Here’s today’s must-read (this is from a few days ago but it has been a busy week)…
Cosell was not amused by the antics of Stengel, Marv Thronberry or the 120 losses the team piled up in its first season. Cosell knew he was under contract by WABC, not the New York Mets. The agreement allowed Cosell to rage against the machine. According to Ribowsky, Cosell’s rants aimed at Stengel and the Mets were the “first real mark” he made as a broadcaster.
Cosell blasted Stengel early and often, claiming the bane of the Mets failure was rooted in “the pitiful example the old man (Stengel) was setting for a new generation of New York baseball fans.
via A gong show disguised as a baseball team | John Strubel Blog.
The Cosell part is awesome but here’s a real nugget: “Some people, who watched the Mets stumble through their first five seasons cracked jokes,” said Seaver. “I didn’t laugh. I wasn’t brought up on the Met legend; I wasn’t part of that losing history. I never did find defeat particularly amusing.”
And that’s reason 8 million why Tom is the man.
You opened an avenue to tell my Howard Cosell story. It was the early 1980s…my brother and I wanted to see the Rangers play the Canadiens on a Sunday night at The Garden. My father, may he rest in peace, drove us to the game but we had no tickets. He loved to get a good deal and pull little scandals…so he went to the box office and bribed the guy to see if there were any cancellations. Just at game time there was…great seats, center ice…tickets had some strange initials on the back… DAW.
We got to the seats…turns out DAW was David A. “Sonny” Werblin, head of MSG and he was sitting in the row in front of us with his wife and Howard Cosell and Emmy Cosell. The Rangers had a matinee player Ron Duguay…their Lee Mazzilli…Cosell screamed all night “give the puck to Doogie”…when Doogie finally scored, Howard was so proud of himself. I’ll never forget his cologne…he just smelled like money. To this day I know when I smell it somewhere.
my cosell story..early 70’s im walking down 6th ave near ABC studios i see a tall man with a big cigar, i stick out my hand and said “your’e the greatest howard”. he looked at me and smiled. “i know” he said.