Watchdog

Both had southern accents.

Let's extend a get well to Soupy as well. He's 82 now and has been in ill health the last few years. He fell off the stage doing one of his career retrospectives and has been pretty much confined to a wheel chair since. He occassionally calls into the Joey Reynolds Show on WOR Radio when he can't sleep at night. As an adult, I wish I could extract retribution on idiotic adults the same way that Soupy was punished for a bad pun - whacking them with a shaving cream pie to the kisser.

Well for one, I dont believe that show was taped in 1971. Im guessing the show was from '73, maybe '72..... Murcer's hair was too long for '71 and nobody really gave a hoot about Blomberg until a year or two later. They were both on the cover of SI in '73 (when I believe Blomberg was hovering around a .400 batting average)..... Everybody knew about Blomberg in '73, but not so much in '71....
Bobby will be missed......

Sorry Ed, it is 1971. The official What's My Line? schedule episode lists this episode as having aired on August 12, 1971. It was Murcer's only appearance on What's My Line? We forget that Blomberg was the great Yankee hope in the early 70's. There's a Met highlight film from 1967 in which Whitey Herzog argued with Met brass to take Jon Matlack over Blomberg in the free agent draft.

Soupy Sales was and is a big sports fan. If you read his autobiography, Soupy Sez (yes, sadly I have a copy to go along with my collection of Soupy Sales Show videotapes), Soupy was the kind of fan that would know about Yankee prospects.

Hey John, you certainly could be right and Im probably wrong.... But there is still a couple things that dont make sense to me..... Back then I idolized the hell out of Murcer. Im pretty sure his hair was not that long in '71... And again, if it was '71, even if Blomberg was on his way to becoming a household name, wouldnt it have been more likely that Soupy would of suggested Munson and Murcer? It seems to me that if Blomberg were to be considered for that show (obviously Soupy thought so), it wouldnt have been until a couple years later when he became much more well known nationally..... no?

I see your point Ed. I do have a 72 baseball card of Murcer (picture taken in 71) that shows that his hair was fairly long. Munson did not have a particulrly great year in 71 after winning the Rookie of the Year in 70, so that might have affected Soupy's thinking. The only other reason I can think that he thought it was Blomberg was because Blomberg came up in July of 71 and went on a tear - I think he hit over .320 in 200 at bats. Since the show was in August, it might have been at the time Blomberg was sizzling hot.

I'm done on this one - it's time to move onto something else. Does anyone remember the time that Soupy coached the Harlem Globe Trotters at Madison Square Garden for a CBS primetime special? I've always questioned his strategy when the Trotters were trailing the Washington Generals by 3 points in the 3rd quarter. I think he should have dropped Meadowlark into a 1 - 2 - 2 zone . . .

I started following the New York Yankees in 1968. I was only 10 years old. Yes, that was the year that Mickey Mantle retired. The very very special moment that I remember when I was 12 or 13 years old. My grandmother lived only one stop away from Yankee Stadium. I remember when the tickets for the upper seats were only $1.50. The hot dog was .50 cents and the soft drink only .50 cents. I would sit back and enjoy the game with only $2.00. I would ask my grandmother for $2.00 just to see the Yankees play.

I remember all the games I went during my moments at 11-13 years old. But the one game I will never forget when the Yankees played against the first place AL West team, The Oakland As. I cannot really remember who pitched for the As. But I will never forget when Bobby Murcer belted a three run homer over the right field fence over the upper deck seats. I was elated and over joyed. The Yankees won that game 6-2. He was no doubt, during the 70's, my favorite Yankee. He was also great in the field too. A great arm besides being a great hitter.

I will forever be a Yankee fan for the rest of my life....The old Yankee Stadium was something to behold. Before the renovation came in 1973 or 1974. Bobby was great. And the Yankees had a good hitting club.

I had the Bobby Murcer Baseball topps card. But unfortunately my mother threw out my 1971 collection after I had gotten married to my first spouse....That was a sad moment for me.

I agree with Soupy Sales....Yes I also liked him too as a comedian.

much regards,

Frank Quirindongo

I'd like to see that Soupy-Globetrotters special again myself. Maybe it lies in the catacombs of the Museum of Broadcasting.

Yes, the garlic play was devistating to the Generals. Equally effective was the play Soupy diagrammed that had Curly Neal go back into the game after a time out wearing a blond wig. It worked like a charm, with the Generals so dazzled by this beautiful "woman" sachet around midcourt, they left the basket unguarded for yet another uncontested layup by the Trotters.

Not so effective was Soupy having some of the game balls sent to the cleaners prior to tip-off. Soupy tried bouncing one of the newly cleansed balls and it shattered on the court like a giant glass Christmas ball. "I though I told them to hold the starch," cried Soupy.