It should have read "Carl Pohlad contracted"

I'll take a stab at latin here - de mortius nil nisi bonum dicendum est.

Who's the heir apparent?

flip the i and u

Ah yes, the Carl Pohlad we'll all remember, the one who fearlessly opened his wallet to keep his own players. Why, Hetty Green would have required a bushel of smelling salts at the thought of his free-spending ways.

Link.

He also inspired Mr. Burns, didn't he?

That link appears to be ripping off the wikipedia entry on him.

EDIT: I'm refering to the link in post 5.

Dei morti parla bene.

Or what JRE said.

On the bright side, he'll be buried under natural grass, his casket has a retractable lid and chances are good he won't be paying for it either.

Plus ca change.

Best Regardos

John

I believe his children have had the reigns more or less for a few years now, no?

Man, the STrib must have had their obit written for several years because it is pages long complete with pictures and interviews. They even have "Services?" at the bottom of it waiting for the relevant info.

Man, the STrib must have had their obit written for several years because it is pages long complete with pictures and interviews. They even have "Services?" at the bottom of it waiting for the relevant info.

They do this all the time, actually. IIRC, Bob Hope's NYT obituary was penned by a guy who died before Bob did.

Man, the STrib must have had their obit written for several years because it is pages long complete with pictures and interviews. They even have "Services?" at the bottom of it waiting for the relevant info.

I believe it's somewhat common knowledge that most newspapers and stations have obits prepared for most prominent individuals.

Man, the STrib must have had their obit written for several years

Almost every major newspaper has a preliminary obit in the can for major public figures.

EDIT: I owe TWO cokes!

Here's hoping the Twins have as much success as the Blackhawks have after Bill Wirtz died.

Bloomberg briefly published Steve Jobs obituary a while ago.

From the linked obit:

His next controversial move with other Major League Baseball owners was an attempt to shut down the Twins and the
Toronto Blue Jays, to contract the number of teams.

Nice piece of reporting, that.

I believe it's somewhat common knowledge that most newspapers and stations have obits prepared for most prominent individuals.

File this under: things we learned from Mary Tyler Moore.

They do this all the time, actually. IIRC, Bob Hope's NYT obituary was penned by a guy who died before Bob did.

Ditto Dr. Teller.

As for Pohlard, RIP. I had problems with him as an owner, but a man is much more than his job description.

I see some idiot lft the tags on. (looks up thread). Oh, I'm the idiot. Should've guessed. And it's too late to edit my original post.



Edited: Well, at least that fixed it, I guess.

File this under: things we learned from Mary Tyler Moore.

FWIW, I actually learned about the newspaper "morgue" from an old Superman comic from the '70s.

When I was living in Orlando, I knew a reporter who asked the subject of a pre-written obit - in this case, Dr. J - for help writing it.
As the guy explained, Erving was/is notoriously media shy - despite being a Magic VP, he wouldn't even grant interviews to the O-Sentinel, and that paper was a house organ for the team. So, the reporter figured he had to grab Erving's attention, because simply asking for a sit-down wasn't going to work.
Erving, he said, listened politely to the pitch and then replied, "That story doesn't need to be written yet." No interview - but the obit is in the can anyway.

It's time to update the "Worst Owners" list, now that numero dos is dead (RIP and my thoughts are with his family)- These are "Worst for the Team Owning Them", not "Worst for Baseball":

1 and still champion: Jeffrey Loria- Destroyer of Franchises, Flip-Offer of the Baseball Gods, Dealer of Fine Arts and Young All-Stars.
2. Peter Angelos- Alienator of the Fanbase, Choker of Tradition, Fifth Beatle of the East Coast Baseball establishment.
3. Robert Glass- Cheapskate that only Wal-Mart could produce.

I believe his children have had the reigns more or less for a few years now

that's a different King Carl...

I'll bet a lot of newspapers etc. no longer do this except for the biggest of the big shots. No spare manpower.

interesting. most obits of celebs that i've seen at the papers i've worked for were from NYT or AP or something like that ... if it was a movie star, we'd sometimes pick up the LA times version. but i think most newspapers do have a couple of their own ready for prominent locals. i'll bet the new orleans times picayune has already written paul prudhomme's obit. maybe even emeril lagasse, though he's not a native.

Not a bad day for the good people of Minnesota -- they lose Carl Pohlad and gain a funny new senator.

Jay Mariotti was very surprised to find out that sometimes things are written in advance.

Not a bad day for the good people of Minnesota -- they lose Carl Pohlad and gain a funny new senator.

Yes, clearly having a comedian represent you in the Senate decreases the likelihood of you being a laughingstock.

Seriously, what is wrong with you people? Jesse Ventura and now this?

Not that this Californian is exactly standing on solid ground...

Seriously, what is wrong with you people? Jesse Ventura and now this?

Not that this Californian is exactly standing on solid ground...

Yeah, you guys with your weird celeb governors - yet you still can't find a single governor as embarrassing as the politicians we elect (and re-elect!) here in Illinois.

Not that this Californian is exactly standing on solid ground...

Sonny Bono and the Governator vs. The Body and Stuart Smalley!

I'm smart enough, good enough and gosh darn it people like me!

Yes, clearly having a comedian represent you in the Senate decreases the likelihood of you being a laughingstock.

Seriously, what is wrong with you people? Jesse Ventura and now this?

Well, Norm Coleman didn't exactly cover the state in glory either, and of course lost to Ventura as well. The problem with the state is that by and large the Republicans who run for the state level are either more conservative than the state (Pawlenty) or smarmy and unlikeable (Coleman), but the DFL system for selecting candidates for whatever reason consistently offers up mediocrities. That leaves room for a Ventura to take advantage or for Franken to win despite himself.

On the Pohlad news.... well, I'd wish that this meant a change in how the baseball operations would be managed, but I'm not expecting much. Thanks for saving the team and for 1987 and 1991, but it would have been better had he died shortly thereafter. If he had, and Eloise Pohlad been the face of the franchise while one of the sons ran it the last 15 years, I imagine the Pohlad family would have a much better image in Minnesota.

Two words: Paul Wellstone

hard to say something on a thread about a guys death that you feel his loss makes the world a better place.

hard to say something on a thread about a guys death that you feel his loss makes the world a better place.

Actually, I thought the thread was rather free of that kind of thing.

Seriously, what is wrong with you people? Jesse Ventura and now this?

The other option was Norm Coleman. That makes Franken look pretty good actually.

Pohlad won championships. I could only wish he had owned the Pirates.

Too bad he missed seeing the realization of his dream of finally moving the team into old metropolitan stadium so that they could play in 4" of snow on opening day.

Sonny Bono and the Governator vs. The Body and Stuart Smalley!

Not to mention their forebears, George Murphy and Helen Gahagan

hard to say something on a thread about a guys death that you feel his loss makes the world a better place.

Actually, I thought the thread was rather free of that kind of thing.

There's probably a joke to be made about Pohlad, the current depression, and home foreclosures, butI don't have the heart to try it.

If having Al Franken in the Senate will make Minnesota a laughingstock, it's only because of reflexive and infantile responses by the media. Franken's entire job for the last decade or more has been as a guy who creates humor out of lots and lots of damning facts about Republicans, like Michael Moore without the lies and obesity. Read one of his books and you won't exactly feel enlightened, but you'll have experienced more truth than from any normal politician's "books", which are generally collections of cliches and timid platitudes.

Another way to look at things is that he's a satirist. Satirists have to be quite aware of reality and not be afraid to admit uncomfortable things, in order to be effective. Norm Coleman has never had an incentive in his entire life to say anything other than the aforementioned cliches and timid platitudes, and we have no idea if he has a brain in his head or believes what he says. And his past life doesn't clear things up either.

FWIW, I actually learned about the newspaper "morgue" from an old Superman comic from the '70s.

I think the "morgue" is something else, where they keep their primary reference materials and old archives of photos. Not the premade obituaries, which should fit into a single filing cabinet.

Read one of his books and you won't exactly feel enlightened, but you'll have experienced more truth than from any normal politician's "books", which are generally collections of cliches and timid platitudes.

Both Left and Right, all the literary world mourned the passing of the William F. Buckley.

Pohlad the local guy and even Pohlad the owner in MN was pretty good. He made Puckett the higest paid player in all of baseball for a week once and compared to the previous owner, Cal Griffith, he didn't flat-out shrink from spending. We've seen cheap, Calvin was cheap, but Carl was more thrifty than cheap. He established a culture of conservatism rather than a Loria-like strip-mining so that once the revenue sharing money started flowing in the mid-90s they rebuilt.

But Pohlad the Seligula operator was the one that draws fire. It's easy to set that aside at the time of his death, but over time it's likely that his threats to move or scuttle the team could easily become his legacy rather than so many of the good things he did. RIP.

Franken's entire job for the last decade or more has been as a guy who creates humor out of lots and lots of damning facts about Republicans

You can't govern that way. Franken's got to start standing for things instead of against Republicans, and frankly I haven't been too impressed with him over the past year. I was a Cireci guy until he realized normal wouldn't play against a cardboard cutout famous person and withdrew from the Dem race. Here's my Franken anecdote: there's a 4th of July parade in the small town near my parents' lake place on the Iron Range in northern MN. It's a short parade, only about 8-10 blocks and maybe 30-40 minutes. Franken was placed about 1/3 of the way into the lineup. He spent so much time shaking hands and talking to people that he completely stopped everything, creating a 15 minute gap. People were leaving because they thought it was over. Neither he nor his handlers had any idea how disruptive they were, or worse, they knew exactly how disruptive they were and stayed on task. Regardless, as a nominal Democrat at the end of the Bush years and faced with a Republican like Coleman I still voted against Franken. On top of not respecting him much I just don't like him. But at least we get to extend our history of ridiculous representation...

Pohlad won championships. I could only wish he had owned the Pirates.

That thought occurred to me when I saw the news of his passing on the ESPN crawl. I dunno much about his activities during the 1930s, but he had a competitive franchise. FWIW, I'd throw the Reds in with the Pirates.

3. Robert Glass- Cheapskate that only Wal-Mart could produce.

Its David Glass, and I think he has been awful, but he has opened up the wallet the last two seasons.

I'm glad to see that this thread has been a nice mix of "oh good, he's dead" and a political discussion. Really nice.

hard to say something on a thread about a guys death that you feel his loss makes the world a better place.

I didn't like Pohlad as an owner, but can we please stop short of proclaiming that his death is good news?

In the spirit of the discussion of pre-written obituaries, you all may enjoy this list of premature obituaries. Marcus Garvey's is probably the best, although there's a nice baseball connection on James Earl Jones's.

I think the "morgue" is something else, where they keep their primary reference materials and old archives of photos. Not the premade obituaries, which should fit into a single filing cabinet.

I know the guy writing the obituaries in advance worked in the Daily Planet morgue for this particular comic book. Not that it means that it has anything to do with reality, of course. :-)