Noting the passing of Gene Conley at the age of 86. Conley was a rarity…it was no surprise at 6'9″ he would be a force in ther NBA back in the 50's and early 60's…but he also was a very good major league pitcher with the Braves and Red Sox. In fact, he is the only person to ever win a World Series and an NBA Championship in the same calender year. The only other person to win championship in 2 major sports was Otto Graham. Conley won that World Series with the Milwaukee Braves! As Boston writer Dan Shaughnassy put it…”he pitched to Mays and guarded Wilt.”. He pitched in the majors 11 years and made 4 All-Star teams. After five years of basketball hiatus he rejoined the Boston Celtics for the 1958-59 season playing on three NBA Championship teams in a row with Boston. He is also part of a funny story. When the Red Sox team bus was stuck in New York traffic on July 27th 1962 he and teammate Pumpsie Green got off the bus and went into a bar to use the bathroom…when they came out the bus was gone. So they decided to take a couple of days off. In fact Conley, decided to fly to Jerusalem. He didn't get there and Conley was fined by team owner Tom Yawkey $1500.
I'm going to be off for about a week as the Wausau American Legion baseball team heads to the Twin Cities to play in the Gopher Classic. Gonna hit some second-hand record stores and White Castle too of course!
Songs Of The Day
Take Me To The River-Al Green (1974) a classic soul track that many may only remember from the Talking Heads version. Green recorded it on his album “Al Green Explores Your Mind” but his record label gave the song to his label-mate Syl Johnson to release as a single..his version went to #48 on the charts. You may also remember the use of this song in “The Sopranos” and as a song sung by that stupid talking fish Big Mouth Billy Bass back in 2000. Sad but true…Cowriter Teenie Hodges says he made more money in royalties from that than from actual singers doing the song.
