To Absent Friends - Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon

Freddy Cannon

1936-2026

One of American Rock 'n Roll's big stars of the "pre-Beatles" era left us this week when Freddy Cannon does at the age of 89.

Born Frederick Picariello in Massachusetts , Cannon came on the scene with two big hits in 1959 - "Tallahassee Lassie" which he wrote, and "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", but his biggest hit came in 1962 with "Palisades Park" which peaked at Number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.  Among people who have cited Cannon as influential to them are Mick Jagger and Robert Plant, and author Stephen King mentioned Cannon's music in four of his novels.  "Tallahassee Lassie" has been covered by both the Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac, and  the  Beach Boys, among others, have covered "Palisades Park".  It is also said that Cannon holds the record for most appearances on Dick Clark's American Bandstand with 110.

Ands let's face it, is there a better nickname in all of rock 'n roll than Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon?  I think not.

Cannon continued to write, produce, and perform into the 2010's.  You can see him perform his biggest hit "Palidsades Park" on this 1:58 clip.  Thank you, YouTube!

RIP Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon.
 

To Absent Friends - Gene Shalit

 

Gene Shalit

1026-2026

Legendary movie and entertainment critic and regular on the Today Show Gene Shalit died this weekend at the age of 100.  Tributes to Shalit and the amazing way that he had with words and puns in his film reviews have been all over the media in the days following his death ("Ishtar ishterrible"), and they are great fun to read.

Tis post will be my story of one of his reviews  that sticks in my mind.  It was in 1977 for the Paul Newman hockey movie "Slap Shot".  Shalit didn't care much for the movie and I remember happening to be watching the Today Show when he said:

"Slap Shot is has an R rating, which means that no one under 18 can see this movie unless accompanied by a parent.  Any parent that would take a kid to this movie deserves to be slapped.  Or shot!"

How great was that?

RIP Gene Shalit.

To Absent Friends - Joe Negri

 

Jazz guitar virtuoso Joe Negri died over this past weekend.  He was ten days shy off his 100th birthday.

When I say "jazz guitar virtuoso", I am not exagerating for Joe Negri was known throughout the world of jazz music as one of the very best.  In his life, he has performed with a Hall of Fame line-up of jazz musicians from the 1940's to the end of his life. Born in the Mt. Washington section of Pittsburgh and a graduate of Taylor Allderdice High School, Negri served in the Army at the tail end of WW II, and, upon returning from the service, he toured with various bands and jazz groups, but he chose to stay in his native Pittsburgh, and you just cannot have grown up watching television or following The Arts scene in Pittsburgh over these last seventy plus years (like I have) without knowing who Joe Negri was.  

He appeared and played on children's shows like "Ricki and Copper" and "Paul Shannon's Adventure Time".  He was also in the house band at KDKA-TV, back when local television stations had such things, and appeared on locally produced programming like The John Reed King Show and Daybreak.  He was one of those people who become completely ingrained in the fabric of the community, and when such people leave us, you feel like you've lost a member of the family.

However, many of my not-in-Pittsburgh friends who may read this, people who have never lived in The Burgh, will, if they or their children grew up watching "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" on PBS, know of Joe Negri as "Handyman Negri", an regular visitor to Rogers' Land of Make Believe on that landmark children's program.  

Negri also passed on his musical gifts to countless Music and theater students over the years as an instructor at both Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne Universities in Pittsburgh.  His affiliation with Duquesne lasted over forty-five years.

He continued to play the guitar and perform right to the end of his life.  The world of jazz music has lost one of its very best performers, and Pittsburgh has lost one of its Legends. 

RIP Joe Negri.

To Absent Friends - Ted Turner

 

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Ted Turner, who died at the age of 87 earlier this week, was one of the most significant persons of our times over the last forty or so years.  This editorial cartoon that I stumbled upon says it best, I think.

Yep, all of those logos sum up what Ted Turner did in his lifetime.

He took a small UHF television station in Atlanta, put it on cable systems across the country and created television's first "Super Station".

He bought the Atlanta Braves and put it on this Super Station, now called Turner Broadcasting System, or TBS, and in the process created Braves fans throughout all fifty states of the country.

He captained his yacht, Courageous, to victory in the quadrennial America's Cup races, and earned the nickname Captain Outrageous in doing so.

In what may be his most significant accomplishment, he established the first 24 hour cable news network, CNN.  This forever changed the way the country and the world receives the news of the day.

His Turner Broadcasting empire grew to include TNT, Cartoon Network, TruTV, and my personal favorite, TCM - Turner Classic Movies.  

The fact that you can now watch four basketball games simultaneously during the first weekend of March Madness can in large part be attributed to Ted Turner.

Became one of the country's foremost environmentalists and conservationists.

He married Jane Fonda!  If ever there was such a thing as a "Power Couple", that was it.

Obituaries and tributes to Turner abound in the internet.  You should seek them out and read them.  He was a real game changer.

RIP Ted Turner.

"Captain Outrageous"

One of my favorite things!

World Series winner with the Braves in 1995

"He came into my life, a gloriously handsome, deeply romantic, swashbuckling pirate and I've never been the same. He needed me. No one had ever made me feel needed before, and this wasn't your average person needing me, this was the creator of CNN and Turner Classic Movies, who had won the America's Cup as the world's greatest sailor. He had a huge life, a brilliant mind and an incredible sense of humor."

- Jane Fonda

To Absent Friends - Bob Skinner

 

Bob Skinner

1931 - 2026

One more member of the Pittsburgh Pirates 1960 World Series Championship team left us yesterday when Bob Skinner, the regular left fielder on that team, died at the age of 94.  

Skinner had a 12 year major league career, which included nine seasons with the Pirates.  In that magical 1960 season, Skinner hit .273 with 15 home runs and 86 RBI.  I recall that he was injured early in the World Series and only played two games against the Yankees with one hit in five at bats and an RBI.  Over the course of his twelve year career, he hit .277 and averaged 12 home runs and 62 RBI (prorated over 162 games).  He also was a role player on the Cardinals' 1964 World Series championship team, going 2-for-3 with an RBI against the Yanks in that Series. 

It is always significant when the member of one of Pittsburgh's most memorable and beloved teams leaves us, and Skinner's death is especially significant in that it now leaves only one member of that team still alive, ace pitcher Vernon Law, now 96 years of age.  I made the comment on Facebook yesterday that Law, as the last survivor of that 1960 squad and the last survivor of that theorhetical tontine, now gets to drink from the special bottle of champagne.  It was then pointed out to me that as a devout Mormon, Law would not drink this alcoholic beverage.  I was making a metaphor, of course, but that is somehow fairly ironic, is it not?

These first months of 2026 have been hard on that team as it has seen the passing of three of its vital members, Roy Face, Bill Mazeroski, and now Bob Skinner.

I wonder what Vernon Law is thinking today.

RIP Bob Skinner.

To Absent Friends - Phil Garner

 

Sad news arrived this past weekend when we learned of the death of former Pirates second baseman Phil "Scrap Iron" Garner at the age of 76.

It was in March of 1977 that Pirates GM Harding Peterson swung a nine player deal with the Charley Finley of the Oakland A's.  The Pirates sent six players of Oakland, including pitchers Dave Guisti and Doc Medich, and received three in return, the most significant of whom was second baseman Garner, and yet another piece was put in place that would lead to a World Series Championship for the Pirates in 1979. Garner played five seasons for the Bucs, made the All-Star team twice, and during that 1979 postseason Garner hit .417 against the Reds in the NLCS and .500 (12 for 24) against the Orioles in the World Series.  In noting Garner's passing on PTI yesterday, Michael Wilson noted that while Willie Stargell and Dave Parker were the stars of that Championship team, perhaps no one epitomized the grit and intensity in which that team played the game than Phil Garner, and in that regard his "Scrap Iron" nickname, bestowed upon him by Stargell, said it all.

 

Garner had a 16 year career as a player, and then went on to manage three different teams, the Brewers, Tigers, and Astros, for a total 15 seasons.  In 2005, he managed the Astros, then the National League, to their first ever pennant.  The following season, the All-Star Game was played in Pittsburgh, and Garner, as Manager of the NL team, named his 1979 Pirates manager Chuck Tanner as his Special Assistant in managing that squad.  It was class move by Garner in tribute to his old manager and the home town fans in Pittsburgh.

"Scrap Iron"

He was a regular at Pirate Alumni events

Garner becomes the twelfth member, including skipper Chuck Tanner, of that World Series team to leave us.  Fourteen members are still alive.  You can see the list at the end of this post.

RIP Phil Garner.

	1979
Pitchers	Jim Bibby
	Bert Blyleven
	John Candelaria
	Grant Jackson
	Bruce Kison
	Dave Roberts
	Don Robinson
	Enrique Romo
	Jim Rooker
	Kent Tekulve
Catchers	Steve Nicosia
	Ed Ott
	Manny Sanguillen
Infielders	Tim Foli
	Phil Garner
	Bill Madlock
	Willie Stargell
	Rennie Stennett
Outfielders	Matt Alexander
	Omar Moreno
	Mike Easler
	Lee Lacy
	John Milner
	Dave Parker
	Bill Robinson
Manager	Chuck Tanner
	Deceased	12
	Still With Us	14

To Absent Friends - Neil Sedaka

 

Neil Sedaka

1939-2026

I did not want to let too much more time pass before registering this tribute to singer/songwriter Neil Sedaka, who died last month at the age of 86.

A musical prodigy on the piano, Sedaka teamed with his Brooklyn high school classmate and friend, Howard Greenfield, and together they produced hit records out of New York's Brill Building like "Oh Carol", "Happy Birthday, Sweet 16", "Calendar Girl", and perhaps his biggest hit, "Breaking Up Is Hard to do", which was Number 1 on Billboard Top 100 in 1967.  Like many of his contemporaries, Sedaka was swept away by the British tidal wave of bands and singers that was led by the Beatles in 1963.  Sedaka continued to write music and perform, but his days as a star appeared be over.

In the mid-seventies, however, it was one of those British stars, Elton John, who encouraged Sedaka to come back, and John helped produce the album "Sedaka's Back", the album that brought Sedaka back into mainstream popular music, and after that, he never really went away.  His comeback  was also helped immensely when the duo of The Captain and Tennille recorded his song, "Love Will Keep Us Together", a song that became one of the biggest hits of the decade of the 1970's.  (If you listen closely to the closing chorus, you will hear them sing the words "Sedaka is back".)  In one of his obituaries he was quoted as saying that after "Love Will Keep Us Together", he went from an annual income of about $50,000 to one of over $4 million.  He even re-recorded his biggest hit, "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do", this time as a slower, more romantic ballad, and it once again hit the Billboard Top Ten in 1975.

Neil Sedaka had a long and prolific career, he was said to had written close to a thousand songs, but I will close by saying that my own personal favorite of his was "Laughter In The Rain".  You can see him singing it live in a performance recorded in 1975 HERE.  The fashions and the hairstyles are way out of date, but that song never will be.

RIP Neil Sedaka.

To Absent Friends - Jesse Jackson

 

Last week death claimed one of the towering figures of the American Civil Rights Movement, and indeed, a dominant figure in American culture since the 1960's, when the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson died at the age of 84.

Far be it from to enumerate Jackson's contributions to both the Civil Rights Movement in particular or to American society in general.  I will only say that I admired him, and that his death takes away another bit of America's conscience when it is most sorely needed here in 2026.

I will also remember Jackson as one of the greatest orators of our time.

How about this for inspiration when he told a crowd that everyone can be Somebody.

And could any minister, priest, or rabbi deliver as moving a eulogy and moving as was Jackson's eulogy for Jackie Robinson?

And to show that he never took himself too seriously, listen to him here on Saturday Night Live when, in a tribute to Dr. Suess, he read Green Eggs and Ham in pure Jesse Jackson style.

RIP Jesse Jackson

"I am.....somebody!"

Jackson (L) with Martin Luther King in Memphis 

moments before King's assassination

1968

To Absent Friends - Bill Mazeroski

 

Maz

1936 -2026

Bill Mazeroski died two days ago at the the age of 89.  He authored the single most dramatic and important sports moment in Pittsburgh sports history with his 1960 World Series Game 7 walk off home run that defeated the mighty New York Yankees. If you were alive and a sports fan in Pittsburgh back then, it is a moment that you will never forget, so why do I lead this post with a picture, albeit a posed one, of Maz taking a throw at second base instead of THIS picture?

Well, I do so because Bill Mazeroski is probably the single greatest defensive player, certainly the greatest defensive second baseman, that baseball has ever known. If you were lucky enough to have been a Pirates fan through the 1960's, as I was, and you got to watch Bill Mazeroski play second base day-after-day, year-after-year, as I did, then you know, you simply just KNOW, that there was no one better in the field than Maz was at second base.

He won eight Gold Gloves, led the league in put outs five times, assists nine times, and double plays eight times. His 1,706 double plays is still the all-time record for second basemen in history.  He was selected to ten all-star teams.  His batting stats are certainly not noteworthy.  He was a career .260 hitter with an OPS of .667. Pro-rated over 162 games, he averaged 10 HR and 64 RBI, which is probably why he often batted eighth in the batting order.  Still, he DID hit that Game 7 walk-off HR (he also homered in Game 1 of that Series), and that made him immortal, and for the person who just looks at stats, the temptation became to dismiss him as just another player who was lucky to have lightning strike him at one opportune time in his career. Like I said, though, if you SAW Maz play over the course of his career, you don't need any fancy advanced SABRmetrics to know that he was a Hall of Fame player on his defensive merits alone, and 29 years after he played his last game, the Veterans Committee of the Hall of Fame bestowed upon him the honor that he deserved.

Sports fans in the city of Pittsburgh have been fortunate over the years to have been able to  watch so many greatest-of-the-great players perform for the local teams - Clemente, Stargell, Bradshaw, Greene, Harris, Lemieux, and Crosby just to name a few - but I would have a hard time coming up with anyone who may have been more beloved than Bill Mazeroski.  That '60 Series winner was a big reason, but Maz was always so humble about it.  While I can't say that I ever had what could be called a conversation with him, I was in his company on several occasions over the years at charity golf outings, and he was just about the most unassuming guy you could imagine.  And he was always a presence in town at  any Pirates related event over the years.  I would guess  that a "Bill Mazeroski" autograph, like this one that I own 

can't be worth very much, because Maz had to have signed hundreds of thousands of them over the course of his life.

They built a statue of Bill Mazeroski outside of PNC Park not long after the Park was opened.  Of course, it depicts him circling the bases after that 1960 World Series home run.  I wish that the designers would have taken a different route when designing that statue.  It should be a statue of Maz turning double play, something like this:

And while researching photos for this post, I came across this great one.  It shows Maz at his position at second during the last game played at Forbes Field in June, 1970.   That section of the wall that has been stripped of the ivy with the "406" marker?  Yes, that is the part of the left field wall over which THAT home run traveled.

With Bill Mazeroski's passing, only two members of the 1960 World Champs remain, Bob Skinner and Vernon Law.  Maz was also a member of he Bucs' 1971 World Series winners, and now only ten of those players are still with us (see list at end of post).

RIP Bill Mazeroski.

	1971
Pitchers	Steve Blass
	Nelson Briles
	Dock Ellis
	Dave Guisti
	Bob Johnson
	Bruce Kison
	Bob Miller
	Bob Moose
	Bob Veale
	Luke Walker
Catchers	Manny Sanguillen
	Milt May
	Charlie Sands
Infielders	Gene Alley
	Dave Cash
	Jackie Hernandez
	Bill Mazeroski
	Jose Pagan
	Richie Hebner
	Bob Robertson
Outfielders	Roberto Clemente
	Gene Clines
	Vic Davalillo
	Al Oliver
	Willie Stargell
Manager	Danny Murtaugh
	Deceased	16
	Still With Us	10