Time Out with TANY • Mid-Summer Edition

 THIS COLUMN WAS WRITTEN IN FRONT OF A LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE

 QUICK QUIZ

The inaugural class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame was inducted on November 17, 2006. It included John Wooden, Bill Russell, Dean Smith and James Naismith. Who was the fifth inductee?

A) Jerry West

B) Bill Walton

C) Pete Maravich

D) Oscar Robertson

E) Ric Lawler

QUOTABLE QUOTES

“The trouble with officials is they just don’t care who wins.” – Tommy Canterbury, basketball coach.

“In 1962, I was voted Minor League Player of the Year. Unfortunately, that was my second year in the Majors.” – Bob Uecker.

“If it’s a boy, my neighbors have some friends who want me to name him Bjorn, so the headline could read, ‘Bjorn Zorn Born.’” – Jim Zorn, on a possible name for his child.

IDLE THOUGHTS

It’s no surprise that the Los Angeles Dodgers have one of the best farm systems in Major League baseball. Just look at the Great Lakes Loons. There has been a total of 111 former Loons who have made it to the Majors. Clayton Kershaw was the first (2008) and Landon Knack the most recent (2024). In between are the likes of Carlos Santana, Josh Bell, Dee Gordon, Corey Seager, Ross Stripling, Walker Buehler, Dustin May, Gavin Lux, Zach McKinstry and Joc Pederson. Now that’s an impressive list.

A steakhouse in Colorado Springs, Colorado, offered a free steak to Class A Colorado Springs Sky Sox players when they hit a home run in 1950. Sky Sox slugger Pat Seerey launched 44 home runs, and at the end of the season, rather than giving him 44 steaks, the restaurant gave him a cow.

Hats off to Greg Meter who was recently inducted into the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Meter, a standout athlete at St. Stephen’s High School, went on to play football at the University of Dayton. He has been a long-time assistant football coach at Nouvel Catholic Central High School. An attorney by trade, he is widely known for his dedication and integrity on an off the field.

I really think that the Saginaw Spirit hockey organization should hold a contest for fans to come up with a new song that would be played after a goal is scored. Nothing against Donna Summer, but her “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” is getting a tad bit stale.

I think they should add a little “Detroit” flavor, such as the following:

“No More Mr. Nice Guy” – Alice Cooper

“Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” – Bob Seger

“Going to a Go-Go” – Smokey Robinson

“Dancing in the Street” – Marvin Gaye

“Shakedown” – Bob Seger

However, my two submissions would include:

“Shout” - Otis Day & the Knights. They could play the lyrics “A little bit louder now” when the Spirit score, and “A little bit softer now” when the opposition scores.

“Soul Man” – The Blues Brothers. Fan could substitute the word “Soul” for “Goal.”

In case you missed it, Delta College now has a new mascot. College officials have nixed “Pioneers” and their new mascot is a Duck. The Delta College Ducks is what students voted for. According to officials, it was the school’s mission to redefine the concept of enthusiasm for a new generation. Embody encouragement through the power of school spirit, savvy, and smarts. Duck goes well beyond cheering for Delta’s teams, to rooting for each and every Delta student to succeed. In fact, Duck represents a rallying point to unite the entire Delta community. I haven’t heard of any funeral arrangements for the Pioneer as of yet.

Darrell and Dwight Evans are not related, but there so many parallels between them they might have been brothers. Both were born in the Los Angeles area, both played 20 or more seasons in the Majors, and both were effective up until the end of their careers. Both of them collected more than 1,300 runs, more than 1,300 RBI, and more than 2,200 hits. In addition, each seldom hit for average but nevertheless compiled outstanding on-base percentages, owing to high walk totals. Darrell led the National League in free passes twice while Dwight topped the American League in walks on three occasions. Last but not least, both were sluggers of the first order. Dwight tied for the AL four-bagger lead in 1981. Four years later, at age 38, Darrell cracked 40 homers to snare the AL crown. The two amassed 799 dingers between them, almost evenly divided – 414 for Darrell and 385 for Dwight. Neither are in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

A recent caller to Art Lewis on WSGW mentioned that American teams won the Stanley Cup (Florida Panthers) and Memorial Cup (Saginaw Spirit) in the same year, and wondered if it has previously happened. It’s actually happened four previous times:

1983: New York Islanders and Portland Winter Hawks

1991: Pittsburgh Penguins and Spokane Chiefs

1998: Detroit Red Wings and Portland Winter Hawks

2008: Detroit Red Wings and Spokane Chiefs

Carlos Zambrano of the Chicago Cubs was once on the disabled list after being diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome. Cause of condition: too many hours surfing the Internet.

Dick Pendell of Saginaw High School was selected as the city’s outstanding high school athlete of 1930. He was an all-state quarterback, the No. 1 player on the tennis squad and qualified for the state tournament, was the mainstay on the Trojans basketball team. Labeled as on of the state’s top guards, and also a pitcher/infielder on the Saginaw Valley championship team. He was also an honor student, a member of the school debating team, class president, and prominent in various other school activities. He graduated in January of 1931.

I was on my friend Gary Fahndrich’s Detroit Tiger bus trip on Saturday when the Bengals came back from a five-run deficit to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 10^th inning. Gary has been doing the bus trip for family and friends for 21 years and Detroit has a 19-2 record in those bus trips arranged by Gary. Judging from that record, the Tigers should be supplying Gary with all the free tickets he wants.

It was interesting to see a Detroit fan catch Shohei Ohtani’s home run on Saturday at Comerica Park, making him the first Japanese-born player with 200 home runs in the Major Leagues. It was his 29^th home run for the season. The fan was swarmed by about eight members of the Japanese media who wanted to know if he was going to give the ball to Ohtani. Comerica Park’s Pepsi Porch was filled to the brink with Dodger fans. There were no Mary Hart sightings.

Interesting list - winningest pitcher by decade since the 1950's:

1950's – Warren Spahn - 202

1960's – Juan Marichal - 191

1970's – Jim Palmer - 186

1980's – Jack Morris - 162

1990's – Greg Maddux - 176

2000's – Andy Petitte - 148

2010's – Max Scherzer – 132

I am extremely proud of my son Joe Tany who won a National Championship in baseball as a starting pitcher for Concordia University Ann Arbor. So, I was very disappointed when I heard that Concordia’s Board of Regents is downsizing its campus after leaders determined making the campus autonomous was not financially feasible. They will be eliminating all the school’s sports programs in the 2025-26 school year.

“The Board concluded that the Ann Arbor campus does not possess the resources or ability to pursue autonomy as an independent university within the Concordia University System,” according to university officials. The private, Lutheran-based university currently offers 53 on-campus academic programs and 28 athletic programs. Only seven online academic programs will be offered in the 2025-26 school year, while all athletic teams will be discontinued after the upcoming season.

I feel really bad for head baseball coach Zach Johnston who is entering his 11^th season. Johnston played four years for Concordia and was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018. He has amassed a 351-186 coaching record and has a pair of NCCAA National Championships. But he deeply cares about all of his players; and takes great pride in developing young men. A total of 84 of his players were Academic All-America recipients and 66 NAIA Scholar-Athletes. Johnston is the grandson of Lenoard “Lefty” Johnston, who has been inducted into the Saginaw County Sports Hall of Fame and the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame.

Whatever happened to Mikie Mahtook?

QUICK QUIZ ANSWER

D. Oscar Robertson, who was a three-time All-American at the University of Cincinnati along with being named three-time Player of the Year. He led the nation in scoring three straight years and his 2,973 points was an NCAA record at the time.