We're Talking Baseball

We've got a couple of loose ends - that just so happen to be baseball/media related - this early Monday...

HAMMY AND TRIV: A small item in Plain Dealer columnist Roger Brown's Sunday column (heeeee's baaaaaaaack!) caught our attention. Brown says WTAM/1100 afternoon motormouth Mike Trivisonno "ripped" Cleveland Indians radio voice Tom Hamilton for being "too complimentary" towards former Indians star Jim Thome...when the White Sox were in town to play the Tribe.

The ever classy Hamilton's response? (No, it wasn't "Roger, why are you wasting column inches on this?") "While you would like to please everyone, unfortunately, that’s not possible."

Good for Hamilton - for not getting dragged into yet another "controversy" designed to give Triv more publicity. Bad for Roger Brown, and we guess by extension, for us - for getting dragged into talking about it. As Triv is Cleveland's loudest radio mouth, it's hard for us not to talk about him.

By the way, while we were looking for an unrelated item, we stumbled onto this USA TODAY article from last summer, ranking Hamilton, Matt Underwood and Mike Hegan the 5th best American League radio announcing team. We also stumbled onto praise from people in other cities, including Chicago Cubs fans wishing that Hamilton would get hired by their team.

An odd fact - your Primary Editorial Voice did not like Tom Hamilton at all, when he first joined the Indians radio team alongside veteran Herb Score. It wasn't the comparison to Score...we just weren't used to Hamilton or his voice.

Now, some 16 years later, he's one of the best radio play-by-play guys in the major leagues...in both USA TODAY's opinion and our own. Underwood and Hegan are reliable and capable, but it's Hamilton who adds the "zing" to the Tribe broadcasts...

JUUUST A LITTLE ODD: Here's an item with a very slight connection to Cleveland.

The sleuthing website The Smoking Gun has unearthed a restraining order sought by Milwaukee Brewers long-time radio play-by-play announcer Bob Uecker. He says a suburban Chicago woman has been stalking him, sending him packages at home, showing up at his hotel pool, and other such things that Major League Baseball doesn't usually consider part of the "fan experience".

As just about anyone in radio or TV will tell you, there can be rather unhinged people listening to you. Many think you're speaking directly to them on the radio. Some believe that they're secretly married to you.

Others, like one oddball listener of one of our former stations, send strange packages aimed at getting the romantic attention of the broadcaster...though we're not sure how musty pot holders and old doilies sent to one of our female hosts would be considered "romantic", even in the mind of an older married male listener.

So, we're not surprised "Ueck" is the object of such unwanted attention, and we wouldn't be surprised if Cleveland's own Tom Hamilton has to deflect some of this from time to time.

The Cleveland connection? Of course, Uecker played Cleveland Indians radio announcer Harry Doyle in the "Major League" series of movies...