Sunday, June 4, 2017

The Freakin' Weekend (1971)

Then, on the next Sports Illustrated, it's Al Unser (and Peter Revson) on the cover. It's Friday night (June 4, 1971), at last ...


Maybe I'll clip and fill out my All-Star ballot this (freakin') weekend ...

Here's where we stand, MLB71wise ...




Why, yes, that is a Patio soda (Go Heath!) that (future-A!) Ken Holtzman is enjoying after his big game ...


As always, there is plenty to do around and about Chicago ...




But, of course, I will likely spend a good bit of it hanging out at the house, catching up on Mac Divot ...





... and TV, which is mostly in reruns ...




Not totally in reruns, however--there is a fresh Bobby Sherman special on ABC tonight!


33 comments:

  1. Nicklaus says the difficulty of the courses--Masters/Augusta, U.S. Open/Pebble Beach, British Open/Muirfield and PGA/Oakland Hills--will reduce the number of players who could win a major. "There is much less likelihood that a long shot will finish first in a major event," he writes.

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  2. The special was brought to us by Dr. Pepper, "America's Most Misunderstood Soft Drink."

    There must be quite a detailed story behind that tagline.

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  3. Hey, cool ... the guy who wrote this special, Marc B. Ray, also wrote for New Zoo Revue and Mulligan Stew. I go to church with a woman in Madisonville who did children's ministry at a church in Las Vegas with some of the early New Zoo Revue crowd--I wonder if this guy was one of them.

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  4. Well, look, that television program was exactly as clever and nuanced as you might expect a half-hour Bobby Sherman variety special airing in summer rerun season at 7 p.m. Central on a 1971 Friday night to be. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you, Bobby Sherman, Fifth Dimension, Rip Taylor (who also appeared as a guest star; I would probably enjoy It Ain't All Confetti, too), Marc B. Ray, Dr. Pepper, TV, developers of internet technologies and applications and YouTube user "Goldfox."

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  5. Ugh. I've already seen this Love, American Style.

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  6. The whole story is really great. Kirshenbaum noted that The New York Times "in running the Soviet team's itinerary had unaccountably referred to Paintsville as 'Hicksville.' The slur was further belied by the town's consolidated new Johnson Central High School, an ultramodern building with a gymnasium seating 5,500, which exceeds Paintsville's population by 1,400."

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  7. By the way, this story has Hoptown/Chicago 1971 me a little worried for Team USA at Munich 72. "Nearing the end of a three-week U.S. tour, the tall pasty-faced strangers stayed around Paintsville long enough to demonstrate qualities they have in common with the Ralph Beards and Dan Issels who are held so dear in those parts," Kirshenbaum wrote. "They whipped an American team 97-86, then departed for an easy win in Albuquerque before finally losing in Salt Lake City. When they left this week for Moscow, they took along an 8-1 record against U.S. competition, all of which makes one wonder whether the game might not have been invented by Dr. James Naismithonovich after all."

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  8. By the way, if you missed Rev. Graham in person in Chicago, you can check him out on TV the next three 1971 nights--with telecasts of his 1971 Kentucky Crusade. In 1971, Graham hit Lexington in April and Chicago in June. He's headed home to Montreat, North Carolina, now, and then he's scheduled to be in Oakland, California, late in July.

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  9. When he’s in Oakland next 1971 month, maybe Billy Graham will check out the A’s.

    Oakland struggled with the visiting Yankees over the weekend, losing two of three, and now its American League West lead is the thinnest it has been in some weeks. MLB71 standings as of morning of June 14, 1971 …

    A.L. West
    A’s 39-21
    Royals 31-23, 5 games back
    Twins 28-32, 11
    Angels 28-33, 11.5
    White Sox 21-33, 15
    Brewers 21-34, 15.5

    A.L. East
    Orioles 36-20
    Tigers 33-26, 4.5
    Red Sox 32-26, 5
    Indians 28-29, 8.5
    Yankees 27-32, 10.5
    Senators 21-36, 15.5

    N.L. East
    Pirates 38-23
    Mets 33-23, 2.5
    Cardinals 35-27, 3.5
    Cubs 29-31, 8.5
    Expos 24-30, 10.5
    Phillies 23-35, 13.5

    N.L. West
    Giants 40-23
    Dodgers 33-28, 6
    Astros 30-31, 9
    Braves 29-34, 11
    Reds 25-35, 13.5
    Padres 21-40, 18

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  10. Remember Randy Hundley’s knee problems? This situation continues to receive sports-front attention in Chicago Tribune, and news has actually trended more and more dire. Last 1971 week, the Cubs’ star catcher had a new surgery on the knee, and a vein inflamed and he had a gall-bladder attack. There’s been some back and forth among doctors and various spokespeople about whether Hundley’s medical condition reached critical at one point.

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  11. Detroit manager Billy Martin is stumping for a system by which major-league managers would be polled on the performance of umpires and the low scorers at season's end would be relegated to the minors.

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  12. Replies
    1. This Johnny Bench slump is a matter of big controversy, and it seems to be at least as much of a problem for the Reds as Bobby Tolan's or Wayne Simpson's injury woes.

      Here's Billy Reed in the June 7 Sports Illustrated (as "William F. Reed") in a story headlined, "Cincinnati's Big Red Clunk":

      Then there is Bench, last year's Most Valuable Player. He has 14 home runs, which is not bad, but his average dropped below .235 during a recent slump. Even more disturbing, Bench is not producing with men on base. Of his 14 homers, only six came with a man on—and none with two or three men on. In last week's three-game series at Pittsburgh, Bench was 1 for 12 and he left 12 runners stranded. "I'm not happy with the way I'm swinging," says Bench. "I started trying to hit to right field and I guess I tried too hard. Also, I've seen some awful good pitching this year." ...

      In Bench's case, his problems may have something to do with the special pressures involved in superstardom at the age of 23—or at least that's what Anderson was saying in Pittsburgh as he watched reporters and announcers pulling and tugging at Bench from all sides. "I wish they would just let him go out there and play ball," said Anderson.

      "You know, I've been afraid of failing ever since I was 18," said Bench later. "You wonder if you can live up to the expectations not only of yourself but of others. Now when I come out on the field I know I'm the target man and it's something to have all those people yelling at you. I don't know whether it's affected my play or not. I don't think I've let down on my catching. Hitting, well, it's nothing new for me to be down there and come back."

      To those who claim he may have overextended himself with a weekly TV show and other business interests, Bench says: "Look, I don't know how long I'll play up here. I want to enjoy life now and do as much as I possibly can. I want to do what I want, wear the kind of clothes I want and buy what I want."

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    2. The Reds, by the way, on June 14 brought up Wayne Simpson from his AAA assignment in Indianapolis.

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  13. The Red Sox, suddenly struggling, have called up former Indian, Twin and (briefly) Brave Luis Tiant from Triple-A Louisville.

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