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Yankees NEWS - BBWAA Announces Class of 2014 Hall of Fame Inductees : Joe Torre

 

The Class of 2014 features two 300-game winners, a member of the 500-home run club and three of the members of the Top 5 all-time list for managerial victories.

Torre led the Yankees to six AL pennants and four World Series titles (1996, 1998-2000) in his 12 seasons in New York, and also managed the Mets, Braves, Cardinals and Dodgers – winning one division title with Atlanta and two with Los Angeles. His 2,326 wins in 29 seasons rank fifth on the all-time list, and Torre was twice named Manager of the Year by the BBWAA (1996, 1998). In his final 15 seasons as a manager, Torre led his clubs to the postseason 14 times. Torre’s four World Series titles as a manager rank fourth all-time behind Joe McCarthy (7), Casey Stengel (7) and Connie Mack (5) and tied with Walter Alston.

Glavine, whose 305 career victories rank fourth all-time among left-handers, was named on 91.9 percent of ballots cast by the BBWAA on Jan. 8. Glavine was elected on his first time on the BBWAA ballot after receiving 525 votes. A two-time National League Cy Young Award winner and 10-time All-Star Game selection, Glavine was one of the anchors – along with Maddux – of the dominant Braves rotation of the 1990s and 2000s that won five National League pennants and the 1995 World Series title. Glavine was named the World Series Most Valuable Player in ’95 after going 2-0 in the Fall Classic, including pitching eight shutout innings in the decisive Game 6.

Maddux, who was named on 97.2 percent of all ballots cast, won 355 games in his 23 big league seasons, capturing NL Cy Young Awards every year from 1992-95. An eight-time All-Star and 18-time Gold Glove Award winner – a record number for any position – Maddux joins Glavine to become the first long-time members of a rotation elected to the Hall of Fame in the same year since Eddie Plank and Rube Waddell, each members of the Philadelphia A’s rotation from 1902-07, were elected in 1946. Maddux, who received 555 votes in his first time on the BBWAA ballot, won 15-or-more games in a record 17 straight seasons and won four NL earned-run average titles.

Thomas, who was named on 83.7 percent of all ballots cast, hit 521 home runs over 19 seasons in the big leagues, batting .301 while driving in 1,704 runs. Thomas won back-to-back American League Most Valuable Player Awards in 1993-94, led the AL in on-base percentage four times and captured the 1997 AL batting title. The five-time All-Star posted seven straight seasons (1991-97) with at least a .300 batting average, 100 RBI, 100 walks and 20 home runs, the longest such stretch in big league history. Thomas, named on 478 ballots in his first year on the BBWAA ballot, is the first player elected to the Hall of Fame who played the majority of his games as a designated hitter.

Glavine, Thomas and Maddux became the first trio of first-ballot electees selected by the BBWAA since George Brett, Nolan Ryan and Robin Yount in 1999. They join three former managers who were each unanimously elected by the Expansion Era Committee in December: Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Joe Torre.

Cox skippered the Braves and Blue Jays for 29 seasons, leading his teams to 15 first-place finishes. From 1991-2005, Cox led the Braves to 14 straight seasons where they finished in playoff position. The Braves won five National League pennants and the 1995 World Series under Cox, who finished with 2,504 victories – the fourth-best total of all time. He won the BBWAA’s Manager of the Year Award four times. He won more than 2,000 games with the Braves, becoming only the fourth manager to reach the 2,000 win plateau with one team following Connie Mack (A’s), John McGraw (Giants) and Walter Alston (Dodgers).

La Russa managed the White Sox, A’s and Cardinals for 33 seasons, winning 2,728 games – the third-highest total of all time behind Hall of Famers Connie Mack and John McGraw. He led his teams to 12 first-place finishes, six pennants and three World Series titles – one with the A’s (1989) and two with the Cardinals (2006 and 2011). His teams won 100-or-more games four times and was named the BBWAA’s Manager of the Year in his league four times. He is one of only two managers (along with Sparky Anderson) to win World Series titles in both leagues and the only manager to win All-Star Games in both leagues.

There are now 306 Hall of Fame members, 68 of whom are living.

2014 Award winners Roger Angell, Joe Garagiola and Eric Nadel will receive their recognition and deliver brief speeches during the Awards Presentation on Saturday, July 26 at 4:30 p.m. at Doubleday Field.

R.I.P. Russell Johnson - If there are coconuts in heaven, we will hear from the Professor again.

Actor Russell Johnson, best known as Professor in the 1960s TV sitcom "Gilligan's Island," died Thursday, his agent said. Johnson was 89. Johnson played the iconic role of Professor Roy Hinkley, whose scientific schemes to get the castaways rescued were always foiled by Gilligan's bumbling.

He died at his home in Washington, where he lived with his wife, Connie. She and their daughter, Kimberly, were at his side, said agent Mike Eisenstadt. Johnson is also survived by a stepson, Court, and a grandson, he said. Johnson worked up until his death, signing autographs over the holidays, said Eisenstadt. He called Johnson's death "unexpected." The chief deputy coroner in Kitsap County, Washington, told CNN that Johnson died from natural causes.

Johnson was "just a positive and nice guy" who always treated people with respect, his agent said. His acting career began in the early 1950s with many jobs as a character actor on television. He played Marshal Gib Scott in two seasons of "Black Saddle," a Western that ran in 1959 and 1960.

Johnson acted in dozens of television shows after the four seasons on "Gilligan's Island," but his career seemed stranded on its own island because of the popular sitcom role. A noteworthy big screen role was as a nuclear physicist in the 1955 science fiction film "This Island Earth." Johnson was in Ray Bradbury's 1953 sci-fi classic "It Came From Outer Space."

Before becoming an actor, Johnson served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. He was on a B-24 Liberator when it was shot down during a bombing raid over the Philippines in 1945, according to his official biography, and used his G.I. Bill benefits to pay for acting school after the war.

Johnson, in a 2004 interview for the Archive of American Television said the success of "Gilligan's Island, which he never expected to last more than the initial order of 13 episodes, was the result of the "great chemistry" of the cast.

Tina Louise, who played the glamorous Hollywood starlet Ginger on "Gilligan's Island said she was " very saddened to hear of the passing of Russell Johnson." "My prayers and condolences go out to his wife Constance and his family," Louise said. "He will always be in our hearts and remembered from Gilligan's island as part of American pop culture history. He will truly be missed."

Advice to young actors : Johnson's advice to young actors was to "prepare yourself." "Most of us have to really learn how to do what we do, and that takes some studying and being part of an acting group," he said. "Preparation is everything, and that means studying." Another important ingredient to acting success is perseverance, he said. "You can have all the talent in the world, but if you don't persevere, if you don't stick to it, it doesn't mean anything."

Actor Russell Johnson, best known for his role as the Professor on Gilligan’s Island, has died at the age of 89. Johnson was the last surviving male cast member of the series. By the time he was cast as the Professor—when he was still “Roy Hinkley” to his friends—Johnson had been in movies and TV for almost 15 years, appearing in several Westerns and sci-fi films, including a handful of B-movie classics like Jack Arnold’s It Came From Outer Space (1953), Roger Corman and Charles B. Griffith’s Attack Of The Crab Monsters (1957), and This Island Earth (1955). This Island Earth would be revived more than 40 years later as the feature-within-the-feature of Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996). When Johnson makes his entrance in that movie, one of the MST3K crew pays tribute to his most famous role by immediately saying, “What’s this ‘and the rest’ crap!?”

In the early 1960s, Johnson began devoting more of his energy to TV work, with a regular role on the Western series Black Saddle and guest spots on such programs as Riverboat, The Twilight Zone, Route 66, Rawhide, Wagon Train, and Ben Casey. With his ruggedly handsome features and trim build, Johnson seemed a good bet to someday headline his own dramatic series, and he later said he took the job on Gilligan’s Island as a placeholder, never dreaming that it would last longer than 13 weeks. Premiering in 1964, the comedy ran for three years, and CBS had already notified the cast that they’d be picked up for a fourth when the network suddenly reversed itself and cancelled the show. (The show reportedly fell victim to the whims of CBS President Bill Paley, whose wife had just received word that her favorite show, Gunsmoke, had been canceled, and pressured him to make an executive decision to bring it back.)

Although Johnson continued to work in TV steadily throughout the 1980s and into the ’90s, like so many in the cast, he never fully shook his identity as the Professor—especially as Gilligan became a staple of syndicated reruns. For years, Johnson expressed frustration over the ceiling that his being identified as the Professor seemed to put over his career, but in later years, he seemed to have made his peace with it. “I am the Professor,” he said, “and that’s the way it is. The show has brought a lot of joy to people, and that’s not a bad legacy.”

After the series went off the air, Johnson reprised the character on two Saturday morning cartoon series, The New Adventures Of Gilligan (1974) and Gilligan’s Planet (1982) and a string of reunion TV movies (Rescue From Gilligan’s Island, The Castaways On Gilligan’s Island, The Harlem Globetrotters On Gilligan’s Island), as well as in Gilligan-centric episodes of ALF and Meego. He and his fellow surviving castaways also appeared on a 1995 Roseanne episode with the self-explanatory title, “Sherwood Schwartz—A Loving Tribute”. In 1993, Johnson published a book, Here On Gilligan’s Island, and a year later he promoted it on Space Ghost Coast To Coast. That appearance ended with the superhero turned talk show host blasting Johnson with his armband after Johnson asked him, “Are you Beavis or Butt-head?”

R.I.P. Dave Madden - the only trustworthy Band Manager : Reuben Kincaid

Rest in peace, Dave Madden. The Partridge Family alum, who rose to fame in the 1970s for his role as the onscreen band's manager Reuben Kincaid, died Thursday, Jan. 16 at the age of 82. 
Madden's former agent told TMZ the Canadian-born actor died of "congestive heart and kidney failure" Thursday morning in Florida.

On The Partridge Family, Madden's character was oftentimes aggravated by the antics of the onscreen family's children -- particularly by redheaded terror Danny, who was played by Danny Bonaduce, now 54.
Bonaduce tweeted Thursday evening, "Dave Madden was a great guy & like family to me. He taught me to drive a car when I was 10. One of many great memories. I'll truly miss him."

In his lifetime, Madden also served in the United States Air Force, Special Services. According to his IMDb page, he once performed a magic show back in the '50s for King Idris I of Libya, the ruler at the time.
After The Partridge Family ended in 1974, the actor went on to land a role in classic sitcom Alice. He also made guest appearances on later shows shows like Starsky and Hutch, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (as Dr. Hans Egglehoffer) and Boy Meets World. His final acting credit was voiceover work in 2000's Adventures in Odyssey: The Last Days of Eugene Meltsner.

 Following his retirement, Madden wrote about his Hollywood experiences in Reuben on Wry: The Memoirs of Dave Madden. He is survived by his second wife Sandy Martin and two kids with first wife Nena Arnold, who passed away in 1985.

Madden’s signature role was as Reuben Kincaid, the manager on The Partridge Family who is fondly remembered for his panicky good cheer, stoic endurances of the antics of a young Danny Bonaduce, and the distinctive movements of his blonde toupee—something a Nick At Nick promo once dubbed “The Reuben Hair Shift” (adding that it was “an important part of our TV heritage”). Madden started out in show business as a comedian and magician, and made his first TV appearances in the early 1960s by doing his act on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Merv Griffin Show, and Hollywood Palace. He shifted into acting in 1965 as one of the stars of the short-lived sitcom Camp Runamuck.

 

In 1968 and 1969, Madden was a member of the regular company on the second season of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. He co-starred in The Partridge Family from 1970 to 1974, after which he had a recurring role on the sitcom Alice and continued to make occasional guest appearances on TV through the late ‘90s. In one of his last TV appearances, he reprised the role of Reuben Kincaid in “U2: The Early Years,” a sketch that kicked off the 1992 pilot episode of The Ben Stiller Show, in which he recounted his difficulties with Bono (played by Stiller), who’d fired him as U2’s manager because he took exception to Reuben’s forcing them to do bar mitzvahs and driving them from gig to gig in a multi-colored bus.

 

 In remembrance of Dave Madden, who passed away on Thursday at age 82, Antenna TV will be airing a Partridge Family marathon on Saturday, January 18th from 1p ET to 8p ET. RIP Reuben Kincaid.

Shop Talk - Where do you get your goodies ? Amok Time Toys : Long Island's Best

 

 I know a lot of collector's get there goodies from Amok Time Toys

at there online store ---> www.amoktime.com

Here are some cool pictures of the inside of there store itself.

I go there not as regularly as I used to .. only because of lack of funds.

They have way way too many things I want to get.

Check out these pictures I took yesterday.

 Whenever you are in the area you should stop in.

You won't be disappointed.

108C New South Road Hicksville, NY 11801
Phone: 516-520-0975 

 Email: amoktime@aol.com
Walk In Store Hours: 

Monday-Tuesday 12-5

 Wednesday 10-7

 Thursday-Saturday 10-6

 Sunday 12-3

Bat-Collection Update : Yesterday was a Bat-Tastic Day !! Surf's Up + Batman '66 Issues 1, 2, & 3

Bat-NEWS : Holy "Hell has officially Frozen OVER !!" Batman !!

 Adam West's Batman Gets a Home DVD Release

The popular 60s-era Batman television show starring Adam West and Burt Ward as the Dynamic Duo is finally getting a home video release.
The news came via an unusual, but appropriate, source. Longtime comic book fan and TV personality Conan O’Brien.

The date of release is as yet unknown, but with Batman more popular than ever, the Batman ’66 comic book in stores and Batman celebrating his 75th year as a pop culture icon this year, the timing couldn’t be better.

 

More to come … Stay Tuned !!
Same Bat-Time ..
Same Bat-Channel ..