Mike Felger. the guy everyone loves to hate, has stooped to new lows in that department. He's now insisting that Brady won't try to help Jimmy Garopolo improve his quarterback skills claiming that he's seen Brady ignore Garopolo on the practice field. How the heck does Felger know?? He's never at the practices OR in the lockerroom after the games. BUT, he'll lead you to believe that he IS and knows what he's talking about...HE'S NOT!! AND IS NEVER HELD ACCOUNTABLE for anything he says that is "incorrect." He just ignores it as if it never happened. He should run for political office.
Felger goes further claiming that DREW BLEDSOE never helped Brady so why should Brady help Jimmy. That is a pure and simple lie. Everybody covering the team back then (and I was one of them) knew that Bledsoe DID help Brady. NOTE:---look at the immediate post game celebration when the Pats won their first superbowl.....the first guy Brady went to hug and celebrate with was in fact DREW BLEDSOE. Brady is well known for being the consummate TEAM PLAYER. He's not worried that Garopolo will steal HIS job. Felger just plain out and out lied. Remember the old axiom in sports reporting..."NEVER LET THE TRUTH GET IN THE WAY OF A GOOD STORY."
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In my last story about the media I promised you another story the likes of which would make interesting dialogue on any sports talk show and, hopefully, perpetuate our Boston Sports Heritage......The scene is 1950 in a game between the Red Sox and the Yankees....I was there......
It was the fifth inning, the Sox ahead 1-0. The pitcher was Ike Delock. He had just walked the bases loaded and there were none out. (Delock had already walked seven men in the game. The next batter hit a sinking line drive to center field. Domenic DiMaggio charged in on the ball, short hopped it (without ever taking his eye off the runner on third) and fired a perfect strike to the catcher to force out the runner from third base. NOTE: It was over 50 years before TROT NIXON did the same thing for the Sox. It's unknown if it ever happened before DiMaggio did it.
NOW, to complete the story I'M telling.....about 25 years ago I was helping run a time in honor of JOHNNY MOST at the World Trade Center. As we were setting up the lobby in walked, non other than
Dom DiMaggio all by himself....Six hours early. I walked over and introduced myself to my boyhood idol as he apologized to me for being so early. "I just wanted to beat the traffic from Cape Cod (where he lived) so just put me away in a corner someplace out of the way."
Oh my God, was he kidding? I asked what he drank and he replied "Diet Coke would be fine." I went over and got us four 28 ounce diet cokes, and walked Dom over to the very luxurious celebrity guest lounge (which was totally empty.) AND, for two hours I HAD DOM DIMAGGIO all to myself.
I started out with telling him about being at THAT Sox-Yankees game not really expecting him to remember it. Boy, was I off base. He recalled EVERY last detail. "Delock had just walked the bases full with no outs. Gil McDougal was up with a 1-1 count when he hit that sinking line drive. I knew he was a line drive hitter who usually made contact so I played him shallow. He reminded me that he was a short stop in the minor leagues and played center field with his left foot forward facing left field. (he called it side saddled.) so he could get a better jump on the ball. "At the crack of the bat I charged forward and the rest was just instinctive baseball," he concluded.
Then he asked me a question....."Do you know why the manager didn't replace him after walking all those batters?" One of the proudest moments of my sports life was knowing the answer and getting a big smile and look of approval from my childhood idol..."The manager didn't yank him because....he had a no-hitter going!!
It was like a kid's dream come true. Dom was about as gracious as could be and answered every single one of my questions like I was a long lost friend. (He later thanked MR for spending the time with him??) He even talked at length about his brother Joe as well as his former, equally famous sister-in-law. Marilyn Monroe. "She was the kindest, gentlest girl I ever met," Dom said. But my brother Joe was just too "old world Italian" and, when she posed for that famous picture of her standing over a subway transom blowing her dress up, he exploded and that was the end. She said to him, "you just don't know what it's like to be cheered by thousands of people." Joe felt insulted and told her, emphatically, "YES, I do." (she just didn't seem to really know who JOE DIMAGGIO really was). Dom then told me, "She was the love of his life and he never stopped loving her. SHE finally realized she felt safe and loved with Joe and they were about to remarry when she died."
NOTE:---Dom had just finished a book on the 1941 season called, "Real Grass, Real Heroes," a look at the greatest season in baseball history. And Dom was the ONLY person that could write this book...his brother Joe set the record for hitting safely in the most consecutive games (56) and his best friend, Ted Williams, became the last .400 hitter in the major leagues. (.406) This coupled with the mood of the country over impending World War ll as well as what, and how, the people lived, and what the game was like, AND how much baseball meant to the average citizen makes for the very best sports book ever written.
I told him I thought it was a great title and he should make it a sports talk show. I'll never forget his reply..."I'll tell you what," Dom said, If YOU ever want to use the name for a sports show then you have my permission." WOW, I still remember those words and what a great feeling it gave me. YES, I did do a sports show on local cable TV called, "Real Grass, Real Heroes," a look at the Golden Age of sports in America when the game was played on REAL grass and the heroes were REAL heroes and not just "druggies" who could hit a baseball 700 feet.
The studio closed down but you can find re-runs by just "googling up" the name. If you like the story about Dom DiMaggio check this spot for stories you'll love and some recollections of players, not just baseball, that haven't been told in over 50 years.....Stay tuned to this spot..........