The Grandstander Returns and Absent Friends

For a period of thirty-two (32!) days, March 28 until today, April 29, The Grandstander has made exactly one (1!) post, and many of you are probably asking, "Where in the hell has The Grandstander been?"  

You HAVE been asking that, right?

Well, there has been much going on in our lives these recent weeks, including a death in the family and brief vacation that I need to share with you. There's start of the Pirates season, and the Steelers Draft, and thoughts on the Truman Capote classic "In Cold Blood" on which I want to opine, and over the next several days I will share my thoughts on all of those matters, but first, let's start with what is undoubtedly The Grandstander's most popular feature: Obituaries.  Three Absent Friends to commemorate today.

Larry O'Brien

Larry O'Brien

1942-2024

The death of long time Pittsburgh disc jockey and radio personalty Larry O'Brien comes less that six moths after the death of his on-air partner John Garry.  The team ruled the Pittsburgh morning drive time radio airways from 1975 to 1997.  There is no reason to change any of the wording that I used when I memorialized Garry's death last October:

"John Garry....and partner Larry O'Brien ruled the Pittsburgh morning drive airwaves for over twenty years from 1975 to 1997 on WTAE 1250 and on 96.1 FM.  I spent my entire working career, it seems, waking, showering, dressing, and driving to work listening to O'Brien and Garry.  To me at least, they were the team that finally filled the void in  Pittsburgh radio left when Rege Cordic and Cordic & Company left in 1965 for Los Angeles.

"I can still remember many of the bits that these guys performed over the years.  It is radio and television personalities like John Garry (and Larry O'Brien) that become such a rich part of the communities in which they worked."

Carl Erskine

Carl Erskine

1926-2024

The death of baseball player Carl Erskine at the age of 97 is notable for several reasons, but perhaps the foremost reason is that he was the mainstay member of the pitching staff of the team that was memorialized in Roger Kahn's classic book, "The Boys of Summer", the Brooklyn Dodgers circa 1949-56.

Erskine pitched twelve years in the majors, all with the Dodgers, and won 122 games.   He was a twenty game winner in 1953, and pitched two no-hitters in 1952.  In game three of the 1953 world Series, Erskine struck out 14 batters, including Mickey Mantle four times, to establish a Series record that stood for ten years.  He was the starting pitcher for the Dodgers for their first game ever in Los Angeles.

After his retirement, he returned to his native Indiana where he became a banker, working his way up to becoming president of the bank and a high official in the Indiana State Bankers Association.  He also coached a small college baseball team to four conference championships in his tenure.

One of the Erskines four children was special needs child, so he also become involved in Special Olympics and raising awareness for special needs persons.

In more recent years, the Borough of Brooklyn renamed a street Erskine Street in his honor, and that street is, of course, located in the vicinity of where Ebbets Field once stood.

Carl Erskine's life was truly a life well lived.

Roman Gabriel

Roman Gabriel

1940-2024

The thing that I remember about quarterback Roman Gabriel, who died this month at the age of 83, is that he was big.  Really big.  In the current era of guys like Josh Allen, Ben Roethlisberger, and Joe Burrow, quarterbacks who are big don't stand out, but in the late 1960's, the 6'5" Gabriel stood out against peers such as Fran Tarkenton and Bart Starr.  Gabriel was good, too.  His career lasted 16 season, eleven of them with the Rams, and he threw 201 touchdown passes against 149 interceptions.  He was the NFL MVP in 1969 and the Comeback Player of the Year a few seasons after that when he moved to the Eagles.  

He also dabbled in acting with some modest degree of success.  He has 28 credits in IMDB including a movie, "The Undefeated" with John Wayne and Rock Hudson, and spots on Rowen and Martin's Laugh-In, Perry Mason, Wonder Woman, and Gilligan's Island.

He played most of his career in the pre-Super Bowl Era, and his Rams never made it to the NFL Championship, either.  He is not a Pro Football Hall of Famer (although he is a member of the North Carolina State HOF), so he is not all that well remembered here in the 2020's, but he was quite a force in the NFL during his time.

RIP Larry O'Brien, Carl Erskine, and Roman Gabriel.