Minor League Heat Check: Which prospects are making noise and which are making outs?

By Jeff Passan 14 hours ago Yahoo Sports

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Gregory Polanco is ready for the majors, but when will the Pirates call him up? (AP Photo)

Dean Treanor and Jim Riggleman were talking about the perils of managing in Triple-A, how guys move in and out on a whim, when they got around to the hottest hitter in the minor leagues. Treanor manages him. Riggleman was tired of facing him.

“I’d like to see this guy move,” Riggleman said.

All across Triple-A, opposing managers are uttering similar sentiments about Gregory Polanco, the 22-year-old who soon enough will join Andrew McCutchen and Starling Marte to give the Pittsburgh Pirates a five-tool Voltron of an outfield.

Just how soon is the question. By keeping him in the minor leagues this long, the Pirates don’t have to worry about losing him as free agent until after the 2020 season. Holding off on his promotion to stave off an extra year of arbitration, on the other hand, would mean keeping him in the minor leagues at least another month, something that gets more unpalatable by the day with his .400/.457/.632 slash line and the Jose Tabata-Travis Snider platoon in right field proving feckless.

[Also: Top prospect Archie Bradley goes on DL with ‘mild’ elbow strain ]

“Would I like to have him here longer to develop a little more? Yeah,” Treanor said. “But then on the other side of that, if they feel they need him there, I’m not going to say, ‘No, he’s not ready.’ ”

Treanor and Pirates manager Clint Hurdle talk at least once a week, sometimes more, and the reports on Polanco remain the same: incredible talent, crazy bat speed from the left side, freakish athletic ability at 6-foot-4, 220 pounds … and still room for improvement. With McCutchen locked into center field, Polanco has needed to learn right field. Daily drills include fielding balls hit over his head and into corners, and learning the nuances of tracking balls hit to right instead of center.

Polanco’s baserunning is a point of emphasis, too, as the Pirates want to take advantage of his well-above-average speed. Reading pitchers and stretching his leads – “This guy takes about three strides to get to second,” Treanor said – can add to the danger he poses.

“Just the difference in less than a month is dramatic,” Treanor said. “I don’t want to lose him. But …”

But he knows. Polanco is a big leaguer, and chances are he won’t be around for the next end-of-the-month Minor League Heat Check at Yahoo Sports. Meanwhile, here are 20 other prospects, in no particular order, who have seen Aprils good and bad.

Mookie Betts, 2B, Boston (Double-A): If anyone stands to challenge Polanco for best minor leaguer in April, it’s Betts, the fifth-round draft pick from 2011 who jolted onto the scene last season and has more than solidified his prospect status this year. Between his height (5-foot-9) and power (14 extra-base hits already), Betts shares some commonalities with the man blocking him, Dustin Pedroia. He’s just one of a plethora of top-end Red Sox prospects, with two more potential big league infielders (third baseman Garin Cecchini and shortstop Deven Marrero) thriving likewise in the high minors.

Joey Gallo, 3B, Texas (High-A): Nobody in the minor leagues possesses the power of Gallo, a sandwich-round pick in 2012. During high school in Las Vegas, stories of his tape-measure shots would be compared to those of another slugger: Bryce Harper. Among his nine home runs, 20 walks and 28 strikeouts in 106 plate appearances, Gallo is the heir to Adam Dunn as King of the Three True Outcomes.

Ben Lively, SP, Cincinnati (High-A): Aptly named, the right-hander in his first full season has the single best statistical flourish in the minor leagues thus far this season: 40 strikeouts, one walk. His 13 hits allowed and one earned run over 29 innings aren’t bad, either. He should join top Reds prospect Robert Stephenson in Double-A any day now, forming the minor leagues’ best one-two rotation punch.

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Kris Bryant has the potential to be a star for the Cubs. (AP Photo)

Kris Bryant, 3B, Chicago Cubs (Double-A): Pretty much doing what’s expected. A .298/.427/.571 line in his first full season after going second overall in the 2013 draft. He’s going to be on the North Side soon enough, and when he arrives, he’ll be a star immediately.

 

Javier Baez, SS, Chicago Cubs (Triple-A): Only 10 hits in 63 at-bats, and the sort of trouble at shortstop that leads most to believe he’ll end up at second or third base, are not the sort of start he wanted. One scout’s assessment on Baez: “This is good for him. Guys at Triple-A are crafty. He needs to get used to that, because he’s going to see a lot of breaking balls when he comes up.”

Oscar Taveras, OF, St. Louis (Triple-A): Healthy and hitting. With Peter Bourjos’ struggles and Jon Jay being Jon Jay, it’s just a matter of time before Taveras is playing every day. The only question is whether he is a center fielder long-term. He has played three of 20 games there this season, and scouts’ consensus is: No. For now, though, his glove is adequate enough to sandwich him between Matt Holliday and Allen Craig, even if such a defensive alignment would be mighty porous.

Jesse Winker, OF, Cincinnati (High-A): Gorgeous, pure left-handed swing. One scout threw a Christian Yelich comp on him. Winker hit as a rookie sandwich pick in 2012, hit in Low-A last year and has raked thus far in the Cal League. Could see Double-A before his 21st birthday in August and the major leagues by that time next year.

Raul Mondesi, SS, Kansas City (High-A): Yes, he’s Raul Mondesi’s kid. And, yes, he could be better than pops, who spent more than a dozen years in the big leagues and hit 271 home runs. Mondesi 2.0 is a superior athlete, with a legit shortstop glove and burgeoning speed to boost, and at 18, he’s just three steps from the major leagues.

Gabriel Guerrero, OF, Seattle Mariners (High-A): Yes, he’s Vladimir Guerrero‘s nephew. And, no, he probably won’t be better than unc, who is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. But he may well be better than Tio Wilton. The power is there. The key is to avoid the Guerrero curse: Gabriel hasn’t met a pitch he won’t swing at, and 27 strikeouts in 98 at-bats is worth monitoring.

Aaron Judge, OF, New York Yankees (Low-A): Already 22, the first-round pick from last season should be in a more challenging league. One concern: His .333 batting average is awfully hollow, with just four extra-base hits, for a 6-foot-7, 230-pounder. The power is there. He needs to tap into it so the world can hear John Sterling bust out a “Judge Dredd” home run call.

Dalton Pompey, OF, Toronto (High-A): Helium alert. The 21-year-old Canadian is crushing Florida State League pitching at a .366/.433/.495 clip, his bat finally catching up to a center-field glove and set of wheels that distinguish him further. With Colby Rasmus an impending free agent, Pompey is looking like the Blue Jays’ center fielder come 2016. And that talent, at that position, in a switch hitter – he’s stronger from the left side but plans on staying switch – screams potential star.

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Jon Singleton is the rare first-base prospect who actually warrants prospect status. (AP Photo)

Jon Singleton, 1B, Houston (Triple-A): The off-field maladies that have hindered Singleton’s development have slowed for now, and he’s the rare first-base prospect who actually warrants prospect status. He’s got nine home runs and a slugging percentage near .700, and he’ll be an instantaneous upgrade over the Jesus Guzman/Marc Krauss/Chris Carter pu pu platter the Astros are serving these days.

 

Bubba Starling, OF, Kansas City (High-A): It’s getting close to the point where the bust label can be affixed to Starling. He turns 22 in August and is stuck in Class A, where he’s hitting .127/.263/.228. He can catch the ball in center, and he’s still a remarkable athlete, but scouts who see him wonder the same thing: How much longer until he pulls a Drew Henson or Chris Weinke and heads to college as a quarterback?

Joc Pederson, OF, Los Angeles Dodgers (Triple-A): He doesn’t fit anywhere in the Dodgers’ $429 million outfield, which is a shame considering none of the four they have now is anywhere near as good in center field as Pederson. So he’ll bide his time at Triple-A either as the best trade bait in the game or wait for an injury that will allow him to bring his .389/.495/.644 line to the big leagues.

Ryan McMahon, 3B, Colorado (Low-A): The Rockies have a sneaky strong farm system with a plethora of high-upside everyday players: outfielder David Dahl, infielders Trevor Story and Rosell Herrera, and McMahon, a second-round pick last season who has 20 home runs in 291 minor league at-bats. He’s an athlete, too. McMahon quarterbacked Mater Dei High in California, former stomping grounds of Matt Barkley and Matt Leinart.

Julio Urias, SP, Los Angeles Dodgers (High-A): At 17 years old, Urias is by far the youngest player in his league, and the Dodgers are treating him accordingly: short outings, limited pitch counts, safety, safety, safety. After throwing four scoreless innings in his first start, he struggled in his next three appearances. The stuff remains there, though, and there’s little reason yet to be concerned for a left-hander who wouldn’t be out of high school in the United States and last season dominated a full-season league.

Cam Bedrosian, RP, Los Angeles Angels (Double-A): Legitimate question: What’s the cooler thing about Cam Bedrosian? That he has struck out 26 hitters in 10 2/3 innings between High-A and Double-A, or that his given name is Cameron Rock Bedrosian? The latter, of course, seeing as his father, Cy Young-winning reliever Steve Bedrosian, was nicknamed Bedrock. Still, 26 strikeouts among 32 outs is pretty incredible, and Bedrosian, 22, could be up to fortify the Angels’ bullpen soon.

Alex Meyer, SP, Minnesota (Triple-A): The key component in the Denard Span deal added a changeup this offseason, and seeing as his 6-foot-9 frame gave him a distinct enough advantage already with a high-90s fastball, the new wrinkle gives the Twins even more hope he can be the sort of power starter they so desperately need to complement their array of free-agent signings.

Brandon Nimmo, OF, New York Mets (High-A): The Mets took Nimmo with the 13th pick in the 2011 draft, betting on his massive talent that needed more polish than a pair of bluchers worn for a road race. New York has moved him slowly, and in his third full season he’s beginning to resemble what they hoped would develop. Still just 21, Nimmo is hitting .407/.530/.549 in the FSL and could force the Mets to abandon their level-by-level tack with him.

Byron Buxton, OF, Minnesota (High-A): The best player in the minor leagues still hasn’t taken an at-bat this year, his left wrist injured in a diving catch during spring training. He’ll soon join Fort Myers, where he ended last season, but could move up to Double-A in a hurry. If all goes well there, the possibility of a September cameo, though unlikely, exists. And in the meantime, the Heat Check gets to check in every month and appreciate the sort of talent that will star in the big leagues for years to come.

‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ Star Bob Hoskins Dead at 71

By Suzy Byrne 3 hours ago Yahoo Movies

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Bob Hoskins in 2006 (Getty Images)

Bob Hoskins, who had a diverse career playing gruff bad guys and occasional good guys, died of pneumonia on Tuesday at the age of 71.

The British-born star, who retired in 2012 after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, didn’t pursue acting until his late 20s. After getting his start on stage in London, his first big role was playing a sheet music salesman on the 1978 BBC musical drama “Pennies From Heaven,” which established him as an actor. He received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a TV role for it.

[Related: Bob Hoskins’s 10 Most Memorable Roles]

From there he jumped to movies, playing tough guys in 1980’s “The Long Good Friday,” where he was a London gangster trying to go clean, and 1986’s “Mona Lisa,” which saw him as an ex-con who landed a job as the driver of a call girl. The latter role scored him an BAFTA Best Actor award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

American audiences should remember him best for his role in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” The flick, in which real characters interacted with animated ones, saw him as private eye Eddie Valiant, who was trying to solve a murder involving cartoon character Roger Rabbit. When the film was released in 1988, it was the 20th highest-grossing film of all time and the second highest earning film for that year, coming in behind “Rain Man.”

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Hoskins in ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ (Everett Collection)

His other movie roles included playing Cher’s love interest in “Mermaids” (1990), Captain Hook’s second-in-command in “Hook” (1991), J. Edgar Hoover in “Nixon” (1995), and Scrooge’s former boss in “A Christmas Carol” (2009).

Hoskins was not a fan of his role in 1993’s “Super Mario Bros.,” which was based on the 1980s Nintendo video game of the same name. Playing the title role was one of his biggest regrets, he told U.K.’s The Guardian in 2011. He listed it as his “worst job,” “biggest disappointment,” and said it was the one role he would edit from his past if he could.

His final role was in 2012’s “Snow White and the Huntsman,” which starred Kristen Stewart. He sported several prosthetics to play Muir, one of eight dwarves, who could always see the truth.

After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s in the fall of 2011, he announced his retirement in August 2012. A statement issued on his behalf at the time said, “He wishes to thank all the great and brilliant people he has worked with over the years, and all of his fans who have supported him during a wonderful career. Bob is now looking forward to his retirement with his family, and would greatly appreciate that his privacy be respected at this time.”

On Wednesday morning, his agent announced his passing, saying he died at a hospital Tuesday surrounded by his family. In a statement issued by his wife, Linda, and children Alex, Sarah, Rosa, and Jack, they said they were “devastated by the loss of our beloved Bob.”

Roger Clemens and his legal team get hit hard in Brooklyn federal court

Roger Clemens arrives at Brooklyn federal court where the ex-Yankee was roughed up during the latest at-bat in a defamation lawsuit filed by his former trainer Brian McNamee.

Here comes the judge — and she’s furious with Roger Clemens.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl L. Pollak ripped Clemens and his attorneys in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday for failing to turn over correspondence between the disgraced baseball star and his agent and public relations guru to lawyers representing Clemens’ former trainer, Brian McNamee.

Pollak threatened to turn over thousands of pages of Clemens’ documents to McNamee’s legal team if she finds evidence that the former Yankee’s legal team had withheld emails based on fabricated claims of attorney-client privilege. “Should I discover one document as not designated as privileged, I’m finding all of them waived,” an annoyed Pollak told Clemens’ attorney, Joe Roden. “This is your last chance to say ‘Oops, maybe we better rethink this.’ ”

Pollak ruled in September, and again in January, that thousands of pages of communications between the seven-time Cy Young Award winner, agent Randy Hendricks and public relations strategist Joe Householder are not shielded by attorney-client privilege and ordered Team Rocket to hand over the documents to McNamee’s lawyers.

“The problem, Mr. Hardin, is that you have not complied with my orders,” Pollak told Rusty Hardin, Clemens’ lead attorney.

Joe Marino/New York Daily News Clemens and his team have failed to turn over documents to Brian McNamee’s legal team.

McNamee’s defamation suit, filed in 2009, claims that Clemens and his advisers waged a public-relations war to smear McNamee as dishonest and unstable to retaliate against the Yankees’ former assistant strength and conditioning coach, who told former Sen. George Mitchell and congressional investigators that he had obtained banned drugs for Clemens.

The judge interrupted the hearing to meet — first jointly, then separately — in her chambers with Team Clemens and McNamee and his attorneys to discuss a settlement of the lawsuit. It marked the first time Clemens, who had once praised McNamee for developing the workout regimen he claimed was responsible for his late-career success, sat across a table from his ex-trainer since the release of the Mitchell Report. The meeting also marked the first time the parties have discussed settling the case.

Richard Emery, McNamee’s lead lawyer, said he was not optimistic that a deal could be reached before the case goes to trial, most likely sometime next year. “I just think this is a case where the lines are very deeply drawn in the sand. If we can bridge the gap, it’d be great, but if we can’t we’ll go to trial,” Emery told reporters outside the courthouse. He added that Pollak’s request that Clemens’ team bring an insurance company to the next hearing was insignificant in his opinion. “It’s an insurance company that may or may not have a role involved in a settlement,” Emery said.

Pollak ordered the parties to return to her court on June 10. She said she would review thousands of pages of Clemens documents by that time to determine which can be released to McNamee’s lawyers and which should be withheld because they addressed possible civil and criminal litigation following the release of the Mitchell Report.

Aaron Showalter/New York Daily News Brian McNamee (2nd from l.) files a defamation suit against Roger Clemens back in 2009.

Clemens and his attorneys have claimed that emails between the pitcher, Hendricks and Householder should not be turned over to McNamee’s attorneys because the agent and the PR strategist helped Clemens prepare for litigation after the December 2007 release of the Mitchell Report, which identified Clemens as a steroid and human growth hormone user. “Mr. Householder was part of all of our internal conversations,” Hardin said. “He was helping us provide legal services to Mr. Clemens.”

Hardin and Roden said that they had tried to comply with Pollak’s order but that they had only eight days to review thousands of pages of documents after her September order.

Team Clemens appealed Pollak’s order to U.S. District Court Judge Sterling Johnson, who is overseeing the case. Johnson issued a sharp rebuke to Clemens’ legal team on Monday. “Clemens’ attempts in stalling this litigation are a threat to the administration of justice,” he wrote in an order.

A federal appeals court on Monday also denied Clemens’ bid for an emergency intervention in the case.
  It’s great to seem this slime-ball crawl out from under a rock!

Michael Pineda now out three-to-four weeks with shoulder strain

Michael Pineda now out three-to-four weeks with shoulder strain

Pineda had an MRI exam in Tampa that revealed the strain. He flew to New York and was examined last night in New York by team physician Dr. Chris Ahmad, who advised the shut down as part of the course of treatment.

BY Roger Rubin 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Tuesday, April 29, 2014, 4:55 PM

Updated: Wednesday, April 30, 2014, 2:52 AM

 

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Elise Amendola/AP Michael Pineda gets busted for having pine tar on his neck last week in Boston.

Michael Pineda is going to be out of the Yankees rotation a lot longer than the 10-day suspension he is serving for the pine tar incident last Wednesday in Boston. Pineda is looking at missing three-to-four weeks after medical tests and an examination showed a Grade I strain of the Teres Major muscle below his right shoulder. He is to be shut down for the next 10 days.

The righthander was pitching a simulated game in Tampa Tuesday to keep sharp during his suspension with an eye toward rejoining the rotation for next Monday’s game in LA against the Angels. He had to pull out of it because he felt what manager Joe Girardi called “a little stiffness and tightness.”

Pineda had an MRI exam in Tampa that revealed the strain. He flew to New York and was examined last night in New York by team physician Dr. Chris Ahmad, who advised the shut down as part of the course of treatment.

David Phelps is likely to take Pineda’s spot at least the next two times through the rotation, Girardi said.

Pineda is returning this season from shoulder surgery. When he pulled himself from the simulated game, the initial inclination was that his lat muscle was sore and Girardi said “the good thing is it’s not in his shoulder.” The subsequent diagnosis is not as good. The Daily News spoke with an orthopedic surgeon – who is not treating Pineda – but said the Teres Major plays a role in the stability of the shoulder socket.

Once the 10-day shutdown is complete, and if he is cleared to begin a rehab assignment, Pineda will have to be built back up before he can return to the big league rotation.

So as it turns out the pine tar incident is now the least of his worries.

With Pineda suspended though, the Yankees have only 24 available spots on their 25-man roster. Whether a suspended player can be placed on the DL to get that 25th spot back remains to be seen.

Last Wednesday Pineda was ejected in the second inning of his most recent start, against Boston at Fenway Park, when umpires found a smear of pine tar on the right side of his neck. The following day, MLB handed down the 10-game suspension.

FAMOUS NHL BIG-TIME SCORERS WHO BECAME RANGERS AND…

  Here are the big-time scorers the Rangers picked up….(1).  Phil Esposito.  Espo was a big-time scorer…scoring as much as 76 goals.  With the Rangers, he never topped 42. (Not too bad!)  (2)  Ken Hodge.  Ken hit the fifty mark in his top season, as far as goals are concerned.  He did score 41 in his first year with the Rangers and then dropped to just four, the next season.  (3).  Marcel Dione.  Marcel scored 59 goals in his top season and never bested 31 which he scored with the Rangers.  (4).  Valerie Kamensky.  Valerie scored 38 goals in his best season and only 14 in his best season with the Rangers.  (5).   Theo Fleury.  Theo scored 46 in his best NHL season.  He never topped 30 with the Rangers.  (6).  Bernie Nicholls.  Bernie scored 70 in his best NHL season.  He never topped 25 with the Rangers.  (7).  Pavel Bure.  Pavel scored 6o goals in his best season and never more than 19 with the Rangers.  (8).  Luke Robitaille.  Luke’s best season 68 goals, followed by 63.  As a Ranger, he never scored more than 24.  He left the Rangers and returned to the L.A. Kings, where he scored as much as 39 goals.   Will  Rick Nah join the club? Let’s hope not!  He needs to come up big in game 7 vs. the Flyers.  EDB

Wayne Simmonds Leads Flyers Past Rangers, Forcing a Game 7

Henrik Lundqvist Pulled After Second Period

By

Dave Caldwell

April 29, 2014 10:42 p.m. ET

PHILADELPHIA—Not long after a crew shoveled hundreds of baseball caps off the ice into white trash cans, Philadelphia Flyers fans ended their celebration of Wayne Simmonds’s hat trick by mockingly serenading Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.

Lundqvist was soon off the ice, too.

With the persistent Simmonds leading the charge, the Flyers swamped the Rangers on Tuesday, 5-2, to avoid elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs and force a deciding Game 7 in this first-round playoff series.

The game, set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, will be played at Madison Square Garden

The Rangers entered Tuesday’s game with a 13-2 all-time record in Game 6s of playoff series when holding a three games to two lead, but they now have lost 12 straight playoff games after taking the lead in a series. That streak dates to 2009.

Lundqvist, now 5-5 in games in which the Rangers can eliminate an opponent, talked Monday about the importance of a fast start in Game 6, but the Flyers were the ones who scored first, and the proceeded to pour it on. Lundqvist was replaced by backup Cam Talbot for the third period after allowing four goals on 23 shots.

Lundqvist had a poor game and was most likely benched so he could rest up for Game 7, but he didn’t get much help from his teammates. Simmonds scored two power-play goals, and the Rangers went 0-for-5 with a man advantage to sink to 3-for-28 in the series.

Flyers goalie Steve Mason stopped 34 of 36 shots. In the opening minutes of the game, Rangers forward Derick Brassard fired a shot that bounced off the left goal post. Three minutes later, forward Benoit Pouliot picked up a penalty for grabbing the high-flying Claude Giroux, and the Flyers were rolling.

In the first period, Lundqvist stopped Simmonds’s shot from point-blank range, but the Flyer stayed close to the goal and had another shot deflected wide of the net. Scott Hartnell retrieved the puck in the slot and fed Simmonds. Brian Boyle blocked that shot, but Simmonds got it right back and pounded it past Lundqvist. It was Simmonds’s second goal of the series and the Flyers’ fifth power-play goal.

The Flyers had a 1-0 lead for the first time since Game 1 at Madison Square Garden, which the Rangers went on to win, 4-1. Simmonds’s goal energized the Flyers and their fans, and the Rangers, despite finishing the first period with 13 shots, began to get frustrated.

The Flyers later killed a penalty on Braydon Coburn, who had cross-checked Martin St. Louis into the end boards. Rangers defenseman Anton Stralman, who had taken a nice pass from Pouliot on an unimpeded rush, slammed his stick against the boards after Mason gobbled up his shot.

It would get worse for the Rangers. Dan Girardi, the durable and normally reliable defenseman, was muscled off the puck in the Rangers’ zone by Philadelphia forward Brayden Schenn. Simmonds wasted no time racing to the net. Schenn fed Simmonds with a pass that he knocked past Lundqvist just 92 seconds into the second period for his second goal of the game and a 2-0 Flyers lead. The Rangers then came up empty on successive power plays, with no shots on the first and just one on the second.

Flyers defenseman Erik Gustafsson, pressed into his first playoff action of the season, took the second penalty for high-sticking Derek Dorsett. The crowd vocally disagreed with the call, booing when the Rangers handled the puck, but Gustafsson found a good way to get even.

As soon as Gustafsson left the penalty box, he chased down a rolling puck in the Rangers’ zone, then swatted it past Lundqvist for a 3-0 lead at 14:17 of the second period. Eleven seconds later, Dorsett tripped Mark Streit, and Simmonds soon scored again.

Simmons again established a stronghold in front of Lundqvist and deflected a wrist shot by Jakub Voracek for his third goal of the night. He’d entered the game with five career playoff goals. After his hat trick Tuesday, fans got a 30% discount on caps at the Flyers team store, so they could replace what they had thrown on the ice.

 

 

UMPIRE..ADAM HAMARI..IS HE OUT OF POSITION

 Shouldn’t Hamari be directly behind the catcher?

Flashback: The Rolling Stones Play ‘Paint It Black’ In 1966

By

Andy Greene

April 29, 2014 2:20 PM

 

The Rolling Stones were nearing their peak as pop hit makers when they appeared on Ready Steady Go! on October 7th, 1966. Their fourth album, Aftermath, hit stores that April, and their sitar-infused single “Paint It Black” spent two weeks at Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 in June. “Mother’s Little Helper,” “Lady Jane” and “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow” also got a lot of airplay.

The Rolling Stones 1963-1969: Behind-the-Scenes Snapshots

The group was on a grueling British tour in October of 1966, often playing two shows a night, but during a four-day break they headed to Studio 5 at Wembley and taped a three-song set for Ready Steady Go!, sharing the stage with Eric Burdon and the Animals and Paul & Barry Ryan, an almost totally forgotten pair of twin brothers whose career lasted just about a year.

A career path like Paul & Barry Ryan was the norm for a pop act at this time: a handful of hits before fading into complete oblivion. The Rolling Stones and the Beatles, however, were completely subverting this: They’d both been at it for three years and showed absolutely no signs of slowing down, even if John Lennon’s “more popular than Jesus” line caused a bump in the road for the latter act.

They did face a lot of competition. The very month of this “Paint It Black” performance on Ready Steady Go!, ? and the Mysterians hit Number One with their garage classic “96 Tears” and the made-for-TV band the Monkees saw their debut single “The Last Train to Clarksdale” absolutely explode on the charts, kicking off an incredible run of success. They’d sell more than the Beatles and Stones combined in 1967, even though the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band that summer and the Rolling Stones unleashed the hit-packed Between the Buttons.

Needless to say, ? and the Mysterians disappeared almost immediately and the Monkees imploded within two years. They were among the thousands of rock bands that rose and fell within the lifespan of the Rolling Stones, who are still selling out stadiums almost fifty years later.

STEVE SOMERS…Twenty-Five Years of Schmoozing

Twenty-Five Years of Schmoozing

 

By CHARLES McGRATH

Published: November 29, 2012

 

“Good evening to you, and how you be? Steve Somers here and you there.” That’s how Steve Somers begins his nightly call-in show — his schmooze, he calls it — on WFAN, New York’s sports radio station. He’s been saying this for 25 years, and it’s a ritual greeting as reassuring to his listeners as the call of a muezzin.

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Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

Steve Somers, whose callers have ranged from Jerome from Manhattan to Jerry (Seinfeld) from Queens, offers set pieces, written on yellow legal pads, that are full of wordplay and alliteration.

Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

Steve Somers with a producer before a show.

Then Somers gives the exact time, down to the second, and the station’s phone number: 1-877-337-6666. Not that anyone is apt to forget it. On a typical evening the calls have already begun to queue up, like circling planes seeking a landing spot, on the computer screen in front of Chris McMonigle, the show’s engineer. Paul from Hamden, Joe from Staten Island, Josh from Brooklyn, Sam from Bayonne, Bruce from Flushing, all with a point to make, a bone to pick, a tirade to deliver, or maybe just a need to hear their own voice on the radio.

Most of the callers are regulars, and McMonigle’s screen indicates how many times they have phoned in the past and how often they have made it onto the radio. Not long ago, Franco from Danbury was batting over .500. When he went on the air to announce that he was done once and for all as a Yankees fan and was “turning in my pinstripes,” it was his 583rd time talking to Steve in just over 1,100 tries. Somers listened patiently and then said he doubted Franco really meant it.

Somers likes to say that he and his listeners are a family, and even in the passionate, eccentric and highly opinionated world of sports radio, his family is an unusual and capacious one. Its members include, or included, such beloved regulars as Doris from Rego Park, stuttering and coughing but phoning in faithfully, and Jerome from Manhattan, whose sputtering, apoplectic anti-Yankee rants caused Somers to play the “Twilight Zone” theme while a voice said: “His is a dimension of sight, of sound, but of no mind. There’s a rubber room up ahead. You’re entering the Jerome Zone.” But Somers’s fans also include the critic Gene Shalit, the actors Charles Grodin and Tony Roberts, the comedian Steven Wright and, most famously, Jerry Seinfeld, who calls in as Jerry from Queens, though in fact he comes from Massapequa.

They admire Somers’s wit and intelligence, the little set pieces he delivers at the beginning of each show, full of wordplay and alliteration. Somers writes them out beforehand on yellow legal pads, capitalizing most of the nouns, adjectives and verbs as a scribe might if copying a royal proclamation. He writes for the ear, not the eye, Somers says. A meditation on the theme of Alex Rodriguez’s collapse last fall looked like this: “The Lightning Rod only Wants to Be happy, and knows it’s very Simple to Be happy, But it’s very Difficult for Him to Be Simple. The Yankees Haven’t Been Doing Much, and Doing Nothing is Very Hard to Do, Because You Never Know when You’re Finished.”

Somers-speak is formal at times and also full of Homeric-like epithets. A-Rod is always the Lightning Rod, just as Barry Bonds was Barroid and Jason Giambi was the Sultan of Shot. The Oakland A’s are the Anabolics, and the Mets are always the Metropolitans, the Knicks always the Knickerbockers.

Somers is funny, even irreverent, about sports, and for many listeners that, too, is part of the appeal. He’s a relief from the dogmatism of Mike Francesa, WFAN’s biggest star, who presides over the drive-time hours with humorless ardor, seldom willing to concede a point to his listeners, who tend to be more argumentative than Somers’s. But possibly a bigger reason people tune in to Somers is that they’re in thrall to the sound of his voice, which is one of the oddest on the air.

It’s thin and high-pitched, with elongated vowels and extra-sibilant s’s — the voice of a crooner more than a sportscaster. Listeners have speculated that air pockets or periodontal disease or even Bell’s palsy account for his way of speaking. Somers has no idea — he has always talked this way.

“I don’t think I have a great voice,” he said not long ago in an office he shares with Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts, who use it during the day, at the WFAN studio in the West Village. “I don’t know what it’s good for except yapping. I talk and talk and say nothing, and yet I make a living.”

KOVR Newswatch 13, via YouTube

Steve Somers in 1982. He did sports on television for 17 years in San Francisco, Sacramento, Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

Steve Somers hosts a nightly call-in show at WFAN. Above, a device to control callers’ volume.

WFAN 660 AM (101.9 on FM) is built on voices. The station, which started broadcasting on July 1, 1987, faltered at the beginning because the original announcers, people like Jim Lampley and Greg Gumbel, had bland, accentless TV voices — they didn’t sound like New York. The station caught on only when it went local. Francesa, who has a thick, Long Island accent, always sounds like he’s getting over a cold. He used to be paired with Chris Russo, a k a the Mad Dog, also a Long Islander, who was raspy and shrill and talked so fast he sounded like a tape being rewound. Benigno, who joined the station in 1995, after years of being a caller, sounds like who he is — a Jersey guy.

Somers is actually from San Francisco, but you’d never know it. He grew up speaking like someone from Brooklyn. “When I was a kid, people thought I was from back East,” he said, and he added that he probably picked up a lot of characteristically Jewish inflections from his parents, who ran a mom-and-pop grocery. “When you hear me, you’re hearing them,” he said.

“Steve, from Day 1 he sounded like a New Yorker,” Eric Spitz, WFAN’s program director, said. “The Mets were the big story then, and he just embraced them.” He added: “But his greatest strength is he’s an old-school entertainer. Walk into any bar and you’ll find passionate fans, knowledgeable fans, but can you be entertaining? So many people think they can do this, but they can’t.”

Somers went to Lowell High School, an elite magnet school in San Francisco (Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer is an alumnus), and was valedictorian of his class, but his ambition even then was to be a New York sportscaster. “I wanted to play Broadway,” he said. “And I am — I’m a long-running play.”

His goal was not radio, however, but television. He imagined himself the next Warner Wolf, and after starting out in radio, he did TV sports for 17 years in San Francisco, Sacramento, Atlanta and Los Angeles. In 1984, he lost his job and was out of work for two and a half years. When WFAN called in 1987, he hadn’t done radio in decades.

Somers still thinks he could have had a great career on TV. He doesn’t really have TV looks, though. His face is long, thin and toothy; his mustache and hair, which he wears long and swept back, are going gray on him.

And for TV he would have to do something about his wardrobe. He dresses these days like an aging beatnik: black pants; black turtlenecks, often with a hole in the neck or elbow; sneakers worn out at the toe. He does own several pairs of fancy Yale socks, presented to him after he spoke to some students there, but the logo is invisible unless he tugs his pant leg up.

Somers worries about his bits and set pieces, he worries about the quality of the calls, he worries about everything. Though he sounds relaxed on the air, he is in fact a nervous wreck. During breaks he sometimes springs from his chair and takes the elevator 10 floors down to Hudson Street, where he snatches two or three quick puffs from a cigarette before pinching it out and heading back upstairs. He can make a single butt last for hours.

Or he’ll dart down the hall to the coffee machine and brew himself yet another cup. “Sometimes there will be five minutes left till the end of the show and he’ll say, ‘Do I have time for a coffee?’ ” Casey Keefe, one of the show’s two producers, pointed out one night. “He just needs it by his side.”

“He’s insecure,” McMonigle added. “That’s what drives him. He thinks he’s garbage and he’s not.”

In truth, Somers doesn’t always think he’s garbage. There are nights when he gets on a roll.

“I can feel it — it’s intuitive,” he said. “I can hear something. It’s so pleasing and so satisfying when it works out, and so disappointing when it doesn’t. They won’t call me to say, ‘You’re not on your game,’ but I won’t hear how wonderful I am.” He added: “What makes me different is the humor, and when it’s not there, it kills me. I know what failure is all about.”

Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

Steve Somers taking a break between segments. “I wanted to play Broadway,” said Somers, who is from San Francisco. “And I am — I’m a long-running play.”

In a perfect world, Somers would probably prefer to work days. His hours would be more regular, instead of the haphazard and confusing schedule he follows now, when he can go on the air as early as 6:30 p.m. or not until after midnight, depending on whether the station is broadcasting a game that night. And he would be interrupted by fewer commercial breaks. The evening schedule calls for 18 minutes of spots every hour, which along with the regular sports updates every 20 minutes, sometimes make it hard for him to get a rhythm going.

It’s no accident, though, that the station keeps him where he is. Somers’s voice and personality seem ideally suited to the nighttime, where his is a soothing, comforting presence. “There’s a different feel at night, a different kind of audience,” Spitz said. “There’s more breaking news during the day, but the sports world slows down during these hours. Steve gives the callers more of a chance to speak — they’re more a part of the show.”

“I don’t think a radio station could be more personal or more intimate with the listeners and callers than this one, and it’s probably more so late at night,” Somers said. “At night you get the people who depend on radio a little more.”

Somers likes to imagine his show as a group of friends schmoozing on a stoop, or in a booth at a bar, or on a corner under a street lamp, and often it really does feel that way. The talk is nonstop sports because sports is the one thing a lot of people — men especially — know how to talk about. But Somers’s callers are not crazy — or most of them are not. They accept that there is more to life. Occasionally arguments break out under the street lamp, or someone loses it and the bartender has to cut him off, but mostly the atmosphere is relaxed and mellow and citified, like the hum of evening traffic or the sound of a baseball broadcast leaking from an open window.

 

 

Correction: December 6, 2012

An article and a picture caption on Friday about the WFAN sports radio host Steve Somers misidentified, in some editions, the home borough of Jerome, one of the regular callers to Somers’s show. He is from Manhattan, not the Bronx.

 

<nyt_update_bottom>

A version of this article appeared in print on November 30, 2012, on page B10 of the New York edition with the headline: Time to Schmooze.

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Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Max von Sydow, John Begoya, Domhnall Gleeson and Andy Serkis are the headliners of Disney’s Episode VII crew, leaving Ridley as both the one woman and one unknown among the crew. She’s also the greenest of the new cast, having just launched her acting career last year.

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While her age is unlisted, Ridley has been playing teenagers on screen. She guest starred as Hannah Kennedy, the grieving best friend of the 15-year-old murder victim at the center of the BBC drama “Silent Witness,” which aired earlier this year. She also guested on the second season of the Jeremy Piven-starring period drama, “Mr. Selfridge,” as a character named Roxie Starlet (which would make for an excellent “Star Wars” name, too).

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