Let’s break Ralph Kiner’s Announcing Career into several ages.
#1 The Holy Triumverate.
Ralph, Bob and Lindsey. The Mets are lovable losers then World Champions. It’s a little before my time, and candidly I have never heard a clip from that era that made me go wow. But it’s early yet
#2 Bad Ralph
That’s Ralph from 1979 from a game I recapped on the blog once. This is the Ralph Kiner that gets names wrong and the Mets suck and everything is just bad. At least this Kiner’s Korner thing is cool.
#3 McCarver Ralph
As I wrote about the other day, Tim came to town and fixed Ralph. Sure Ralph would occasionally hand in a “Gary Cooper” moment, but Tim made us youths realize that Ralph wasn’t some doddering old man, but actually a Hall of Fame both at the plate and with the ladies.
#4 Retirement Ralph That Doesn’t Give A Hoot
In his late years, Ralph would occasionally sit in with GKR. They, like McCarver, knew to get stories out of Ralph. Ralph had also reached the age where he didn’t give a hoot and was a little more candid, especially about the modern players. It was very enjoyable any time Ralph came around.
He’s the soundtrack for a big part of our lives….plus he dated Liz Taylor, Jane Russell, Ava Gardner and Marilyn Monroe while hitting 50 HRs so he wins life.
That would be like Pete Alonso dating…I dunno….Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansen, Gal Godot and Jessica Alba, then doing 50 years in the Mets TV Booth. Do you see what I mean? Ralph is the king.
