to 64 yards by the Broncos’ Matt Prater in 2013. He died from COVID-19.
Dempsey had been battling Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. He was a resident at the Lambeth House senior living center in New Orleans, which has been hit hard by the virus. More than 50 residents have been affected, according to NOLA.com.
Bobby Mitchell, along with Leroy Jackson and John Nisby, were the first black players for the Washington Redskins when they started the 1962 season with the team. George Marshall, the team’s owner, had made it clear he didn’t want black players on his team, but then-Commissioner Pete Rozelle and the Kennedy Administration made it known that he should integrate.
During his first six seasons with the Redskins, he never caught fewer than 58 passes. He was a four-time Pro Bowl selection — once as a running back and three times as a wide receiver.
Mitchell, a seventh-round draft pick in 1958, retired in 1969, finishing his 11-year NFL career with 14,078 total yards. He had 91 career touchdowns, including 65 receiving and 18 rushing. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983.
Kaline joined the Tigers directly from high school in 1953. In 1955 he won an AL batting title and finished second to Yogi Berra in the MVP voting. He won the Roberto Clemente Award for sportsmanship, community involvement and contribution to his team in 1973.
Kaline made his lone appearance in a World Series in 1968, on the Tigers team led by pitchers Denny McLain and Mickey Lolich. Kaline had been sidelined for part of the season with a broken arm, and when he returned he was used mostly as a pinch hitter or first baseman because the outfield trio of Willie Horton, Mickey Stanley and Jim Northrup was playing well.
When the Tigers clinched the pennant, Kaline went to manager Mayo Smith and told him that he didn’t deserve to start in the World Series. Smith ignored him and played Kaline, who batted .379, hit two home runs and drove in eight as the Tigers beat the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.
Kaline was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1980, his first year of eligibility.
NPUT
In news from Software Stadium, https://twitter.com/scottostler/status/1252651928376373248?s=20
Ouch.
Player(s) from each team offer recommendations for binge-watching.
From the Dodgers, Will Smith:
I watched part of one episode of Ozark, may retry it. I’ll enthusiastically recommend Money Heist and Peaky Blinders, but will also add Broadchurch, Bloodline, Border Town and Deadwind (both Finnish), Babylon Berlin, Occupied (Norwegian), Hinterland, all on Netflix. MHZChoice has lots of good Scandi-Noir (I think you can get a free week’s trial), while BritBox has Shetland, New Blood and others.
Broadchurch is great, and much better than the version they did over here (Gracepoint). I also liked Hinterland a lot. My binges so far have been The Expanse, Star Trek – Picard, and an Australian show called Sea Patrol, and I liked all of them, and especially recommend The Expanse.
Another show which lovers of British mysteries might like is The Brokenwood Mysteries, which is actually from New Zealand. It’s sort of like if Columbo lived in the Kiwi version of Cabot Cove, and the neat thing is that most of the walk on roles are recurring, so someone you meet in series 1 may end up a victim in series 4 (or the murderer). It’s a lot of fun. It can be found on Acorn, along with a lot of other British and Commonwealth shows.
I’ve watched most of Brokenwood. Acorn has some good foreign-language programs, including the Dutch Schouwendam 12, which is really complex, and the Scandi-noir Black Widows (in the truly black humor category).
https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/1251636527093825537
Joe Kelly lets loose his inner Dennis the Menace:
https://twitter.com/allie_g18/status/1250788788336500737
Excellent.
Game 6 of the 1981 Series is presently on Youtube, with old friend Tommy John pitching for the Yanquis. I had forgotten that Pedro Guerrero played CF. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwsQ043QS0w
Dodger clubhouse guy remembers the Gibson home run.
Well now, this is interesting: MLB players and team employees will be participating in a coronavirus antibody study.
“Some local officials in California have suggested ongoing restrictions lasting toward the end of the year. The top administrator for Santa Clara County — home to the San Francisco 49ers, San Jose Sharks and Stanford University — said at a meeting of the Board of Supervisors last Tuesday that he suspected sports games wouldn’t be held until Thanksgiving at the earliest.” https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-13/california-coronavirus-when-get-back-normal
https://twitter.com/RealMuckmaker/status/1249821818719854592?s=20
Meanwhile, in Taiwan… https://twitter.com/ianbremmer/status/1249784419990282240?s=20
Nice tribute to Kaline in this morning’s NYT. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/sports/baseball/al-kaline-tigers-outfield.html
During a 2 a,m. bout of insomnia, I found a KBO spring training game on YouTube. No social distancing whatsoever as players gathered between innings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9pshHYJpkI&feature=youtu.be
Just found out I’ll need ankle replacement surgery. Better than hip replacement, I guess.
I’ve never heard of ankle replacement surgery. Is it routine?
It’s also not a time I’d like to be in a hospital.
I’d never heard of it either, but it sounds pretty routine. It won’t be until at least July, under current circumstances. Recovery time is about six to eight weeks.
Interesting links at Baseball Books to baseball articles in unusual places (National Review?).
Lost a couple of great musicians as well – John Prine and Adam Schlesinger.
Prine I liked, but I’d never put on a song of his. If one comes across the air, fine. Never heard of Schlesinger.
Schlesinger founded Fountains of Wayne (Stacy’s Mom), wrote That Thing That You Do, and cowrote most of the songs on Crazy Ex Girlfriend, among other things.
Never heard of any of those, either.
I’ll be sure not to cite you as a source for pop culture trivia.
Never followed Prine too closely, but enjoy many of the performers who laud him. His album of country duets is quite something, however.
Some really fine songs, but one of my favorites is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxKgj7w3tBU
Angel from Montgomery? I listen to it regularly, especially the Bonnie Raitt John Prine version. Also love Hello in There. And so many others.
Also, Paradise is a memorable song.
Really enjoying Joe Posnanski doing write ups on the 100 greatest baseball players for the Athletic. He is also doing a weekly write up on “favorite” ballplayers. A real treat.
Would like to highlight some of the 100 for you, but the ones I have read are mostly outstanding essays, so not possible.
The Athletic has been discounting subscriptions like crazy all month (not for current subscribers, though; I just saw a $60 charge for a year’s worth on last month’s credit card bill), if anyone’s interested in buying what it’s selling.
He’s lost all credibility by ranking B*nds No. 3. https://twitter.com/SotoStofficial/status/1247889666994405377?s=20
Ha! Figured that would rattle your cage. Haven’t read it yet. Enjoyed what he wrote for Hank at #4.
He thus precluded any possibility that I would subscribe.
Wow! Missing out on a lot. B*nds is beyond the pale for me, but I won’t have him take away from my enjoyment of baseball to such a degree.
B*nds already took so much away that I won’t let him take any more.
There are 99 other high quality essays on baseball’s top players that you are letting him take away from you.
Fernando was this week’s favorite player.
On the theme of the day, folkie George Gerdes recorded two albums, the first of which was “Obituary.” The second was… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIcDcu5J-RU
Mister Tiger was a fav growing up.
Definitely a prodigy.
Posnanski has him at 51 of top 100 and has a nice story about his last game.
Jerry Reuss answers fan questions in today’s edition of Dodgers Dugout from the LA Times.
By the way, Reuss has musical interests and he shares them on Facebook intermittently. He’s pretty meticulous about researching song and artist history and then publishing the results there.
The obstacles are just too great. https://twitter.com/truebluela/status/1247562706716164097?s=20