Comments on: George Brett, 1978

By: a red sox fan from pinstripe territory

a red sox fan from pinstripe territory — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:44:47 +0000

21. I agree that while I mainly want to strangle Hawk, he can be good in rare situations. During the 40th anniversary of the Impossible Dream Team stuff in '07, he was in the booth with the Red Sox announcers--when he fawns over your team and park it makes everything okay. Also, when I get White Sox-Yanks coverage on mlb.tv and it's the Chicago feed, it's fun to hear the announcer rooting as hard as you are against the Yanks. My intro to Hawk was actually when he was a Yanks announcer on MSG for a little while.

By: Ennui Willie Keeler

Ennui Willie Keeler — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:36:04 +0000

20. Harrelson and Stockton were the Red Sox TV team when I was introduced to the game. I don't really remember what they were like, but the only sportscaster from that era I recall people complaining about was Howard Cosell. I was looking at an old book recently. There was a pic of the Hawk in an outfit that was straight out of Austin Powers.

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:52:23 +0000

19. 18 : Just yesterday I was listening to Hawk getting interviewed by Chet Koppick (sp?) on the radio, a format that lessened his customary supreme-homer bluster, and he was saying some interesting things. He obviously knows a lot about the game and has a lot of great stories. I think he might actually be growing on me. When I first moved to Chicago five years ago I wanted to strangle him and bury him in a shallow grave with a marker engraved with two words--"he gone." But now I'd miss him if he actually was gone. And I wish I had a card of him during his playing days to do a post about him, but he hung up the spikes a few years before I started collecting cards.

By: Scott Long

Scott Long — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:41:23 +0000

18. I know there is almost universal hatred for Hawk Harrelson at the Toaster, but one of my favorite things about him is his complete man-crush on George Brett. Hawk loves Catfish Hunter almost as much, but when he discusses Brett, you can almost hear his boner growing. Hawk might not understand Moneyball, but he could really write a great baseball book discussing the people and things that have swirled around him during his time in the game. I would love to see a piece you would do on him. Love him or HATE him, he always has been an original...and I say that about few people in life.

By: mercy

mercy — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:21:39 +0000

17. I'd like to reclaim a line now that it has achieved its purpose elsewhere: Brett was the most feared hitter of his generation. (Obviously the following is skewed by who was hitting behind him, but Brett did have more intentional walks than any of his contemporaries.)

By: RichardGereHead

RichardGereHead — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:17:39 +0000

16. Burghoff also get to K the immortal Ellis Valentine in that Fantasy Island episode.

By: scareduck

scareduck — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 03:46:26 +0000

15. 1993 in Plieningen, Germany, a little burg just outside of Stuttgart where they have the big Mercedes factory, and I’m stuck on a babysitting mission. It’s April, and the snow is long gone, but for some reason I get back late from work at the base and I can’t find my hotel keys (really, more like an apartment block with maids) and nobody’s at the front desk.

I slept in my car that night, which overstates it by quite a bit because I quickly discovered how cold it gets at night.

After the sun came up, I found the hotel key.

I caught a cold that lasted the next week.

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:20:54 +0000

14. 13 : You've got to watch it all to see: A) Fred Lynn's commitment to the role. The dude screws himself into the dirt fanning on Burghoff's loop-de-loo, then still has the presence of mind to recite his line: "I thought Nolan Ryan was tough." B) Leslie Nielson, perhaps the only Fantasy Island guest star ever whose career improved in the years after his appearance on the show. And don't call him Shirley.

By: mbtn01

mbtn01 — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:48:07 +0000

13. I can't believe I just watched that whole Brett video. I always liked Brett because of how pure his rage was against the Yankees in the pine-tar thing. I'd have probably gone with Schmidt because I was an NL guy, but I liked 'em both well enough.

By: RichardGereHead

RichardGereHead — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:14:36 +0000

12. I absolutely couldn’t stand George Brett growing up. The main reason for my pure hatred for the man was that he absolutely killed my team, the Brewers, seemingly at will. It didn’t matter who was pitching, he always seemed to be able to hit a double off the wall of old county stadium right when the Royals needed it the most.

But, it’s funny how your memories are. Through the “miracle” of the internet, I see he really wasn’t any better against the Crew than he was against, say, the lowly Mariners of the same era.

The Brett/Schmidt comparison above I saw in a totally different light. Brett was a smug pretty boy to me. Always smiling. Had the world by the tail. Model perfect wife and 2.5 kids. Tons of money. Lots of media fawning all over him. I hated him and his sky blue jersey.

Schmidt on the other hand quietly smacked out 35+ dingers a year, walked about 100 times, and played a great 3rd base.