Ask A Benchwarmer
In 1943 Sam Narron, a backup catcher with the St. Louis Cardinals, who had logged his share of bench time, found himself actually off the bench and starting a game for his old manager Billy Southworth.
Casey At The Bench
There are Casey stories that Bob miller, a Mets relief pitcher, loves to tell. That first year, 1962, Casey Stengel--- who in his day was a much better ball player than a lot of people remember---was the Mets manager. Of course, he had been a great manager and had won all those championships with the Yankees.
Birdie Benchie
Can professional golfers be benchie’s? Well, when you consider the number of PGA professionals who, over the years, have had to fight for a player’s card, beg for tournament invites, then play their tails off on Thursdays and Friday’s just to make the money cut.
Benched Career
M.L. Carr, would become a professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and American Basketball Association (ABA), then the head coach and General Manager of the Boston Celtics.
Two For The Show
Charlie Bryant wasn’t a benchwarmer. However, he did spend a number of years seated next to one of the NCAA’s finest bench jockeys.
Hale To The Chief
Don Hale, a wire service reporter for United Press International, went on to an award-winning career, establishing nationally recognized innovative and creative public relations programs as a VP at Carnegie Mellon, the University of Texas and Georgia State.
Benchwarmer Makes His Mark
Mike Pesavento a left-hander who pitched for NC State in the early 80’s came from the same area, Joliet, Illinois, as Terry Gannon, one of the stars of NC State’s National Championship basketball team.
Bench Rebound
Peter Fox will be remembered by many as ESPN’s Founding Executive Producer. The good news is that we should prepare to be entertained and informed when his book ESPN The Early Years is published.
A Master’s Moment
When it comes to Notables sharing stories when you get one personally from Furman Bisher, the award-winning writer, who wrote dozens of books, and covered sports for basically every national magazine in the country you probably have a good one.
Best Seat on the Bench
In the writing of Pen Men: Baseball’s Greatest Bullpen Stories Told by the Men Who Brought the Game Relief, Bob Cairns had the pleasure of spending time with some of the game’s great pranksters.
Divide and Conquer
Fred Barakat, who headed the ACC referees shared this V berating the pinstripes bench story. NC State was playing Duke at State’s Reynolds’s Coliseum, and it came down to one call at the end of the game. And anyone who knew the ACC in those days knew that Lennie Wertz, a little blond ref was (or at least it seemed to us fans) going to be in the middle of a big call at the end of a nailbiter.
Bench Wrestling
It was little known during those days in the 80s but the fact was that V and Tommie Abatemarco, his head recruiter, had not only been together for years---Iona, etc. but they had this thing where they, at often the most surprising and inappropriate times, liked to wrestle. They moved furniture back and wrestled at lunch time in Sam Esposito’s baseball office.
Back-seat Bench
Former sports columnist at Greensboro News & Record and Winston-Salem Journal. Being an athlete in junior high school had its perks, not the least of which was being called out of seventh period to join the rest of your teammates in the locker room.
Fits Like A Glove
Sitting in the dugout with a left-handed pitcher and a Shortstop during a college baseball game, I watched the lefty pick up the shortstop’s glove, try it on and pound his fist into the pocket like we all have done a thousand times.