Bob Sheppard, 99 (spilt-off)

[dgwphotography]

I can't believe this. The man died. A man who seemed to lead his life with class and dignity to the end, something that is in short supply in this country, IMO. Turning this thread into a yankee-bashing thread is disgusting.

[HahnSolo]

I really don't like the idea that they will keep using his voice to announce Jeter at the stadium. Seems well, morbid.

Rather than a moment of silence, a nice tribute would be a season of silence. Yankee batters would come up to no sounds.

PA guy could be used to announce the visiting team and all other promo announcements.

[Ceetar]

HahnSolo wrote: I really don't like the idea that they will keep using his voice to announce Jeter at the stadium. Seems well, morbid. Rather than a moment of silence, a nice tribute would be a season of silence. Yankee batters would come up to no sounds. PA guy could be used to announce the visiting team and all other promo announcements.

Keeping with the class theme, if they have a moment of silence, will they get someone to sponsor it? I'm not sure anything sponsorless is allowed on the board there, but they may make an exception.

[MFS62]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: It would be fun, though, if they did a "talk like Bob Murphy" telecast. Maybe just for a half inning.

There's a sales guy in my office. Every once in a while he tries to "change things up", so he'll spend an entire call talking like Cristopher Walken. He's not bad at it, either.

Later

[G-Fafif]

Now that he's gone, the recording of Bob Sheppard introducing Derek Jeter will descend from bizarre fetishism into utter creepiness. Paul Olden is good enough to announce his teammates' names, but The Captain requires his own fanfare? Yeesh.

Speaking of Bobs, theirs prepared and read a very nice tribute to ours on the night Murph passed away. That, along with everything I've ever read and heard about and from the man, made me like him despite the one association for which he's best known.

Of course to me he's mostly known for picking up his car.

[Ceetar]

G-Fafif wrote: Now that he's gone, the recording of Bob Sheppard introducing Derek Jeter will descend from bizarre fetishism into utter creepiness. Paul Olden is good enough to announce his teammates' names, but The Captain requires his own fanfare? Yeesh.

Is there anyone else in baseball that this wouldn't be considered egotistical?

[Guest themetfairy]

G-Fafif wrote: Speaking of Bobs, theirs prepared and read a very nice tribute to ours on the night Murph passed away. That, along with everything I've ever read and heard about and from the man, made me like him despite the one association for which he's best known.

This is reason for me to reconsider my reaction. My first thought was that nobody in MFY-land would have even acknowledged Murph's passing.

[G-Fafif]

themetfairy wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Speaking of Bobs, theirs prepared and read a very nice tribute to ours on the night Murph passed away. That, along with everything I've ever read and heard about and from the man, made me like him despite the one association for which he's best known. This is reason for me to reconsider my reaction. My first thought was that nobody in MFY-land would have even acknowledged Murph's passing.

They followed the moment of silence with a standing ovation. I reciprocated yesterday.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

themetfairy wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Speaking of Bobs, theirs prepared and read a very nice tribute to ours on the night Murph passed away. That, along with everything I've ever read and heard about and from the man, made me like him despite the one association for which he's best known. This is reason for me to reconsider my reaction. My first thought was that nobody in MFY-land would have even acknowledged Murph's passing.

Nice gesture. But he's not Murph, who was a PBP man when that meant something more than it does today-- he created the game for anyone watching. For all the dignity of his personal comportment, Sheppard was a classy prop-- Michael Buffer with gravitas.

Somehow, though, I doubt that, say, Jay Horwitz gets the same treatment when he joins the P.R Office Invisible.

Edited July 12, 2010 by Guest

[Benjamin Grimm]

Ceetar wrote: Is there anyone else in baseball that this wouldn't be considered egotistical?

It certainly should get that consideration here, as well.

[G-Fafif]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Ceetar wrote: Is there anyone else in baseball that this wouldn't be considered egotistical? It certainly should get that consideration here, as well.

Think about if Barry Bonds had done something like this, that if Candlestick had some legendary voice and he said, "I grew up listening to [that guy] announce my father and it was the thrill of a lifetime when he first announced me" and he insisted on a recording of it accompanying him to Pac Bell for the rest of his career. The story would be there goes Mr. Superstar separating himself from the team.

But Jeter does it and he's wonderful.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I was on my honeymoon and passed by a TV announcing that Jeter had solicited this privilege for himself (but not his teammates), and was praised lavishly for it.

"Honey, what are you upset about?"

"Mrmph. Nuttin'."

[Frayed Knot]

Don't have to leave NYC. Think of ARod asking (demanding?) that his (and only his) name be announced that way.
The guy would be skewered.

Heard Jeter, btw, talking about how he listened to Shepard growing up. In Kalamazoo?
Yeah I know he had NJ grandparents or something and probably visited from time to time and wanted to be the Yanqui SS since he was in the womb or whatever, but that one stretches it just a bit.
The Shepard/Jeter recording will be used in the AS game tomorrow.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah, well, at [crossout:3gvzcstb]Shea[/crossout:3gvzcstb] Citi, you're getting Alex Anthony or nothing.

[metirish]

Frayed Knot wrote: Don't have to leave NYC. Think of ARod asking (demanding?) that his (and only his) name be announced that way. The guy would be skewered. Heard Jeter, btw, talking about how he listened to Shepard growing up. In Kalamazoo? Yeah I know he had NJ grandparents or something and probably visited from time to time and wanted to be the Yanqui SS since he was in the womb or whatever, but that one stretches it just a bit. The Shepard/Jeter recording will be used in the AS game tomorrow.

I had the same thought when he said he listened to him growing up....is the last bit for real?

[MFS62]

The team is going to honor him by wearing his initials on their uniforms for the rest of the season.
Just what we need this week - more Yankee BS.

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

Wait, which team?

[MFS62]

Edgy DC wrote: Wait, which team?

more Yankee BS.

Later

[metirish]

[seawolf17]

Edgy DC wrote: Wait, which team?

Good thing Steinbrenner's dead, or it'd be ALL teams.

[Fman99]

G-Fafif wrote: Now that he's gone, the recording of Bob Sheppard introducing Derek Jeter will descend from bizarre fetishism into utter creepiness. Paul Olden is good enough to announce his teammates' names, but The Captain requires his own fanfare? Yeesh.

I'm rooting for some sort of zombie Bob Sheppard to handle this. You know, intermittently craving brains audibly while introducing Yanqui legends, and even perhaps taking bites out of the skulls of Michael Kay, John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman. I don't see any downside to this plan to be honest.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

(Biting insides of cheeks to keep the dark laughs from spilling out)

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Fman99 wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Now that he's gone, the recording of Bob Sheppard introducing Derek Jeter will descend from bizarre fetishism into utter creepiness. Paul Olden is good enough to announce his teammates' names, but The Captain requires his own fanfare? Yeesh. I'm rooting for some sort of zombie Bob Sheppard to handle this. You know, intermittently craving brains audibly while introducing Yanqui legends, and even perhaps taking bites out of the skulls of Michael Kay, John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman. I don't see any downside to this plan to be honest.

The collective brains of Kay, Sterling and Waldman would be as filling as stopping the temp waitress with the hors d'oeuvre tray, then seeing that all she had was the little hot dogs wrapped in cheap bread dough that once had Poppin Fresh on the label.

"Hors d'oeuvre?"

"Ah, no thanks. I'll wait for the next tray..."

Not saying it wouldn't be entertaining.

"HeeeeEEEEeeeees eating my brain!"

"Oh my goodness gracious! The zombie Bob Shepherd is walking through zombie George Steinbrenner's private box!"

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I wonder if they'll make it to Steinbrenner's. (That Madden somehow managed to make it about Bossypants... that's no matter for wonder. You expect that much.)

But hey, treating "important" people better than you treat others you deem of lesser consequence... they did learn something from Steinbrenner!

[seawolf17]

I'm surprised too, but the article even says that he didn't fraternize with the players. And he hadn't done a game in a few years, so he probably hadn't been around the park much to know any of these guys. Hell, I doubt some of these current guys ever even met Steinbrenner.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

It's more than a little odd that NO ex-players showed, though. And Jeter apaprently can't take a shit in the morning without hearing his Sheppard introduction, but... well... ?

[Zvon]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Fman99 wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Now that he's gone, the recording of Bob Sheppard introducing Derek Jeter will descend from bizarre fetishism into utter creepiness. Paul Olden is good enough to announce his teammates' names, but The Captain requires his own fanfare? Yeesh. I'm rooting for some sort of zombie Bob Sheppard to handle this. You know, intermittently craving brains audibly while introducing Yanqui legends, and even perhaps taking bites out of the skulls of Michael Kay, John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman. I don't see any downside to this plan to be honest. The collective brains of Kay, Sterling and Waldman would be as filling as stopping the temp waitress with the hors d'oeuvre tray, then seeing that all she had was the little hot dogs wrapped in cheap bread dough that once had Poppin Fresh on the label. "Hors d'oeuvre?" "Ah, no thanks. I'll wait for the next tray..." Not saying it wouldn't be entertaining. "HeeeeEEEEeeeees eating my brain!" "Oh my goodness gracious! The zombie Bob Shepherd is walking through zombie George Steinbrenner's private box!"

lol.
There's a comic strip in that.
But then there's a comic strip in everything.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

There's a wire story out now saying that the Yankees are denying that a bus full of players was headed to the funeral, but was delayed when it was caught in the traffic on the Meadowbrook after a fatal accident.

There was no bus for the players.

[G-Fafif]

It took place at 7 AM the day after the All-Star Break (here in the town where Bob and I live(d). I wouldn't blame the players for not showing...though George would have flown them all in for the occasion. Or he would have flown the funeral to the All-Star Game. He was all about winning.

[batmagadanleadoff]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: It's more than a little odd that NO ex-players showed, though. And Jeter apaprently can't take a shit in the morning without hearing his Sheppard introduction, but... well... ?

Off Topic trivia:

Who is the only Met player to have attended Casey Stengel's funeral?