“Now blathering ... number 2 ... Derek ... Jeter ... number 2”
Reports that a bus carrying Yankees players to Bob Sheppard’s funeral Thursday got stuck in traffic due to a fatal accident on a Long Island highway are false, according to a team spokesman.
“We didn’t organize any bus for the players,” Yankee publicist Jason Zillo told ESPNNewYork.com. “I don’t know about any bus.”
Asked if it would have been his responsibility to arrange for team transportation, Zillo said, “I would think so.”
NY1 cited police as reporting a bus carrying Yankees players was delayed in a traffic jam caused by an auto accident on the Meadowbrook Parkway in which three people were killed. Other Yankees sources denied any knowledge of the report and confirmed to ESPNNewYork.com that there was no organized travel plan for players to attend the funeral. “Maybe the players got stuck in traffic in their cars, and then got on a bus to try and make it,” said a source, who acknowledged, “That doesn’t seem very believable.”
A column in Friday’s Daily News took current and former players to task for not making an appearance at the funeral of the Yankees’ legendary public address announcer. Team captain Derek Jeter, who has insisted a tape recording of Sheppard introducing him be played before every one of his Yankee Stadium at-bats for the rest of his career, was the most conspicuous no-show. According to a team source, Jeter flew home to see his family in Tampa after the All-Star Game in Anaheim on Tuesday night. “I don’t know why he didn’t fly back to New York to attend the funeral,” the source said.
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1. Hang down your head, Tom Foley Posted: July 16, 2010 at 06:07 PM (#3591455)Too late.
THis is such a great visual. The New York Yankees meet an episode of CHiPs. Fantastic!
Ponch: Hey, you're Derek Jeter.
Jetes: I've got no time for autographs now. We have to get to a funeral!
Ponch: Hey, our anti-terrorism police bus is parked right on the shoulder.
(Jetes and Ponch give each other a simultaneous, knowing look. Each turns toward the camera and fist pumps.)
But this is just ridiculous. He was a stadium announcer. Only the massive and utterly bizarre fetishization of the Yankees as a franchise, as if literally everything about them is and must be Meaningful would make the death of their stadium announcer a huge news item. And who attended his funeral?
Bob Sheppard is less than a footnote in baseball history. He is somewhere between a vendor and a broadcaster. Just because he happened to perform this role for a long time, and just because he happened to do it for the bleepin' Yankees does not make him a significant figure in the game. And the fact that anyone is making an issue of whether or not Derek Jeter or anybody else associated with the team went to his funeral is just a reflection of NY tabloidism, and that isn't new or news, either.
Derek Jeter's strange fascination with hearing Bob Sheppard's voice calling his name is just that: strange. It might be a matter between Jeter and his therapist, but it doesn't obligate Jeter to go to Sheppard's funeral.
Enough. Jesus, the Yankees' self-importance has become self-parody already, and the elevation of Bob Sheppard to a mythic figure is just a reflection of it.
YANKS: NO $10M CHECK SENT TO SHEPPARD'S FAVORITE CHARITY
YANKS: NO UNIVERSITY CHAIR ENDOWED IN SHEPPARD'S NAME
YANKS: PLAN TO RENAME STADIUM AFTER SHEPPARD NEVER EVEN ON CLUB'S AGENDA
YANKS: SCHEME TO OVERTHROW LATIN-AMERICAN PRESIDENT AND REPLACE WITH HEREDITARY HOUSE OF SHEPPARD FLATLY DENIED
It's been a self parody for years and years and years. And years. I blame the baby boomers.
I agree with most of this, so long as you'd be willing to say similar things about, say, the guy in the Philly Phanatic costume. Sheppard is familiar and endearing to Yankee fans because he's been around forever and because he, or at least his voice, has become very recognizable and associated with baseball generally and the Yankees specifically. He's very much a "Local Hero" but he happens to come from a huge locality. It's silly to expect fans of other teams to care much, beyond general "it's sad that someone died" sentiments, but this is an article from ESPN New York, not the lead item on Sports Center.
QFT
Of course -- except that I am willing to bet that there will be no equivalent rending of garments, public wailing, and near-canonization of the guy in the Philly Phanatic costume when he goes in 30 or 40 years. This may be from ESPN New York, but believe me, Sheppard stories have been prominent on Sports Center since he died.
And it's just too much to take. Wall-to-wall coverage of Steinbrenner's legacy and the reactions to his death -- that I get. He really was a significant, complex figure. Totally justified, even if it is just as Yankee-centric . . . .
Fair enough. I've weaned myself off Sports Center so I'll take your word for it.
The Yankees pay their own way, maybe you're thinking of Wendy Selig.
Except with CHiPs and the Yankees instead.
Ah, good old Roy Steele. I think I should go sports bar to sports bar in NYC tonight and make sure every Yankee fan gives Roy Steele his props.
That said, it is a little silly to be ripping the Yankee players for not going to his funeral. Every non-tabloid, non-"Worldwide Leader" story I've read made it clear that Sheppard and the players were not close -- and that Sheppard wanted it that way. He was an old school figure for whom sports and celebrity were a bit too infra dig. His work day was essentially call the game, sneak in some reading between hitters, get the first elevator down after the last out.
For those who see it as Yankee fetish run amok, let it be reported that Sheppard's favorite sporting moment was Pat Summerall making a kick in the snow -- not a Yankee moment. He did the PA at NY Football Giants' games for fully 50 years -- 1956-2006. Granted that's 8, as opposed to 81, days per year in the workplace, but how many ex-Giants do you think went to his funeral?
Actually, this one wouldn't be a bad idea. At St. John's of course.
You'd think George the Beatific would have already done this.
Anonymously.
We're talking about the guy who read the names and uniform numbers of the players over the PA system before their at-bats, right?
I have no facts but I think it's not a stretch to guess that Sheppard was fairly well compensated by the Yankees. I could see Steinbrenner doing that. Either that or you go to some really fancy burger joints.
Sheppard:
-played football, well, in college
-was president of his senior class
-a high school teacher
-a college professor
-announcer for the Yankees, Giants, and St. Johns, simultaneously, for decades.
To paraphrase a Simpsons episode: Has Bob Sheppard contributed more to the world than you? I don't know you, but, yes.
Another annoying part of all the Yankee self-importance about Sheppard's death is that it has trampled over nearly all mention of his association with the Giants, which was just as deep if not deeper (if a handful of years shorter) and covered just as many legends of that game.
I still hear, "Bahhbuh with the carry, five yards. . . . Second down." in my sleep. If you went to Giants games, you heard that many times in the past decade.
We're talking about the guy who read the names and uniform numbers of the players over the PA system before their at-bats, right?
Let's not shortchange him here. He did read the uniform numbers twice.
To paraphrase a Simpsons episode: Has Bob Sheppard contributed more to the world than you? I don't know you, but, yes.
And given the tone of his comment, I'd say a hundred times more would be an understatement.
-played football, well, in college
-was president of his senior class
-a high school teacher
-a college professor
-announcer for the Yankees, Giants, and St. Johns, simultaneously, for decades.
To paraphrase a Simpsons episode: Has Bob Sheppard contributed more to the world than you? I don't know you, but, yes.
I think what invites the snark is that those five things aren't of the same cloth. The first contributes little to the world. The second contributes more but not a lot. The third and fourth dwarf the rest. The fifth gave people a lot of pleasure but -- as Sheppard and his family and friends would, by all indications, be the first to admit -- was a minor part of the person Bob Sheppard was. Indeed, that's what's most exemplary about Sheppard -- that he kept things in the proper perspective. Teaching young people is, as was in Sheppard's prime years understood reflexively, orders of magnitude more important than reading the names of Yankees before they batted. As was being a good husband and good father. The fact that the names he read were Yankees changes those essential truths not one iota.
I agree with "somewhere between a vendor and broadcaster", though the tone of the post is pretty reductive. But if one of these people had more longevity than the New York Mets organization, for example, I think a rememberance is worthy.
I don't want to minimize his contributions this way. In my opinion, it isn't that they were Yankees, but that so many championships and so much baseball history happened with him at the microphone.
I'm not sure if occupational prestige is the benchmark to use to determine if this was epic snub as suggested by these news reports. Regardless if a person is a VP or a trainer, if the person was seen as an important and iconic person of the organization, which I think a person with low occupational prestige can sometimes attain even if rare, then I guess the absence of long time players is newsworthy. I don't know if Sheppard qualifies as such person though. But if he doesn't, it shouldn't be because he was just a lowly stadium announcer. On a personal level, I could care less if Capt Jetes attends skipped out especially since he had no personal relationship with Sheppard.
Maybe you should just try to learn a bit more about Sheppard's life before reducing it to soundbites. But then in the age of google and thousands of online newspapers, that would require such an effort, and I'm sure that the five required minutes would inconvenience you terrifically.
All Walter Cronkite did was read the news.
A lot of Yankee history and championships happened with Michael Kay at the microphone -- a more oft-heard microphone at that. Kay sucks at his job; Sheppard was great at his job. When Michael Kay passes on, will we have this kind of reaction?
If he does it for fifty years? Yup.
So you don't really have to do your job well, you merely need to show up?
I think we can see where the snark originates.
Okay I respect Sam very much; he is an intelligent poster, a fine human being. Unfortunately you are a Mets fan and Yankee hater, which you should probably be even more respected for, unlike half the NYC morons who root for whomever has a better record that day.
But the guy's voice was synonymous with Yankee Stadium. As a kid I never talked to my any of my Yankee hereos (Brian Fisher doesn't count, I had to pay $10 for his autograph at a card show when I was 14), but I can remember that guy's voice from the first trip when I was 7. And I had a pretty small window of 'going to the stadium', but I bet you could poll a wide range of MLB players who remember the first time their name was announced at Yankee Stadium for the first time.
As a kid I would literally dream of hearing my name announced by him. Even before I knew what his name was. One of the computer guru's should make an app where you can type in a phrase with his "dialect" so you can hear what it sounds like, for the win. It certainly would tax the servers in the NY/NJ/CN area.
Fifty years of doing anything is pretty remarkable. Fifty years of doing something for the Yankees. Sorry, he's important. Deal with it.
You and I clearly disagree on whether Kay is acceptable at what he does. I think he is.
I guess not, but this is the same forum which has seen about 50 threads about some zilch named Francoeur, and almost as many on a washout named Wieters, so pardon me if I'm skeptical about the standards of excellence here.
Except all these threads are actually about how ridiculous and overrated they are, Mr. Grumpy.
Come on, you had to have expected SOME backlash. Honestly, is the stuff you'd be hearing on the street - as here, barely and from predictable sources - if people still talked as much to each other in person as online.
To which every fan of 29 of the 30 major league teams says, so freaking what?
The unctuous self-aggrandizing of Yankeedom has rarely been in more vivid display than in this episode.
Backlash against the Yankees, sure. But what did Sheppard himself do to warrant this dismissive snark? I wonder what your reaction would be if the death of Tom Seaver were to prompt a similar reaction from non-Mets fans.
--------------------------
The unctuous self-aggrandizing of Yankeedom has rarely been in more vivid display than in this episode.
To which Sheppard himself contributed absolutely nothing. And you, of all people, should know this. If this were Steinbrenner, sure. If this were Dimaggio or Mantle, yeah, because those two were notoriously creepy to just about everyone who wasn't either a teammate or a check writer. But all I'm seeing here is a lot of generic Yankee hatred spewing out at the most bizarrely inappropriate target.
Oh, and I'll await your reaction to the comments made if Barry Bonds were to croak prematurely.
I'm not SHOCKED, but I'm a little momentarily surprised Jeter didn't. Kind of an "Oh, really?" And then forgotten. I still think he has the power to do things quietly.
Backlash against the Yankees, sure. But what did Sheppard himself do to warrant this dismissive snark? I wonder what your reaction would be if the death of Tom Seaver were to prompt a similar reaction from non-Mets fans.
Yeah, that's a different thing, players and announcers. I honestly think that emotionally it's easily more understandable for people to be invested in Sheppard - or Steinbrenner - than any particular player, so I'm not sure what that does to your example. I'm just not willing to condemn non-Yankee fans - I'm one - for being feeling over-Yankeed this week. I don't feel so, even in regards to Sheppard, but I do understand it.
As someone who has done PA work for minor league teams and the Hall of Fame, I can safely say that the job is not that easy, or at least not that easy to do well. It can be especially difficult when people are constantly shoving announcements in your face, interrupting you in the midst of an announcement, or asking you to make announcements on the fly, without a script or written notes to follow.
In regards to the funeral, it's not just that none of the current Yankees decided to go; it's that no single Yankee player that Sheppard ever announced decided to go. If you don't find that surprising, then perhaps your reaction could be the one described as "bizarre."
Again, I can see the snark WRT Steinbrenner, whose legacy as a human being (not to mention as an executive) was decidedly mixed. But not WRT Sheppard, and I'm genuinely surprised that even the most vehement of non-Yankee fans can't seem to understand the distinction. Sheppard wasn't just a PA announcer. He was a gracious man without an enemy in the world, who lived about as exemplary a life as is humanly possible, and in more than one era seemed to represent just about all that remained of that overworked concept of "class" within the Yankee organization. Just let it go at that.
To which Sheppard himself contributed absolutely nothing.
Yes, but that's completely beside the point. The issue isn't Sheppard, who by every account was a wonderful guy. The issue is the spectacular overinflation of the significance of this perfectly fine modest guy who did his job perfectly well into an epic poem of profundity. Please give us a flipping break. Unbelievable as it might be, the entire universe does not revolve around every mundane aspect of the operation of baseball games at Yankee Stadium.
twitter/@thejohnrocker: "a bus? really? a bus? put the Yankee players on the 7 train with the freaks and the queers"
If Shepard was a high school teacher and a college professor, then I agree that he made a worthy contribution to the world (assuming he was competent and didn't diddle any of the kids).
"Now listen... she told me she was eighteen... your honor. Eighteen."
Oh, do give us a break. Whatever the Yankees does or doesn't do it will be sure to draw insane rantings and ravings from otherwise seemingly normal people. If they had decided to play down honoring Sheppard (which would have been the wrong move, in my opinion), those people would have ranted and raved against that.
This.
Only if they re-do and combine the pop-out sneaker-skate one, and the car that could roll over down a hill onto a new highway to escape.
Those criminals were dastardly. The massive 20 car pile up episode was my favorite. I was a ghoulish kid, I guess.
After the last game at Memorial Stadium in 1991, the final words played were a Jumbotron videotape of Rex Barney saying his "Thank youuuuu" catchphrase from his hospital bed. In 1997, the day Barney died, the Orioles played an entire game in silence, with no announcements of any kind. The Camden Yards flags were at half mast, and a commemorative plaque was installed at Barney's regular press box seat, which was kept vacant except for a Dodgers cap and scorebook, because he'd been a pitcher for the 40s Dodgers.
Dave, incidentally, is a damned fine PA man himself. And about the nicest guy you'll ever meet.
But that doesn't mean that Barney didn't mean every bit as much to Orioles' fans as Sheppard did to Yankee fans. I only wish that we'd had ExtraInnings during Barney's heyday, and that the Orioles' glory days (about half of which Barney was around for) had come during our current age of hyper-media exposure. I've been a big fan of Sheppard's since his fourth year at the Stadium, but when Rex Barney died, it hit me every bit as much as Sheppard's death did the other day.
And BTW when Barney died, Peter Angelos didn't attend his funeral. According to the Baltimore Sun, "he was in Washington at a White House conference with administration officials regarding tobacco litigation."
"Yeah, your honor, I know the ##### is a midget, but the school is named Roman Polanski Rock 'N' Roll High."
I thought he might have been in a Woody Allen movie. Something in the order of Cosell doing the play by play on the honeymoon in Bananas. But no. He does, though, have some credits in film--more than any other announcer probably.
Now that's an appropriate tribute.
With his forced pronunciations, he sounded to me like someone who took an acting class. Unlike announcers like John Facenda or Roy Steele, whose voices were naturally deeper, Sheppard did not sound herculean. I don't say that as a negative. I think Sheppard was more unique. No one else in sports could be mistaken for him.
Now that's an appropriate tribute.
I agree, and that's exactly what the Yankees did last night, with no PA announcements at all during the game. Not even Sheppard's Jeter introduction.
If you haven't already, then you really need to listen to this bit by Artie Lange from his "Jack and Coke" DVD.
WARNING: ADULT LANGUAGE
DB
Chances are that that last announcement was merely in line with what Lee MacPhail would have had to do in any case, but it was still a pretty nice pre-emptive gesture.
Listening to Sheppard, for me, was like getting into a time machine. His ancient eastern-Establishment accent (however he came by it) and his deadpan functionalism were a direct link back to a button-down mid-20th-century that might never have existed in the first place. Kind of like the episode of Mad Men where they first go to see Bert Cooper and he turns out to be J. Pierrepont Finch himself, still Chairman of the Board after all these years. Like hearing Red Barber talk with the Colonel on NPR – he never said anything remotely interesting, but the idea that it could be 1990-whatever and Red Barber was still on the freaking radio was just madness, so I always tried to listen. Keeping Sheppard on forever was one of the things that Steinbrenner did to put a classy touch on his general robber-baron image.
I am not sure whether I actually liked Sheppard's work as much as I liked the idea of it. Nil nisi bonum, though, for now.
EDIT: I do realize that a clubhouse manager is a bit closer to the players than an announcer, so I guess the analogy isn't really perfect. But still...
But it WAS kind of cool to go to a game and realize that the dramatic voice you were hearing started doing the games in Joe DiMaggio's last year and Mickey Mantle's debut season.
Incredible luck, that, but it was real.
By 2006, the only fans who went to games who really remembered seeing DiMaggio play were senior citizens. And if you were under 50, your Mantle memories might be a bit hazy as well. But Bob Sheppard watched them from the booth.
Dom DiMaggio, leading off for Boston, was the first player he ever announced, I believe.
Brother Joe - 56-game hit streak, Marilyn Monroe, etc - a half-century later, you could still go to a Yankees game and still hear the same distinctive voice that once introduced the DiMaggios.
The funeral/player issue is a non-starter, for all the reasons cited already.
But if you think this guy was not revered by his team's fans, or that debuting with DiMaggio/Mantle and through endless titles is no more significant than any other announcer, or that he didn't have an amazing dignity to his calls.... yeesh.
A clubhouse manager is hugely closer to the players than a stadium announcer. This is especially true for Sheppard because it was said that Sheppard considered it a matter of decorum not to get too close to the players.
By the way, the things that surprised me most to read about Sheppard after he died were that he was from Queens, a devout Catholic and went to St John's. He had a very old money, Protestant-sounding accent.
Yes. Ron Guidry gave the eulogy. Dave Righetti was a pallbearer.
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