Bobby Baby

Sad news: Bob Murphy, the long-time Mets radio announcer, died of lung cancer yesterday... a voice which I remember for some twenty-odd of my twenty-nine years (often listening to the radio under the covers while I should've been sleeping) is now silenced, and a link to the game the way it used to be has now been severed.

So many classic "Murphisms" to remember:

"a HIGH fly ball, DEEEP, to left field, WAAY back, it may go... GONE! A home run!"

"We'll be back with the happy recap in just a moment"

"Heee struck him out! Struck him out! The Mets have won the world series! And oh my goodness, the fans are storming the field" (Yes, I've been a Mets fan for quite some time, ok?)

I suspect that Michael will be toasting Murph at a piano bar someplace (His tribute to Murphy, from when he retired last year, is a gem, and yes, I remember the "The Mets finally win the d*mn thing" quote too).

In happier news, made an all-too brief return to Marie's on Monday for an hour or so with Jim Allen, singing Allen Sherman and Tom Lehrer songs (Jim had a voice student there, and I think our rendition of "Harvey and Sheila" will leave the poor girl emotionally scarred for life. Won't be spending too much time there next week, though: I've been switched to midnights to sub for a vacationing colleague... hey, I was just thinking how much I missed being able to shop on a weekday morning without having to deal with lines; now, I get to do it for five straight days! I'll take "circadian rhythms shot to hell" for two hundred, Alex...

Speaking of hell: Finished off Garth Ennis's Preacher series yesterday; not the greatest graphic novel series of all time, but certainly entertaining as all get out. Probably could've been trimmed to about five or six books, instead of the nine that it took, though. Ennis is a bit too fond of meandering backstory, and the series worked best when he was just ripping through the main storyline at warp ten, with his cracked sense of humor (I shudder to think of what his childhood must've been like) leading the way. Oh, well, on to Books of Magic now, I guess...