Grim Reader, May 20, 2011: Harmon Killebrew, Lawrence Johnson and Vivian Myerson

by Michael Schaffer

MAY 20, 2011 TAGS: SPORTS, OBITS ADD A COMMENT

It’s been a big week in sports obits. Harmon Killebrew, who came up with the Washington Senators, moved with the team when it became the Minnesota Twins. Killebrew’s obits cast him as “the Hall of Famer who developed the strength to hit home runs by lifting 10-gallon milk cans as an Idaho farmhand,” in the New York Times’ telling. Grim Reader suspects that emphasizing the squeaky-clean all-Americanism may have something to do with baseball’s current mood of resentment against its steroid-addled stars: A Sports Illustrated blog headline conspicuously calls him a “gentleman;” the Associated Press’ obit notes that he enjoyed a milkshake after every game; several outlets note that he was a teetotaling Mormon. A number of outlets repeat the story that Killebrew’s famously fearsome slugging pose was the silhoutte for the batter in Major League Baseball’s red, white, and blue logo. Another Associated Press item debunks that, explaining that Killebrew had erroneously spread the word because he “misunderstood” a conversation with the logo’s designer. “Killebrew didn't make up some fib to exaggerate his fame,” it reads. No modern-day braggart, he!

But Killebrew’s stats would stand out in any age. The Washington Post, which once served as his team’s hometown paper, lays much of it out -- 573 home runs, including one that flew 476 feet. “Killebrew can knock the ball out of any park, including Yellowstone,” an opposing manager once said. Minnesota’s Pioneer Press offers even more detail of his exploits, recounting an epic win over the Yankees with some purplish description: “The metal grandstands shook from the collective stomping of 35,000 pairs of feet. Two fans in porkpie hats rushed the field to chase Killebrew around the bases as the Twins snuffed whatever aura remained in those pinstripes.” Interestingly, nearly every obit mentions a detail of the last week of his life: Killebrew, a longtime advocate for hospice care, issued a statement last week explaining that he was no longer trying to fight his cancer, and wishing farewell to his fans. It’s not every guy who gets to write a statement into his own obit.

Sweet enforcer

In a more troubling sports death, Derek Boogaard is remembered by the Associated Press as having been the New York Rangers’ “enforcer,” and the New York Daily News labels him “one of the toughest fighters” in hockey. But unanswered questions about his death linger over coverage of his life: The 28-year old suffered a devastating concussion during a fight this past season, meaning he might be yet another grim pro-sports concussion statistic. The most detailed obit may be the one in the Star-Tribune of Minneapolis, where Boogaard played for years -- and where he died. The obit offers an array of player quotes about how the guy who ran a hockey fighting camp was a sweetheart off the ice. Of course, a slide show on the page also shows some of his most brutal fights, which struck Grim Reader as a bit odd.

Marathon Man

Another unexplained death in sports is less morally loaded for fans: Sammy Wanjiru, the Kenyan marathoner who won the 2008 Olympic gold medal, fell to his death from a balcony. According to the Independent, Kenyan cops aren’t sure whether he fell accidentally, or jumped after his wife caught him with another woman. All the obits note the turbulent personal life of the youngest man ever to win four major marathons; the Guardian ranks him “alongside the greatest runners of all time.” … And also in athletics, Mel Queen is remembered not so much as a middling Major League pitcher as a guy whose subsequent coaching career saw him serve as mentor to some of the current generation’s best talent. “The line you'll see leading most of his memorials is that he was the pitching coach who made Roy Halladay the pitcher he is today,” notes a Yahoo! Sports item.

You’re getting sleepy

There are plenty of obits this week for Charles McPhee, the “Dream Doctor” of radio’s airwaves. “He was one of the first to popularize dream interpretation to a national audience through radio,” says the Washington Post, while the Los Angeles Times quotes a therapist who says the Princeton grad and author of the book Stop Sleeping Through Your Dreams "made dream interpretation more present in pop culture," a claim that strikes Grim Reader as a bit much given that McPhee, 49, took to the airwaves only in the past couple of decades. Still, there are fun anecdotes from his show: McPhee once told a waitress who dreamt of ripping the heads off cuddly animals that her dreams were really about fertility, and meant she wasn’t ready to have kids.

Changing his mind

Everyone remembers Robert Ellsworth as a Republican congressman-turned-Nixon appointee-turned-well-respected establishmentarian -- he served as ambassador to NATO and as a senior Pentagon official, espousing mainstream Cold War views. That said, Grim Reader was somewhat taken by the tone of the last paragraph of his New York Times obit, which seems sensible enough but reads as if it could have been drafted by the Ellsworth family, if not the Democratic Party: “He believed a ‘realistic’ assessment of American interests trumped Republican ideology, however well intentioned. Giving this as his reason, he endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton, and then Barack Obama, for president in 2008.” OK.

An FDR favorite

Death comes in twos: Food business people edition. Murray Handwerker was a “savvy hot dog seller,” according to the New York Daily News, who the Associated Press says “helped grow Nathan's Famous from his father's Coney Island hot dog stand into a national franchise.” Nathan’s was already an icon (FDR had served the stand’s franks to members of the British royal family) but when Handwerker came back from WWII, he convinced the family to open stands far from Brooklyn. Only the New York Times notes that the franchising wasn’t always a success: By the early 1980s, Nathan’s stock was in the toilet; the chain ultimately added more variety .... And Wallace McCain “fed the world frozen fries,” says a New York Times headline. But he was eventually ousted from the world’s largest frozen-fries manufacturer in an epic feud with his brother. Toronto’s Globe and Mail describes McCain as “a tough, straight-talking son of New Brunswick potato growers” -- a bit of corporate legend that the Times’ coverage undercuts: “While Mr. McCain and his brother Harrison are sometimes described as the sons of a potato farmer, that understates their family’s position,” the piece says, explaining that dad was a prosperous exporter. The Daily Mail in England -- where McCain fries found a huge market -- uses the inevitable headline: “Goodbye, Mr. Chips.”

Holding things together

Also in business, the Wall Street Journal remembers Leo Kahn as a grocery store founder who, late in life, “realized they could apply the economics of high-volume, low-margin grocery stores to the paper-clip and rubber-band business.” The result? The Staples chain, which last year did $24.5 billion in business. ... And, in one of the great simple headlines of this week’s Obitosphere, the New York Times remembers “Lawrence Johnson, Who Helped Ease Boats Into Water.” Johnson came up with an innovative boat-trailer design; previously, the cumbersome contraptions vacationers used to tow boats had to be run down steep ramps and completely submerged in order to free the vessel -- usually leading to unpleasantness for owners and their cars. “He wanted to get his boat launched without getting his feet wet,” says an official with Johnson’s EZ Loader firm, which today sells 50,000 units a year.

In tune

In music this week, there are obits for Bob Flanigan, founder of the vocal quartet the Four Freshmen. The Los Angeles Times obit uses its lede paragraph to note Flanigan’s “profound influence on Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson as well as the Lettermen, the Manhattan Transfer and numerous other vocal acts.” Other obits, including the one in his hometown Greencastle (IN) Banner-Graphic wait to say a bit more about Flanigan’s own jazz and vocal accomplishments first. ... Peter Lieberson was “a widely admired composer whose music often blended modern techniques, a late romantic expressiveness, and a world view deeply inspired by Buddhism,” says the Boston Globe. The New York Times calls him “an eloquent voice in the generation of composers seeking to infuse the thorny rigors of academic music with a more accessible, lyrical sound.” … And Lloyd Knibb was one of Jamaica’s best-known drummers, says the Guardian, which credits him with the “rhythmic innovation [that] defined the ska sound.” Despite that, he was reduced to working on Caribbean cruise ships when upbeat ska was eclipsed by reggae during the 1970s and 1980s.

Playing along

Still more musicians: Cornell Dupree was the “sideman to the stars,” according to the New York Times. Every Dupree obit leads with the famous folks the legendary session guitarist backed up -- a diverse group that included Aretha Franklin, Ringo Starr, Mariah Carey, and Joe Cocker. “He was among the elite in a small cadre of musicians who turned in memorable, often crucial hooks in a song and did not mind being overshadowed by the main performer,” the Washington Post says in a statement that appears to describe his obits, too. … And Snooky Young was “an ageless jazz trumpeter who performed in nine decades,” also according to the Washington Post. He performed on legendary recordings with the likes of Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, but the obits all go highest with word that he was a longtime fixture in the Tonight Show’s house orchestra.

Police attacks

Finally, the Los Angeles Times catches the death of Vivian Myerson, who along with her late husband won a groundbreaking lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department, whose political-subversion unit subjected the couple to spying, tire-slashing, bricks through the window, and other misdeeds directed against their left-wing politics. They donated their winnings to a peace group. Myerson was later appointed to the fast-changing city’s Human Relations Commission.

Michael Schaffer’s Grim Reader appears Friday in Obit. He is the author of One Nation Under Dog, about culture and the American pet industry.