Some Farewells

As Tony and Mike say on Pardon the Interruption, we bid Happy Trails today to.....

Jim Leyland

As you no doubt know, Leyland announced yesterday that he would not be returning as manager of the Tigers in 2014.  Leyland, after eight years and four post-season appearances, including two AL pennants, has decided that age 69, he's had enough.   

When I first heard this news, I said to myself, can the slurp job column from Ron Cook be far behind?  Well, Cookie did not disappoint.  Hey, I get it that Cook thinks Leyland was a great manager and a good guy, but he really should be embarrassed with that column this morning.  No Hollywood press agent couldn't have written a bigger puff piece than that one.

More to the point, I will accept the fact that Leyland has been a good, though not necessarily great, manager throughout his career (although even his admirers admit that he didn't have his best series in the recently concluded ALCS), but to me, he is the guy who broke his contract with the Pirates for better and more lucrative deal in Miami, and flat out quit on the Rockies in Denver when things weren't to his liking.  His loyalists will defend those moves - as Cook does in his column this morning - but they are black marks on his resume and his character as far as I am concerned, but, again, that's just me.  And I find it interesting that Mrs. Grandstander, upon hearing the news, said, "Do you think he means it this time?"

Bum Phillips

The colorful former coach of the Houston Oilers passed away this weekend at the age of 90.  How can Steelers fans of a certain age ever forget Bum Phillips, strolling the sidelines in back-to-back AFC Championship games at Three Rivers Stadium?  I wonder if we would still find him lovable had the Oilers managed to win one or both of those games?  Sad to think that in the NFL of Roger Goodell, the Stetson hat, cowboy boots, and sheepskin jacket that Bum wore on the sidelines would not be considered "approved sideline apparel", and Bum would have been forced to don whatever Nike and Park Avenue told him to wear.

It was a bad weekend for Houston Oilers fans as death also claimed owner Bud Adams.  Adams was a Texas oil gazillionaire who, along with a few other risk takers, started the American Football League back in 1960.  Of course, Adams also grew to fit the profile of the modern sports owner when he moved the Oilers to Nashville when a better stadium deal, i.e., one that made him more money with no cost to him, came along.  Only 95 year old Ralph Wilson in Buffalo remains from that group that started the AFL back in 1960.

Enjoy that retirement, Jimmy Leyland, and smoke 'em if you got 'em, and RIP Absent Friends Bum Phillips and Bud Adams.