The Good...The Bad...The Ugly of the Week...
The Good
Journeyman Dodger pitcher Matt White is definitely the good 'fortune' person of the week for no other reason than the finding of a rock quarry that he owns in western Massachusetts being worth many millions, possibly a couple of billion. The rocks are made into material used for sidewalks, patios and other stone by-products that sell for $100 per ton. Matt has 24 million tons of the stuff. You do the math. Matt is one 'good' candidate but so is Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell who called the use of performance enhancing drugs not only a federal crime but also "an egregious form of cheating". With no subpoena power he's trying to clean up baseball's drug problem so Mitchell gets the good 'intentions' person of the week. Neither is this week's good 'person' of the week. That award goes to former NFL defensive back Everson Walls who last week donated a healthy kidney to former Dallas teammate Ron Springs who desperately needed one. Both former players are doing well after the operation. We need more people like Everson Walls in this world...
The Bad
The candidates include Cincinnati Bengals (another one?) linebacker A.J. Nicholson who was sentenced to 60 days on a work program and 2 years probation after pleading no contest to burglary and grand theft, South Carolina QB Stephen Garcia arrested twice in recent weeks for a DUI and keying of a professor's car. Garcia is suspended through the end of the semester. And then there's the NBA's Ron Artest who slapped a woman's face, was arrested and charged on suspicion of domestic violence and using force or violence to prevent the victim from reporting a crime and the on-going probe into the illegal sale of steroids out of Albany (NY). New sports names accused have surfaced that include former nut-job pitcher John Rocker, Olympic wrestler Kurt Angle, major leaguer David Bell and Ohio body builder Victor Martinez. The feds are going for the suppliers, not the sports figures and have already made several arrests. Another candidate for bad 'person' of the week award is non-player Deon Willford who hit former Pacers guard Stephen Jackson with a car during a fight outside a strip club last year after Jackson fired a gun in the air. Willford was sentenced to 2 years in prison. Jackson also faces charges. The winner is: The Albany group of drug suppliers...
The Ugly
The ugly 'scene' of the week in sports was the bloody, broken nose of North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough who was mugged by Duke's Gerald Henderson in Sunday's game won by the Tarheels. Henderson was absolved of any wrongdoing but suspended for one game by officials after they saw 9 replays of the play and spoke to the players and coaches. Of course it took color man Billy Packer only one replay to absolve Henderson. Packer, way off base, was also quoted as saying "that is a poor piece of officiating" referring to a flagrant foul and ejection of Henderson. Packer, as we've all come to know is a basketball genius, after all. The ugly 'person' of the week doesn't go to Henderson or Billy Packer - it goes to Adam "Pacman" Jones for drawing police interest at least 10 times since the Tennessee Titans made him their top draft pick in 2005. When Jones got out of his Corvette while a SWAT team served a search warrant at his Georgia home last year, a drug investigator said the sports car reeked of marijuana. His name comes up again this week because he has the NFL's attention focused on him. Look for them to lower the boom on him and soon...
More WRKO 40th anniversary memories follow and today's video link was supplied by John Gorman. It's a recent 'Happy Birthday Radio' video used recently by Boston's channel 5 (WCVB) in a special devoted to New England radio. It's long at 19 minutes and 15 seconds but well worth your viewing. Click on: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4569021939106575335&q=WCVB+Chronicles ...
Here's an update on our recent story about the exhumation of 'The Big Bopper's" body at the request of his son, Jay Richardson: The Big Bopper suffered massive fractures and likely died immediately in the infamous 1959 plane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. There is no evidence found that a gun may have been fired, no indication of foul play and contrary to rumors The Big Bopper neither tried to crawl or walk away from the plane. He couldn't...
Timeline Memories...
"Happy Trails": 1999] Movie director Stanley Kubrick dies in his sleep from a heart attack at 70...
Peter Pan flittering about in living color: 1955] The 1st Broadway play is televised in color, featuring the original cast of "Peter Pan" starring Mary Martin...
Or was she dressed as a purple onion?: 1955] Phyllis Diller makes her debut at San Francisco's Purple Onion...
He's baaaaaack: 1960] "Tonight Show" host Jack Paar returns to the show after walking off the set one month earlier over his 'water closet' joke...
"D-I-V-O-R-C-E": 1967] Sandra Dee receives a divorce from Bobby Darin. They were married in 1960...
TNN Spike's: 1983] TNN (The Nashville Network) debuts. TNN has since morphed into "Spike TV"...
Banned in Boston: 1774] The British close the port of Boston to all commerce...
"Can you hear me now": 1876] Alexander Graham Bell receives U.S. Patent No. 174,465 for something called the telephone...1926] 50 years later the 1st successful trans-Atlantic radio-telephone conversation takes place between New York City and London...
"And the winner and still champ": 1951] Ezzard Charles wins a 15-round decision over Jersey Joe Walcott giving the champ his 8th heavyweight title defense victory...
And the winner and new champ": 1987] 20-year old Mike Tyson becomes the youngest heavyweight champion after decisioning James "Bonecrusher" Smith in a 12-round fight in Las Vegas...
How high is the sky?: 1954] The NBA raises baskets from 10 feet to 12 feet for a game between Minneapolis and Milwaukee in an attempt to keep the big guys from scoring so much. This test lasts for one game after the final score is only 65-63...
Sounds like a good place to campaign (ask Barack and Hillary): 1965] State troopers and a sheriff's posse breaks up the famous civil rights march in Selma (AL)...
"Money, Money, Money, Money": 2002] A federal judge awards Anna Nicole Smith more than $88 million in damages in a legal battle over the estate of Smith's late husband, J. Howard Marshall II (in retrospect, money is not everything is it?)...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in each timeline]...
George Capalbo, remembering the day WRKO was born - March 13, 1967
"Happy 40th anniversary. I vividly recall filing the change of call letters with the FCC to make it legal. I was working long and exhausting hours to prepare for the big changeover. I have fond memories of the management and staff all pulling in the same direction and the elation we still experience at the success of the legendary WRKO". George Capalbo was our chief engineer who put together state of the art studios at WRKO from scratch. George, like Perry Ury and Harvey Mednick would go on to work at the corporate level. I remember meeting George on a plane headed for Harris Corp. as we bought our automation system for WRKO-FM...
From Roger Allan: "How can I ever forget the day we kicked Boston in the ass? The Now Generation hit Boston big. It's a 'happening'. There was the Globe, the Herald and the WRKO top 40 sheets. We had the newest of the new broadcast styles with 20/20 News which won inumerable news awards from UPI, AP & RTNDA thanks to people like John ("the barrrrrrometic pressure") Masters & Bob Stevens,Bill Rossi and Bob Cusack. The George Capalbo studios had the nation's best equipment. What a time for all of us." (Roger Allan was News Director of WRKO starting at WNAC and The Yankee Network before the call letter change)...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
2006 Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz (36), Tennis Hall of Famer Ivan Lendl (47), Ernie Isley (55), Steeler teammates Lynn Swann and Franco Harris (both 55 today), Peter Wolf (J. Geils Band) (61), Michael Eisner (65), Tammy Faye Bakker (65), Daniel Travanti (67) and Willard Scott (73)...
Timeline Countdown: 14 days until spring and 25 days until Opening Day...
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