RIP Bob Sheppard

[Baron Scicluna]

One of my favorite Sheppard stories was from a book that I read a long time ago of which, the name escapes me. But anyways:

The Yankees were on a road trip, so Sheppard and his wife decided to travel up to New England for a few days. The Yankees eventually came to Fenway to face the Red Sox, and Sheppard decided to attend the game and stopped in the press boxes to say hello to some people.

The Red Sox PA announcer got the idea to have Sheppard work an inning, thinking it would be really cool to have the fans hear him at Fenway. The first batter in the top of the inning was Reggie Jackson. As Sheppard told the story in the book, he described Reggie as someone who thought he was on a first-name basis with everyone in the ballpark.

So Reggie starts digging in the batter's box, and Sheppard announces his name, the same way he always did. Reggie jumped out of the box and started looking around frantically, wondering where the heck he was. Finally, Reggie looked up to the press boxes, where Sheppard waved to him, and Reggie waved back and went back to hit.

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

Liked him even more as PA man for NY Giants.

This is the '86 NFC Championship. I still have the VHS tape my father used to tape this game. Seeing McConkey leading the charge just got me all kinds of fired up ...

 

[Blitz]

Memories of a lifetime.
That's some good stuff. Why we now need smoke, fire extinguishers, fire and other pyrotechnics in pregame is beyond me.
That pregame approach right there, from Giants Stadium circa mid 1980s, will suffice for me any day.
Damn all these special effects you see now!

 

[Ben_Hecht]

I really enjoyed Wally Matthews' column.

http://sports.espn.go.com/newyork/mlb/news/story?id=5371428

The great irony is that the third graf of Matthews' column pretty
much describes the WWL, now.

 

[old_tony]

Sheppard obviously was good at what he did and he did it for a long time.

And I don't mean to demean his career, but I have to ask: If he did exactly the same thing for the same amount of time, but did it for the Minnesota Twins and Vikings or the San Diego Padres and Chargers, would his death be more than a footnote? Would it be thread-worthy?

 

[trifectarich]

Sheppard's philosophy that all of the current PA screamers need to adopt:

"I'm not a cheerleader; I don't think a public address announcer should be one. I'm not a circus barker, who strings out the announcement of a home team player. That curdles my spirit when I hear it."

Agreed. I want to throw up every time I hear, "And now, stand up and make some noise for YOUR . . . "

 

[bigpern23]

Sheppard obviously was good at what he did and he did it for a long time.

And I don't mean to demean his career, but I have to ask: If he did exactly the same thing for the same amount of time, but did it for the Minnesota Twins and Vikings or the San Diego Padres and Chargers, would his death be more than a footnote? Would it be thread-worthy?

I don't think the list of legends who appeared in those uniforms can nearly match the ones who put on pinstripes. So having someone with an iconic voice like Sheppard announcing the names of the game's icons in one of its iconic stadiums for nearly 60 years is going to have a bit more gravitas than it would at PetCo Park.

 

[old_tony]

Sheppard obviously was good at what he did and he did it for a long time.

And I don't mean to demean his career, but I have to ask: If he did exactly the same thing for the same amount of time, but did it for the Minnesota Twins and Vikings or the San Diego Padres and Chargers, would his death be more than a footnote? Would it be thread-worthy?

I don't think the list of legends who appeared in those uniforms can nearly match the ones who put on pinstripes. So having someone with an iconic voice like Sheppard announcing the names of the game's icons in one of its iconic stadiums for nearly 60 years is going to have a bit more gravitas than it would at PetCo Park.

So it was the names he was saying and the stadium in which he was saying them? Exactly the point I was making.

 

[YankeeFan]

Nice story from the Times about Sheppard's funeral:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/sports/baseball/16vecsey.html?hp