Who knows what tales lurk in the hearts of column notes?
Last week this space included a note about SiriusXM’s radio classics Ch. 82, specifically a 1945 Jack Benny program that guest-starred Joe Louis.
From that, Wyckoff, N.J.’s Brian Birrer, a 48-year-old hospital administrator and wood carver/sculptor — no doubt part of a splinter group — shared a connection and a confession:
In 2008, as he carved his 300-pound, solid-wood statue of Jackie Robinson — shipped then seen around the majors as part of Robinson anniversary and African-American Heritage games — his usual companion, music, wasn’t, heh-heh, cutting it. So he downloaded all the Jack Benny radio shows, 1933-54, listening while he worked.
“To this day,” Birrer said, “when I look at the statue, I see Jackie Robinson, but I hear Jack Benny. ”
In 2007, Birrer earned attention and acclaim beyond splinter groups — sorry, I’ll cut it out — with his Babe Ruth carving, which now stands in the sports bar at the massive Gaylord National complex in D.C.
When his second child was born, his wife Carol agreed to name him John Benjamin; John is a common first name of those called Jack.
“About two days after John Benjamin was born, it hit her. ‘You named our son Jack Benny, didn’t you?’ ” Birrer said.
There was no denying it. Birrer, after all, arrived for John Benjamin’s C-section birth wearing his Jack Benny Middle School T-shirt. The school is in Waukegan, Ill., the boyhood home of Jack Benny.
The school’s nickname, as per Benny’s gag about his age, is the 39ers.
That’s why, if you look at Birrer’s Jackie Robinson statue in just the right light, and from just the right angle, you can detect a slight smile.
So what does Birrer call 6-year-old John Benjamin? He takes the Eddie “Rochester” Anderson route. “I call him Mr. Benny.”
As for Birrer’s first son, Thomas J., I was afraid to ask.
All-out blitz of bad seeds at some schools
Oh, those mischief-making college kids: Nebraska’s moving in on a record the NCAA doesn’t recognize: Number of murderers produced by a football program.
Right now, it’s only one, but it’s trending three.
Last week, former offensive lineman and current Bandidos motorcycle gang member Nick Povendo was indicted in Texas for a December shooting murder at a biker bar.
In 2009, ex-running back Thunder Collins was convicted of first-degree murder, among other things, for a shooting death in Omaha. He’s doing life.
Running back Lawrence Phillips — the Rams’ 1996 first-round pick (sixth overall) who played in the NFL despite a criminal history that included the sustained brutalization of his girlfriend — last month lost someone very close to him: Damion Soward. He was murdered in the prison cell they shared.
Soward was doing life for murder. Phillips, the primary (only?) suspect, was doing 32 years for everything but.
Soward was the first cousin of R. Jay Soward, 2000 first-round pick of the Jaguars. A student-athlete at USC, he played only one NFL season due to multiple drug suspensions.
Also last week, Jermaine Cunningham, XXX-linebacker — ex-Patriot, ex-Niner and most recently ex-Jet — pleaded guilty to distributing pornographic pictures of his girlfriend and to the illegal transport of a gun. He was arrested in December after police responded to a domestic violence call.
Cunningham, who was a student-athlete at Florida, where football players without rap sheets feel embarrassed, in 2012 was drug-suspended by the NFL. In 2007, he and Gators teammate Jeff Demps, last year a Pats running back, were arrested for verbal and physical abuse of a store cashier, and petty theft.
Why do our colleges and universities allow this to persist, worsen? Why don’t they do something about it? What?! Mess with the football program? You crazy?
TV folks have an advantage over the rest of us: They don’t need forethought and foresight. All they have to do is preview what they plan to present — to see if it makes sense. Their mistakes can be corrected after they’re made but before they’re seen.
One would think.
Throughout NBC’s Stanley Cup coverage, and with live play on, viewers have been distracted, often startled, by the sudden removal of the score/time/period graphic in the upper left, replaced by a long strip panel showing eight separate videos.
Although that gives us nine moving images to watch at once, those eight are so small the activity going on among the tiny people within each becomes an indecipherable, Twilight Zone mystery.
Next, that panel is cleared, replaced with, “Share Your Moments,” then with, “#MyPlayoffsMoment.”
But given that this indistinguishable video come-on appears at least three times per Cup game over dozens of them, it must meet with NHL/NBC forethought, foresight, oversight and hindsight. Still, why not wait until a whistle to show us something we can’t see?
FS1 tells ‘Soldier’s Story’
Throughout Memorial Day weekend, FOX Sports 1, its regional sports networks and affiliates are running a 12-minute feature on the life and death of Maj. Stephen Reich, a West Point grad and baseball star, from Washington Depot, Conn.
In 2008, Reich was killed in action — during his fourth tour of duty in Afghanistan. He and 15 others died during a rocket grenade attack that struck their helicopter, killing all, as they attempted to rescue a team of Navy SEALs.
It didn’t have to end that way. Reich was a star pitcher in high school, but chose his appointment to West Point. Considered the best to ever pitch at the Academy, he was drafted by the Orioles, even pitched two games in the minors. But he was Army first, Army last. And last was at 34.
“A Soldier’s Story” will appear on YES within tomorrow’s Yankees “Batting Practice” pre-pregame, which begins at noon.
Monday’s column lauding Doc Emrick as North America’s hockey laureate was met with overwhelming agreement and testimonies, plus some thumbs’ downs. A sampling:
Terry Nicholson wrote that Emrick is like your friendly, trusted, funny neighbor, chatting with you “over the fence.”
Mark Morley: “Emrick could read an insurance policy and I’d be on the edge of my seat.”
Mark Donefsky’s fiancée watched her first hockey, Game 7 of Capitals-Rangers: “She caught on to the basics and really got into the excitement. … She said the announcer is terrific. … Here’s a novice who recognized the best play-by-play guy in sports!”
As for the five not wild about Emrick, they had the same beef: His take on the Rangers. Three wrote he’s just a Rangers’ shill; two claimed it’s obvious he despises the Rangers.