Author: greggdrinnan

Mondays With Murray: DiMag Shuns Sainthood, Becomes Mortal Again

Today (Nov. 25) would have been Joe DiMaggio’s 105th birthday. In honor of Joltin’ Joe’s birthday, we bring you not only a Jim Murray column from Sept. 1, 1968, but also an excerpt from Jim Murray’s autobiography about the first time he met DiMaggio.

JIM MURRAY: Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe

Excerpt from JIM MURRAY: An Autobiography (Pages 19, 21-22)

   “I was, as it happened, the cinema correspondent for Time magazine at the time. This was a highly prized assignment in the company that was about as movie-struck as a high school sorority. You couldn’t walk the corridors of Time, Inc., at the time without tripping over 10 people who were sure they were going to be the next great film directors.

   “My job was to keep the cinema section apprised of the movements of the film industry and to pick out three or four cover stories a year — that is, pick a movie star, hopefully female, to put on the magazine’s cover and break up the monotony of the series of grim-visaged secretaries of state and military men who ordinarily glowered off its page and sold precious few copies on the newsstands. . . .

   “I pitched a story on Marilyn to the Magazine. They agreed. The studio saw a Time magazine story as an entrée to a bigger, picture story in the big-brother Life magazine, one of the most highly prized publicity plugs a film or film star could get.

   “My assignment was to do a story on her and explore her as a cover possibility later on. I took her to dinner on the Sunset Strip, to one of those mob-owned restaurants — Alan Dale, I believe, ran it — along the boulevard, after picking her up at her residential hotel on Olympic Boulevard.

   “As we dined and talked, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a famous former athlete come into the restaurant by a side door. He was escorted to a private dining area by the owner and a screen was placed around the table.

   “I knew the great Joe DiMaggio when I saw him and, later in the evening, when Marilyn leaned over and breathed, “Do you mind if you don’t take me home but I go home with a friend of mine?” I was ready. “Only if you introduce me to Joe DiMaggio first!”

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1968, SPORTS

Copyright 1968/THE TIMES MIRROR COMPANY

JIM MURRAY

DiMag Shuns Sainthood, Becomes Mortal Again

  It was the sportswriter Bob Broeg who first surveyed Joe DiMaggio in the chorus-girl livery of Charley Finley’s Athletics — white shoes, green sleeves, gold stripes, white hat — and allowed dryly, “Seeing Joe in that is like seeing Santa Claus in a purple bikini.”

  The writer Charlie Einstein suggested the team be re-christened “Charley’s Aunts.” Another columnist suggested they dust off the old line, “What’s a nice girl like you doing mondaysmurray2in a place like this?” and apply it to Joe in the Oakland locker room. The implication was, Joe was playing the piano downstairs in the waterfront dance hall.

  He was even the subject of the leering Simon and Garfunkel lyrics for “The Graduate” mockingly linked with the infamous Mrs. Robinson. “Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio/A nation turns its lonely eyes to you/Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!” And, later, “Jolting Joe has left and gone away/Hey!Hey!Hey!”

  For the baseball purist, this is like stoning a saint, painting black eyes on the Mona Lisa, putting cigarette ads over the Sistine Chapel, wrapping fish in a Vermeer. Like catching a statue in the park smoking or the Queen Mother playing darts in a pub in Soho.

  I don’t suppose anybody ever played the game of baseball with the pure grace and style of Joseph Paul DiMaggio. He excelled at the game with the kind of bored, disdainful perfection of a fencing master beset by clods, almost as if he were good in spite of himself. “He was like a dowager distributing baskets to the poor,” the late Tom Meany once told me. “He never looked like he was even SWEATING.”

  He was aristocracy on and off the field. He not only never got gravy on his tie, he never even got dirt on his uniform. They wrote songs about Joe DiMaggio for real in those days — not the sneering type but the genuine flag-wavers. He was an idol of the day of the magnitude of Charles Lindbergh — aloof, godlike. He never caught fly balls like a guy falling through a skylight. He was THERE when the ball came down. He stood at the plate as easily and naturally as a guy watching a sunset. Historians swear he went five years once without hitting anything but a line drive. Some of his hits went through the infield but many went through the infielders. Joe DiMaggio played baseball the way a fish swims, a bird flies or a lion bites. If anybody seemed suited to his environment it was J.P. DiMaggio.

  And yet Joe DiMaggio had ulcers. Joe DiMaggio got gray before he was 35. The pressure he never let anyone see would have broken windows for miles around if he ever let it out. He would get the bends if he left the locker room too early, if he didn’t adjust to different pressures on his way back to the street or Toots Shor’s.

  All New York expected of him was an annual Triple Crown, a pennant, world’s championship, impeccable behaviour on and off the field. He was a captive of his genius like all geniuses — the gift of God had a “Return in 60 days if not satisfied” clause.

  Joe left Baseball like a guy getting a parole. No one ever yelled “Ya, bum, ya!” at Joe DiMaggio. That was the trouble. He was untouchable, a holy man. As a result, he couldn’t wait to leave and he fled to where he could be “Hey, you” or “You’re away, you hacker” or even “Mr. DiMaggio.”

  Baseball dismissed him as “too aloof.” They took loudmouthed banjo hitters for managers, sweet-talking salesmen for the front office. They left Joe in his plaster cast with pigeons perched on his shoulders.

  Joe DiMaggio came to a personal decision this year. The statue left the pedestal, the portrait climbed down from the frame. He put the halo on backwards. He is sick of being an institution, the prisoner of his reputation.

  Charley O. Finley asked him to join the Oakland A’s and all baseball protested. Finley is a brawling, shoot-from-the-hip type of front office competitor, the kind of guy who realizes even the Emperor goes to the bathroom. And then there were, of course — ugh! — THOSE UNIFORMS! Joe DiMaggio would NEVER climb into one of those!

  Well, Joe fooled everybody with a nice neat bunt along the third-base line. He accepted Finley’s offer and, instead of climbing into the kind of uniform you can put a carnation in every day, he put on Finley’s circus suit and started to teach kids how to bat. Joe resigned as saint. And, if Simon and Garfunkel really want to find him, they might try Anaheim Stadium today or the opening of the World Series regional roundups next season. That just might be Joe carrying the lineup up to home plate if you can make him out through the glare of that suit.

Reprinted with the permission of the Los Angeles Times

Jim Murray Memorial Foundation, P.O. Box 60753, Pasadena, CA 91116

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What is the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation? 

  The Jim Murray Memorial Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, established in 1999 to perpetuate the Jim Murray legacy, and his love for and dedication to his extraordinary career in journalism. Since 1999, JMMF has granted 104 $5,000 scholarships to outstanding journalism students. Success of the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation’s efforts depends heavily on the contributions from generous individuals, organizations, corporations, and volunteers who align themselves with the mission and values of the JMMF.

Like us on Facebook, and visit the JMMF website, www.jimmurrayfoundation.org.

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A dozen years ago, Linda McCoy-Murray compiled a book of Jim Murray’s columns on female athletes (1961-1998). While the book is idle waiting for an interested publisher, the JMMF thinks this is an appropriate year to get the book on the shelves, i.e., Jim Murray’s 100th birthday, 1919-2019.  

Our mission is to empower women of all ages to succeed and prosper — in and out of sports — while entertaining the reader with Jim Murray’s wit and hyperbole.  An excellent teaching tool for Women’s Studies.

Proceeds from book sales will benefit the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization providing sports journalism scholarships at universities across the country.

Scattershooting on a Sunday night while contemplating the Blue Bombers’ victory and the end of the Legend of Shorts Guy . . .

Scattershooting

A Manitoban by birth, I quite enjoyed watching the Winnipeg Blue Bombers win the Grey Cup on Sunday, beating the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 33-12, in Calgary. . . . I was most thrilled for Richie Hall, the Bombers’ defensive co-ordinator. There was a time during the season when you might have thought his first name was Much-Maligned. You won’t find a nicer person in all of football, indeed, in all of the sporting world. Yes, this victory looks good on him.

There might be a lesson for a whole lot of sporting fans in the following two tweets . . .

You know it’s the Grey Cup when a guy who hasn’t worn pants, only shorts, for 18 years becomes a big story. It was a story during the week, and it was a bigger story after the game when, yes, he put on a pair of pants.

In light of Don Cherry’s firing by Rogers Sportsnet, you may have been wondering whether the 17 Canadian WHL teams will continue with the third annual promotion that goes by the name RE/MAX Presents: WHL Suits Up with Don Cherry to Promote Organ Donation. . . . Chris Young of The Canadian Press asked the WHL about it on Thursday. He got this email response: “At this time, we continue to review this matter with the stakeholders involved (sponsor, charity, member clubs). We will provide a further update when we are able.” . . . To date, it’s been crickets from the Kidney Foundation of Canada and RE/MAX.

It is hard to comprehend how the WHL will be able to maintain the status quo considering why Cherry was fired and that the league has this statement on its website:

“The WHL is committed to remaining a world leader in the development of players, coaches and officials for the NHL, U Sports and Hockey Canada while continuing to offer the finest player experience and academic opportunities. The WHL also continues to be recognized for a high standard of competition, fair play and integrity while playing an active role in communities, minor hockey programs and local charitable initiatives throughout the region.”

In the first two years of the promotion, the Kidney Foundation has benefitted by more than $460,000. However, the foundation and RE/MAX also should have acted a whole lot quicker than this to sever ties with Cherry.

I know it’s not that easy, not with thousands of Don Cherry/Ron MacLean bobbleheads sitting in a warehouse somewhere and all of those jerseys being produced for the teams to sell at auction. But you can’t continue to talk about inclusivity and diversity and be involved in something like this.

It pains me to write this because of the volunteer work we do in the Kamloops kidney community, but the time has come for all involved to go in a different direction.

A report from Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: “In the latest MLB cheating update, now there’s reports that Houston players wore realistic-looking electronic bandages that buzzed in real time to relay signs stolen from the opposing catcher. Astros GM Maxwell Smart declined comment.”

The Edmonton Oilers had more than a few fans in Vegas on Saturday night where they dumped the Golden Knights, 4-2. By the look of things, some of those fans went home with some money in their jeans.

Here’s Larry Brooks in the New York Post: “Through Friday, 17 of the NHL’s 31 teams had won nine, 10 or 11 games. While 26 — 26! — teams somehow could claim records of .500 or better. That’s parity, folks, only it is spelled P-A-R-O-D-Y.” . . . There’s more, including Brooks’s thoughts on the Mike Babcock firing, right here.

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What’s that? You’re wondering about the WHL? Well, including Sunday’s games, nine of the 22 teams had won 11, 12 or 13 games. At the same time, 15 teams somehow could claim records of .500 or better.

There has been a lot of chatter the last while as to just how inclusive hockey is (or isn’t). In the middle of all this, the Saskatchewan Hockey Association has told the midget AA and midget AAA programs at Beardy’s and Okemasis Cree Nation that they are done after this season. . . . Alex MacPherson of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix writes right here about the decision, and there is more right here.

Why do we like Patti Dawn Swansson’s musings in these parts? Well, it might have something to do with the River City Renegade’s snark. And, well, she definitely took the snark pills before penning, er, tossing darts in her latest piece, which is right here. If you haven’t already, try it; you’ll like it.

JUST NOTES: You’re wondering: What happened to Mike Babcock with the Toronto Maple Leafs? In short, someone hired an old school head coach then chose to bring in a new school general manager. In the end, the new guy won the battle and in the world of pro sports that isn’t a surprise. Just don’t expect Babcock to surface in Seattle, the expansion franchise having made a huge commitment to the world of analytics. . . . Would someone please get a charger for that woman on the bus. Thank you. . . . F Hendrix Lapierre of the QMJHL’s Chicoutimi Sagueneens suffered his second concussion of this season — and his third in eight months — on Thursday when he absorbed an open-ice hit. Lapierre, who had two goals and 15 assists in 19 games when he was injured, has been projected as a first-round selection in the NHL’s 2020 draft.

McLennan celebrates two years with friend’s kidney . . . Kamloops woman finally gets her transplant

Hugh
Two years ago, Hugh McLennan (second from left) and Louis (Big Rig) McIvor were roaming the halls at Vancouver General Hospital, along with Hugh’s wife, Billie. The big question: Where in the big city did they tie up their horses? (Photo: Hugh McLennan/Facebook)

Happy anniversary to Hugh McLennan, who has been living for two years with a transplanted kidney, courtesy of his good friend Louis (Big Rig) McIvor.

Here’s what Hugh wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday:

“Two years ago (Friday) this guy gave me one of his kidneys! We’re both doing fine and we’d encourage you to look into being an organ donor and if you know someone on dialysis look into getting tested as a living donor.”

Now that is really sound advice.

Hugh and his wife, Billie, own and operate a ranch near Pinantan Lake, just outside of Kamloops.

Best wishes to Melissa Wells of Kamloops, who underwent a kidney transplant on Nov. 9.

Melissa has a kidney disease — Type 3 Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) — that resulted in kidney failure. She spent more than six years waiting for a transplant, all the while doing dialysis.

In July, her husband, Marty, wrote:

“She’s been through countless failed surgeries, successful surgeries, and even had a direct line put into her heart just so she was able to get treatment to stay alive.”

Marty also added something that, with all that Dorothy has been through, I think of regularly. It has to do with the number of people walking around who live with kidney disease but don’t give any appearance of being ill.

“If you saw Melissa today she would seem totally normal,” Marty wrote in July. “She goes about her daily life — visiting family, hanging out with friends, going shopping. What you don’t see is her strength. She fights through constant headaches, nausea, fatigue, shooting pains through her arm, and overall pain of having major organ failure. The constant needling of her arm almost every day and the perpetual surgeries she has to deal with in Kamloops, Kelowna, and Vancouver are exhausting and expensive.”

The good news is that Melissa has a new kidney now. Here’s hoping that all goes well.

What happens when an organ or organs come available for transplant? How quickly does the window of opportunity close? When there is a death, how many organs might be available for transplant? What about tissue, corneas, etc.? . . . Shawn Logan of Postmedia has an excellent look at all of that and a whole lot more right here.

Susan Bell and Dorothy Stewart of CBC News have produced a story that includes Colleen Atsynia, a single mother of five.

According to the story, she “was in her mid-40’s when kidney disease forced her to leave her job, her family and her northern Quebec community of Wemindji for dialysis treatment in Montreal.”

As Atsynia told the reporters: “When you first find out you need a transplant, to me it felt like, ‘OK, that’s it. I’m done. I’m just going to die.”

According to the story, Atsynia’s life changed when “someone she doesn’t know gave it all back to her by donating a kidney” in May 2018.

“I was extremely happy because I knew I was going to finally come home,” she said. “My kids were happy . . . they were really happy.”

That story is right here.

This doesn’t have anything to do with transplants or kidney disease, but it is a great watch . . .

Scattershooting on a Wednesday night while wondering if Babcock’s next stop will be Seattle . . .

Scattershooting

When Roy MacGregor writes, I read. Such was the case with the superb essayist’s piece on the Don Cherry situation. As we have come to expect from MacGregor, it is terrific. . . . At one point, he writes that Cherry was fired “for a last straw no one could fit into the overstuffed barn that holds all the previous last straws.” . . . It doesn’t get any better, and it’s right here.

ICYMI, here’s how the annual junior hugfest between CHL teams and a touring Russian side ended last Thursday in Prince Albert. The Russians won the game, but had to go to a shootout to get it done. That outcome left the series — the Russians play two games against teams from the QMJHL, OHL and WHL — all even. . . . Guess what? . . . Yes, they went to another shootout. The WHL won that one on a goal by F Nolan Foote of the Kelowna Rockets to win the series. . . . Seriously!

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BTW, the CHL’s broadcast partner, Rogers Sportsnet, put that final game on one of its channels, something called 360. When that game began, Sportsnet was showing an NHL game — New York Rangers at Tampa Bay Lightning — on four other channels. ICYMI, the Lightning opened up a 4-0 first-period lead en route to a 9-3 victory.

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Tyler Yaremchuk was part of the TSN1260 broadcast crew in Edmonton on Friday when the Alberta Golden Bears skated to a 4-2 victory over the visiting Regina Cougars. . . . After the game, he tweeted: “50 straight wins for the Bears over Regina.” . . . Think about that for a moment or two . . . 50 in a row! Yikes!!! Now that’s a streak. . . . Dustin Nielson, the play-by-play voice on that broadcast team, tells me that the Golden Bears last lost to the Cougars in 2009. “Also haven’t lost at home to them since 1996,” he added. . . . Connor Hood, writing on the U of A’s website, pointed out that the streak “dates back to March 13, 2009, and includes 43 conference games, two playoff games and five non-conference games.” . . . On Saturday night, the Golden Bears ran that streak to 51 games with a 9-0 victory.

Running back Saquon Barkley of the New York Giants had one yard rushing on 13 carries in a recent loss to the New York Jets. . . . Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times broke that down a bit more: “To put that in perspective, that’s 2.9 per attempt — inches, not yards. Or . . . at that rate, just 117 more carries and he’d have a first down!”

By now, you may have seen video of Houston Rockets guard Austin Rivers working the referees in the hopes they would give his father, Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, a technical foul on Nov. 13. Officials did just that, and then they ejected him. . . . Later, on Twitter, Austin wrote: “Welp . . . Thanksgiving is going to be weird . . .”

Hey, Kamloops, I got gas in Burnaby on Saturday night for $1.24.9. That’s only five cents more than I paid in our town on Friday night.

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On the way to the Lower Mainland on Saturday morning, I collapsed a hundred times, if not more. Actually, we ran into snow, sleet, ice pellets and rain, lots of rain. . . . So what’s with all the drivers who can’t be bothered to turn on their headlights to that their taillights are on?

Mike Babcock now has been fired by two hockey teams — the Toronto Maple Leafs and the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors. The big difference is that the Warriors didn’t owe him about $23 million when they did the deed. . . .

Jack Todd has been writing about Don Cherry for a long time. So you knew that something was coming after Rogers Sportsnet fired Cherry. Todd’s column is right here.

Bucks
Cranbrook’s Western Financial Place now is the official home of the Cranbrook Bucks, a BCHL team that will begin play next season. Their sign was installed just the other day. The Bucks put their sign directly into the frame that once held a sign indicating the facility was home to the WHL’s Kootenay Ice, a franchise that now calls Winnipeg home. (Photo: Darren Cottingham)

Patti Dawn Swansson, aka The River City Renegade, hits the nail on the head right here: “Really annoying people: The 7-Eleven Guy and Matthew McConaughey. I think a perfect commercial would be the 7-Eleven Guy spilling a strawberry Slurpee on the posh seats of McConaughey’s fancy-schmancy Lincoln.” . . . There’s more right here.

JUST NOTES: Would someone at ESPN please tell Randy Moss that he is speaking into a microphone so he doesn’t need to yell at us. Thank you. . . . Gotta think the World Curling Federation will be making a rule change in the not-too-distant future after a ruling caused Norway’s men to forfeit a game to England during the European championships in Helsingborg, Sweden on Sunday. It seems Norway subbed in a curler who didn’t use the broom of the player he was replacing. Yes, that’s against the rules. There’s more right here. . . .

Going by the part of the WHL website that lists disciplinary actions, Adam Foote, the Kelowna Rockets’ head coach, hasn’t yet been fined for not doing a post-game media interview after a 5-2 loss to the Blazers in Kamloops on Nov. 11. The WHL has a rule that states a coach must be available to media 15 minutes after a game. Conspiracy theorists, have at it. . . . The NHL announced on Tuesday that the season-ending award it gives to its top GM will be named after the late Jim Gregory. There isn’t an award named for Sam Pollock, Glen Sather or Bill Torrey, each of whom put together dominant teams. Of course, the NHL doesn’t have any individual awards named in honour of Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux, either. . . . Hey, TSN, I realize that Toronto is the centre of your universe. I get that. So when the Maple Leafs fire Mike Babcock, your world stops. Yes, I get that, too. But you’ve got five channels so why cut off PTI before the episode is over just to show what’s available elsewhere? Why not show the viewer — me — some respect?

A mother’s plea: Please share and help us find Ferris a kidney!

If you have been impacted by kidney disease, you will have some understanding of what is involved in living with something for which there isn’t a cure.

My wife, Dorothy, has kidney disease, and underwent a transplant on Sept. 23, 2013. Prior to that, she did peritoneal dialysis (PD) for almost four years. That involved being hooked up to a cycler and doing a fluid exchange for seven or eight hours every night — seven nights a week, 52 weeks a year.

This week, Lindsey Backmeyer of Kamloops, whose daughter, Ferris, is in need of a kidney transplant, took to Facebook to provide some insight into their situation.

Ferris-Nov19
Ferris Backmeyer, 2-1/2, has chronic kidney disease (CKD) and her family is searching for a live kidney donor. (Photo: Lindsey Backmeyer)

Ferris is 2-1/2 years of age. She has had problems gaining weight and keeping that weight on, so only recently has her family been given the OK by their medical team to begin looking for a live donor.

In the meantime, Ferris continues to spend 13 hours overnight doing PD at home.

What follows is Lindsey’s post from Facebook . . .

“I am reminded daily just how hard living with ckd (chronic kidney disease) is for my sweet girl. Like this fine morning where she woke up way earlier than usual and we get to hang out on the bed for 2.5 hours to finish up dialysis.

“Most days are started with fits of vomiting and low energy levels. I’ve come to learn that this doesn’t necessarily depict a good or bad day. In fact most of our days are filled with smiles, afternoon/evening energy and cheeky toddler behaviour. The relentless vomiting is very normal for a pediatric dialysis patient — I say this only because I don’t know the adult world nearly as well.

“As of our last trip to Vancouver I’ve been informed Ferris is almost done the assessment process making her one step closer to a life-saving kidney transplant. Somehow, four weeks has almost passed and we are preparing to head down again next weekend. I am fairly certain the bulk of assessment will be completed and this discussion of living/deceased donors will be brought up yet again.

“I was informed that my health history of gestational diabetes and kidney stones in pregnancy makes me unsuitable for organ donation. The sobering realization that my girl’s chance at a better quality of life is completely out of my hands hit me harder than I had expected.

“A living kidney donor is Ferris’s best shot. Due to her age, she will likely need a couple of transplants over time. The first one is always the easiest to match and subsequent ones become harder due to the development of antibodies.

“Kidney’s from live donors are on the whole more successful and last longer than a kidney from a deceased donor. This means we want her first transplant to be the best kidney we can possibly find for her. The best kidney would be from a young healthy live donor.

“We are beyond ready, excited and terrified for transplant. I am hopeful we will see less vomiting, better energy levels, development in speech and language, oral eating and physical growth. These are the things other parents of transplanted toddlers have seen and I so badly want these things for Ferris.

“I can’t wait to say goodbye to 13 hours per day on dialysis. The freedom to stay out late, sleep wherever and have baths with her sisters will be nice, too.

“We are actively looking for a live kidney donor. It’s truly the most selfless act of life-saving kindness. Please share and help us find Ferris a kidney!”

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If you are interested in more information about becoming a live kidney donor, here you go:

Living Kidney Donor Program

St. Paul’s Hospital

6A Providence Building

1081 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6

Tel: 604-806-9027

Toll free: 1-877-922-9822

Fax: 604-806-9873

Email: donornurse@providencehealth.bc.ca

How many B.C. people are alive because of organ transplants? The numbers are in . . .

More numbers from BC Transplant: There are 1,487,323 donors registered in the province’s organ donor registry; there were 406 transplants performed in 2019, to Nov. 1; and there still were 755 patients awaiting transplants. . . . Visit the website at transplant.bc.ca for more information and lots more numbers.

Sean Delaney of Edmonton is the associate director of organ listing and allocation at Canadian Blood Services. Delaney, 48, also has undergone a kidney transplant; in fact, he had one more than 20 years ago when he got one from his brother. . . . Delaney’s story, as told by Moira Wyton of Postmedia, is right here, and it’s an interesting one. . . . “Delaney works to streamline organ donation across the country,” Wyton writes, “and create new ways to help people receive the organs they need to live and thrive.

This has included the creation of a national registry to administer new programs such as the Kidney Paired Donation Program, which has facilitated more than 700 transplants since its founding in 2009.” . . . Through all of this, he now finds himself back on the transplant list because his kidney is in failure, and he is doing peritoneal dialysis.

Check out this story from Cleveland where doctors at a clinic have used a robot to perform a kidney transplant . . . 

Mondays With Murray: He Always Put His Best Leg Forward

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1988, SPORTS

Copyright 1988/THE TIMES MIRROR COMPANY

JIM MURRAY

He Always Put His Best Leg Forward

  Will somebody please hold Merlin Olsen down for a few days? Tie him up if you have to.

  It might be a good idea to give every defensive lineman in the area rabies shots. Quarantine the Ram camp.

  Conrad Dobler is in town!

  You all remember Conrad Dobler? The guy with the Fu Manchu moustache and the antisocial instincts of a treed gorilla. Put an iron flowerpot on his head and a sabre in mondaysmurray2one hand and you got Conan the Barbarian. A one-man Mongol horde. Genghis Khan would hide.

  Conrad didn’t play football, he waged it. You couldn’t describe what he did as play. Not unless you figure the Indians played Custer.

  Dobler turned a line of scrimmage into a killing ground. He went about the game with the maniacal, suicidal fervor of one of those people who think you go right to heaven if you die in battle.

  Football is a brutal, violent game, but Dobler put another dimension to it. Strong men would go white at the lips, and veins would stand out in their necks when they spoke of Conrad Dobler. And those were just his teammates.

  People on other teams would have to be restrained from getting a gun and insisting no judge in the world would call it anything but justifiable homicide. Dobler wasn’t just hated, he was abhorred.

  He loved it.

  He tells his side of the story in a new book, “They Call Me Dirty” (Putnam), that he was in town to publicize this week.

  Dobler didn’t have a career, he had an apocalypse. Some guys put on their game face the morning of the game. Dobler was born with his. Some guys wear a mask to protect their face. Dobler wore his to protect the league.

  First of all, there was the leg whip. This was a little refinement of the art of football mayhem that can only be likened to bombing unarmed cities or stoning baby carriages.

  It calls for a lineman, if fooled or knocked out of his block, to whirl his body around with his legs out-thrust in such a way that they come blasting across the opposing lineman’s knees — or eyes or teeth — and do more or less permanent damage to his ability to make the tackle, or breathe normally for the rest of the game, for all of that.

  Dobler also had this little technique of jamming his fingertips or his knuckles into an opponent’s Adam’s apple, a little maneuver the Gestapo used to use to make you talk. Dobler’s victims sometimes weren’t able to talk for days. Even Mean Joe Greene used to say, “What’s the matter with you, Dobler?”

  Conrad Dobler was almost the Eddie Stanky of football. He wasn’t very big, he wasn’t very strong, he wasn’t very fast — all he could do was beat you. He always felt he had to get the first punch in. And the second and the third.

  Still, he was part of what was, certifiably, the best offensive line in the history of pro football. The St. Louis Cardinals of the ’70s, the cement blocks of football, with Dobler, Dan Dierdorf and Thomas Banks anchoring them, set the National Football League record by giving up only eight sacks one season, and one of those was a field-goal attempt that went sour on a bad snap from center. To give you an idea how impressive that was, the Raiders’ quarterback was sacked nine times last Sunday alone.

  Dobler’s assault was psychological as well as physical. “I used to find some reason to get mad at that guy across from me. He had freckles. He didn’t have freckles. He talked too much. He didn’t talk enough.

  “Then, I had to get him so mad at me, he’d forget to play football. He’d just want to kill me. He’d forget to get the quarterback.

  “I remember, once, I had Kenny Houston so mad at me on a sweep, he went right for me and let the ballcarrier go. He upended me. But the ballcarrier went in for a touchdown. He’d say, `Ha, Dobler! I got you that time!’ And I’d say, `You think so, donkey? Look in the end zone!’ “

  Dobler used to get Olsen, the Rams’ all-world defensive tackle, so mad that they would turn their game into Dempsey-Firpo. Years later, on one of his TV shows, Olsen had a scene that showed a tombstone in the old West. On it was the inscription: “Here lies Conrad Dobler. Gone but not forgiven.”

  Eventually, this notoriety boomeranged. Dobler had achieved such a reputation for kicking and biting — “Ever stop to wonder what fingers were doing inside my face mask?” — that the league not only outlawed the leg whip and the throat gouge, but Dobler became the marked man of football.

  “There’d be a play where another lineman would have part of another player’s shirt in his hand — and they would call the holding on me!” Dobler says.

  He was like the Mafia don who lives his life in the lenses of the FBI photographing his every move. He couldn’t function. “When you start stalling your team’s touchdown drives with phantom penalties, you’ve had it.”

  Still, Dobler figures he elevated one of the obscure positions in football into a semi-glamour role. “I needed an edge and I found it,” he says. “I played 10 years and on the best offensive line ever in football.”

  If he has any regrets, it’s that he never played in a Super Bowl — and that his outlaw reputation overshadowed his considerable talents as a player.

  “I want people to know I was the very best,” he says. “I want them to know I was a player of ability. I made teams good. And when I left them, they became losers again.”

  Sure, Conrad. Whatever you say. Now, can I have my hand back? And please put me down!

——

Reprinted with the permission of the Los Angeles Times

Jim Murray Memorial Foundation, P.O. Box 60753, Pasadena, CA 91116

———

What is the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation? 

  The Jim Murray Memorial Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, established in 1999 to perpetuate the Jim Murray legacy, and his love for and dedication to his extraordinary career in journalism. Since 1999, JMMF has granted 104 $5,000 scholarships to outstanding journalism students. Success of the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation’s efforts depends heavily on the contributions from generous individuals, organizations, corporations, and volunteers who align themselves with the mission and values of the JMMF.

Like us on Facebook, and visit the JMMF website, www.jimmurrayfoundation.org.

——

A dozen years ago, Linda McCoy-Murray compiled a book of Jim Murray’s columns on female athletes (1961-1998). While the book is idle waiting for an interested publisher, the JMMF thinks this is an appropriate year to get the book on the shelves, i.e., Jim Murray’s 100th birthday, 1919-2019.  

Our mission is to empower women of all ages to succeed and prosper — in and out of sports — while entertaining the reader with Jim Murray’s wit and hyperbole.  An excellent teaching tool for Women’s Studies.

Proceeds from book sales will benefit the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization providing sports journalism scholarships at universities across the country.

Alberta, P.E.I. talking presumed consent . . . Jelly Roll playing the blues, but not singing them

Toby Boulet, whose son, Logan, was killed in the crash of the Humboldt Broncos’ bus, has spoken out about the bill before the Alberta legislature that will permit organ donation unless a person has opted out of the process. . . . Boulet told Bob Weber of The Canadian Press that “there’s way more that needs to be added to the bill.” . . . Logan Boulet’s organs were harvested after his death and six people benefited from them. That turned into a huge story and thousands of people subsequently registered for organ donation, a phenomenon now recognized as the Logan Boulet Effect. . . . Toby and his wife, Bernadine, now speak frequently on organ donation. . . . According to Weber, Toby told him that the bill’s biggest failing is that it can’t address attitudes. “It’s pretty hard, in my opinion, to tell Albertans to do anything,” Boulet told Weber. “Albertans do the right thing. But if you tell them what to do, they don’t do the right thing. If you tell someone you’re going to have presumed consent in a law, that’s not going to go over very well.” . . . Boulet also pointed out that there will be a need to have “surgical teams that are dedicated and ready to go at a moment’s notice. We only have that in Calgary and Edmonton.” . . . Weber’s complete story is right here.

——

On Tuesday, Prince Edward Island moved closer to a system of presumed consent for organ donation, something that is expected to become law in Nova Scotia sometime in 2020. . . . In P.E.I., legislators on Tuesday passed a motion under which a committee “will reconsider the province’s rules concerning organ donation,” reported Kevin Yarr of CBC News. . . . His story is right here.

His name is Kirk Johnson, but he is better known as Jelly Roll Johnson, a top-of-the-line harmonica player. According to Jessica Bliss of the Nashville Tennessean: “He played harmonica on more than 50 gold and platinum albums, including three Grammy-winners by Randy Travis. He appeared on the Late Show, the Tonight Show, the CMA Awards show.” . . . One other thing — he dealt with PKD (polycystic kidney disease) for all of that time, knowing that it had killed his father and at least three other relatives had it. No, he didn’t miss any gigs and he often played at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe while undergoing dialysis. . . . Eventually, he went through a liver and kidney transplant. . . . His story, as written by Bliss, is right here and it’s well worth a read.

——

Ian Furness, a sportscaster with Sports Radio KJR in Seattle, knows of what he tweets. His son, Kiefer, a high school student and an athlete, has been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.

Scattershooting on a Wednesday night while wondering from where Hogan and his Heroes got their clothes . . .

Scattershooting

Sorry for all the hockey content in this episode of Scattershooting, but, hey, stuff happens. And, no, don’t be looking for any Don Cherry content here. I don’t know about you, but I am Cherryed out. . . .

ICYMI, Don Nachbaur, a former WHL player and head coach, is back in the coaching game. He had Andrej Podkonicky, also a former WHL player, now are co-head coaches of HKM Zvolen, a Slovakian team in the Extraliga. . . . Podkonicky and Michal Kobezda had been coaching the club; Kobezda remains as an assistant coach. . . . Nachbaur, who spent seven seasons as head coach of the Spokane Chiefs after also working with the Tri-City Americans and Seattle Thunderbirds, was an assistant with the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings for 2017-18, but was dismissed 13 games into last season when head coach John Stevens was fired. . . . Podkonicky played two seasons (1996-98) with the Portland Winterhawks.

If you’re a WHL fan, you should know that the 2019-20 WHL Guide is available for download at whl.ca. . . . Just go to the tab slugged The WHL and click on WHL Guide and Record Book.

SpiderMan

When the Vancouver Canucks entertained the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night, there was at least one celebrity in the stands. . . . Yes, Bill Murray had his 50/50 numbers; no, he didn’t seem to win. He also appeared to be wearing a Chicago Blackhawks sweater, which wasn’t a surprise as he is from Evanston, Ill.

Yes, Monday night’s NFL game between the visiting Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers — who, by the way, don’t play in San Francisco — was messy and sloppy and all of those things. But, hey, was it exciting, or what? . . . If you weren’t aware, the 49ers visit the Seahawks on Dec. 29. Happy New Year a few days early!

In his story after the host Kamloops Blazers beat the Kelowna Rockets, 5-2, on Monday, Marty Hastings of Kamloops This Week included this: “Rockets’ head coach Adam Foote refused a post-game interview request from KTW.”

Included in the WHL Guide is this, under Media Access to Players and other Team Personnel: “A member of the coaching staff of each team must be available to the media for interviews within 15 minutes following the game.”

Hmm, gotta wonder if the WHL will stick a hand into Foote’s wallet for this indiscretion?

——

That loss on Monday was the Rockets’ fourth straight. The Rockets, the host team for the 2020 Memorial Cup tournament, have allowed 25 goals in those four losses. That also was Kelowna’s 10th loss in 19 games this season. As well, veteran F Kyle Topping, 20, has had surgery to repair a broken ankle suffered during a 1-0 victory over the Royals in Victoria on Oct. 30, so he won’t play for a long time.

We now are left to wait and see how much of the winery the Rockets will sell in an attempt to bolster their roster for the tournament.

The Swift Current Broncos and Regina Pats sold their farms in order to make title runs in 2017-18 when both played in the Memorial Cup tournament, the Broncos as WHL champions and the Pats as the host team.

They since have fallen on hard times. Last season, they combined for 24 victories in 136 games and neither team made the playoffs. This season, they have totalled five victories — yes, five — in 33 games and, again, aren’t likely to appear in the playoffs.

The Rockets’ management, it would seem, has some big decisions ahead of it.

——-

When the WHL’s board of governors awarded the 2020 Memorial Cup tournament to Kelowna, it also heard presentations from the Kamloops Blazers and Lethbridge Hurricanes. The Blazers are 13-6-0 and riding high atop the B.C. Division; the Hurricanes are 13-5-3 and second in the Central Division, one point out of first.

——

This was ugly . . . big-time nasty . . . and it drew an eight-game suspension from the WHL early Wednesday evening.

(I would have started at 20 games, but then I was in the building the night that Brad Hornung was injured, so I’m a little sensitive about hits like this.)

That’s F Pavel Novak of the visiting Kelowna Rockets drilling Kamloops Blazers F Kyrell Sopotyk from behind during a Monday afternoon game. Sopotyk (shoulder) is expected to sit for up to two months.

The Blazers will open a six-game East Division trek against the Brandon Wheat Kings on Dec. 6 and Sopotyk, who is from Aberdeen, Sask., won’t make the trip.

That means he has been robbed of the opportunity to play in front of family and friends in his home province — Aberdeen is a few slapshots northeast of Saskatoon. He’s 18 so, due to the way the WHL works its schedule, will have to wait until the 2021-22 season for the next opportunity, in his 20-year-old season.

When the Blazers wrap up their East Division trip on Dec. 14, against the Prince Albert Raiders, Sopotyk will have missed 14 games.

I can’t remember anything like what is about to happen in the CFL’s West Division final in Regina on Sunday. I mean, the Saskatchewan Roughriders acquired quarterback Zach Collaros for the 2018 season, then signed him over the off-season thinking he would be their guy. But he got mugged three plays into this season and, once recovered from the concussion, was traded to the Toronto Argonauts. Meanwhile, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers lost their starter, Matt Nichols, and dealt for Collaros. On Sunday, then, Collaros will lead the Bombers into Regina with a berth in the Grey Cup on the line. . . . Wait, there’s more. . . . Cody Fajardo, who took over the Roughriders when Collaros was hurt, went on to have a fabulous season. But now there’s this problem with an oblique muscle, meaning Fajardo may not be able play on Sunday, which would give Isaac Harker his second career CFL start. . . . A year ago, you may recall, the Roughriders and Bombers played a West Division semifinal in Winnipeg. Collaros was concussed and wasn’t able to start for the Roughriders, who, after days of intrigue, trotted out Brandon Bridge. . . . The Blue Bombers won that one, 23-18.

Superman

In case you missed it, and I did, Team WHL played a touring Russian side in Saskatoon on Wednesday night. It was Game 5 of the annual CIBC-sponsored funfest. While the first four games — two each versus the QMJHL and OHL — got great exposure from the CHL’s broadcast partner, Rogers Sportsnet, last night’s game started on something called OLN and then was joined in progress on some Sportsnet channels. . . . I wanted to watch, but I couldn’t find OLN and, no, I don’t stream. . . . But, hey, it was the Toronto Maple Leafs at New York Islanders on five channels on my setup, with the Ottawa Senators at New Jersey Devils on another. Oh, and two channels had on something called Gotta See It, leading eventually into the Dallas Stars at Calgary Flames. . . . And by the time the WHL/Russian game was joined in progress, I had moved on to a couple of PVR’d episodes of Hogan’s Heroes. (Was a men’s wear store part of Stalag 13? If not, how is it that Hogan and Co. always seem to be wearing such well-fitting clothes?) . . . Anyway, I seem to recall a dearth of CHL playoff games on Sportsnet last spring and there was no sign of the outdoor game last month between the Calgary Hitmen and host Regina Pats. . . . Seriously, CHL, if this is the best your broadcast partner is able to do for you, it might be time to move on.

——

BTW, I went to Google hoping to find out something about OLN. This is from Wikipedia: “OLN is a Canadian English-language Category A specialty channel. OLN primarily broadcasts factual-based adventure-related programming and reality television series primarily aimed at male audiences.”

You have to love the big story in Major League Baseball these days about the Houston Astros and cheating. Only in baseball is their ‘honest’ cheating — having a runner on second base stealing an opponent’s signs — and ‘dishonest’ cheating — doing it with a camera from centre field and banging a garbage can in a tunnel to let the hitter know that he’s about to see an off-speed pitch. . . . And we won’t even get into the fact that the Astros are investigating themselves on this one.

Gotta run. Time to dig into Ken Dryden’s latest work . . . Scotty: A Hockey Life Like No Other. You’re right. I couldn’t wait until Christmas.

DogVoice

Mondays With Murray: You Want a Good Driver? Check with Roger Penske

Last week it was announced that the George family had sold the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indianapolis 500, Brickyard 400 and the Indy Car Grand Prix. The 2.5-mile oval in Speedway, Indiana, that has been in the Hulman-George family since 1945 now is owned by Roger Penske.

In honor of Veteran’s Day (Penske is a big supporter of veterans) and Penske’s purchase of the IMS, we bring you Jim Murray’s column from April 19, 1993.

Enjoy!

——

APRIL 19, 1993, SPORTS

Copyright 1993/THE TIMES MIRROR COMPANY

JIM MURRAY

You Want a Good Driver? Check With Roger Penske

  It used to be said, if you wanted a baseball player, you checked with Branch Rickey. He could spot a 20-game winner from the window of a moving train, so the legend went.

  If you wanted a football player, you went with Knute Rockne. He could get George Gipp out of a pool hall.

  Needing a fighter, you would go to Cus d’Amato and tell him whether you wanted a Patterson or a Mike Tyson.

  A Louis B. Mayer could find star quality in a guy parking cars at the studio lot.

  mondaysmurray2But if you want a race car driver — and ones named Unser or Andretti aren’t available — check with Roger Penske.

  Penske can spot a racing champion driving a cab. Or a truck. Look at the record: He found Mark Donohue, who was a graduate of Brown University, no less, and looked more like a refugee from an Ivy League faculty than a speed merchant. Penske won Indianapolis with him.

  Then, he sort of found Tom Sneva driving a school bus in Spokane, Wash. He was principal of a high school, for cryin’ out loud. Penske won Indianapolis with him.

  He found Rick Mears on a motorcycle in Colorado. Penske won four Indianapolises with him.

  None of those guys really fit the mold of the hard-bitten leadfoots of the roaring road. I mean, they didn’t remind you of A.J. Foyt till they hit Victory Lane. Neither did Danny Sullivan when he won for Roger at Indy. Danny had been a Manhattan playboy.

  So, when Penske signed a young Canadian chauffeur named Paul Tracy to replace the retiring Mears last year, a lot of people might have wondered what he saw in him. Except it would be like asking Rockne what in the world he saw in the Four Horsemen. Or what made Doc Kearns think Dempsey could fight.

  Paul did not fit your basic profile of an Indy prospect. He wore glasses for nearsightedness. He was so pale he could haunt a house. You could see through him. If he chewed gum, you could see it.

  But he had been driving cars since he was 6. His father would drop him off at a Go-Kart track with a box lunch and a can of gasoline and leave him there all day. He spent more time on wheels than entire teamster locals in eastern Canada.

  When he was 15, he was competing in world championship Kart races. As he got older he was around cars so much he almost needed a periodic oil change himself.

  Canadian kids are supposed to head for the ice as soon as they’re old enough to lace on skates. Paul Tracy preferred a garage to a rink, wheels to skates. He wanted to be an Unser, not a Gretzky.

  He won a Can-Am race when he was only 16, the youngest ever. He was winning races before his voice changed. He was driving cars when other kids hadn’t gotten off tricycles. He could drive better than he could walk.

  But there was nothing to suggest this was a future Foyt. Until Penske caught his act.

  Penske didn’t want to sit him on the pole at Indy right away. What he basically wanted, at first, was a kid with patience, common sense and an ability to stand boredom. All of these are in short supply along pit row, where the greatest collection of people in a hurry in the world can be found.

  Penske wanted to put his young discovery through a crucible of testing. This is a long, monotonous grind where you road-test cars, not by the hour but by the day. It’s a lonely boring way to spend a day. Or a week. Even a bus driver’s job is more fun than that of a racer, who has to tool a race car for interminable hours on an oval. He drives 500 miles and doesn’t go anywhere. He never sees another car.

  Tracy did it, day after dull day. And the day came when Penske finally decided he had paid his dues and put him in a race car.

  It’s too early to tell if he’s going to carry the Penske flag into further victories, but he got his first victory in an Indy car race on Sunday in the 19th Long Beach Toyota Grand Prix by more than 12 seconds over a former Indy winner, Bobby Rahal, and the current world Formula One champion driver, Nigel Mansell.

  Tracy was like a guy let out of the laboratory. He had company on the track. He even scrubbed wheels with Danny Sullivan. He had the thrill of several flat tires in traffic, and went through the crowded streets of Long Beach, instead of the wimpy surfaces of a test track.

  If you’ve ever looked at the family sedan gas gauge as it wavered perilously close to “E” and sucked it up and hoped it wouldn’t go on fumes as you were going through a rough stretch of road or neighborhood, you can sympathize with Driver Tracy.

  He had been exchanging leadership in the race with the great Mansell until he hit Lap 60 and pitted, surrendering the lead to the Briton. Tracy refuelled. He tailed the Mansell car until it needed to pit on Lap 73.

  Tracy had enough fuel for about 40 laps. He had 45 left in the 105-lap race. He put Mansell behind him and got ready.

  In that situation, you wait for the dreaded cough and sputter in the engine and the sudden loss of power and movement. It never came. Paul Tracy spun under his first Indy-car checkered flag.

  In a race that had Unsers and Andrettis and Formula One champions and six former Indy 500 winners, it came as a great surprise to a lot of people.

  But not to Roger Penske. He can pick a race driver out of a crowd shot at the Vatican at Easter. Winning with Paul Tracy is easy. He probably could have done it with Spencer.

——

Reprinted with the permission of the Los Angeles Times

Jim Murray Memorial Foundation, P.O. Box 60753, Pasadena, CA 91116

———

What is the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation? 

  The Jim Murray Memorial Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, established in 1999 to perpetuate the Jim Murray legacy, and his love for and dedication to his extraordinary career in journalism. Since 1999, JMMF has granted 104 $5,000 scholarships to outstanding journalism students. Success of the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation’s efforts depends heavily on the contributions from generous individuals, organizations, corporations, and volunteers who align themselves with the mission and values of the JMMF.

Like us on Facebook, and visit the JMMF website, www.jimmurrayfoundation.org.

——

A dozen years ago, Linda McCoy-Murray compiled a book of Jim Murray’s columns on female athletes (1961-1998). While the book is idle waiting for an interested publisher, the JMMF thinks this is an appropriate year to get the book on the shelves, i.e., Jim Murray’s 100th birthday, 1919-2019.  

Our mission is to empower women of all ages to succeed and prosper — in and out of sports — while entertaining the reader with Jim Murray’s wit and hyperbole.  An excellent teaching tool for Women’s Studies.

Proceeds from book sales will benefit the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization providing sports journalism scholarships at universities across the country.