Goodbye to James Garner - Growing up in the 1970s, Friday evenings were always the big must-see T.V. night of the week. During this time one humble, hard-working, and slightly awkward P.I. named James Rockford stood above them all. For six seasons he was part of my world. Somehow back in the days before hundreds of T.V. channels, individual programs and their characters were more iconic, more singular. The Rockford Files has a strong association in my heart to this day, even though I have not seen an episode in more than 30 years. Of course, those who may not have been a fan of Garner as Rockford, may have enjoyed him as Bret Maverick in the 1950s or in similar endearing roles in later years. James died July 19 at the age of 86 from natural causes.
Congratulations to Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux - When I was a kid growing up in Rhode Island I became a big Boston Red Sox fan and loved watching the games on T.V. When I began graduate school in Indiana in 1988, the only games that were available to watch were broadcast by the two superstations, WGN (Chicago Cubs) and TBS (Atlanta Braves). I began following the Braves mainly because I preferred the Braves announcers over the Cubs announcers. In the 1990s, the Braves were blessed to have two very good pitchers who were consistently good over a very long stretch, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux. For essentially the whole decade of the 90s, I watched as many Braves games as I could. This time became my sanctuary. Tom and Greg were a big reason for that and they became sports heroes of mine. On July 27 it was fitting that they were inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame together. Tom retired with a career record of 305-203 and two Cy Young awards and Greg with a record of 355-227 and four Cy Young awards.
