Tribute to an old friend

I got word yesterday (belatedly, I'm afraid) of the passing of Mary Alice Fee, 'Miss Fee' as she was known to family and friends. She had turned 100 last fall and I'd known her most of my life. I met her when she was my aunt's next door neighbor in Baltimore nearly 60 years ago. She looked after my cousins (and me and my siblings when we visited) and was a dear friend to my aunt through the years.

I was always close to my aunt and cousins, and she was essentially part of the family. She was funny and kind and was an Orioles fan of the first order. She knew her baseball despite never attending a game in person. Her thing was following the Birds on the radio. She had lost her sight in recent years but she still enjoyed the games. She had opinions on the state of the team and was never afraid to voice them.

In her honor I'm posting a signed IP 1975 Brooks Robinson TCMA/SSPC from the Superstars set. I came across it and a couple other related Orioles signed cards while digging through my old hobby storage boxes the other evening.

A love for Brooks Robinson was another thing Miss Fee and I shared.

These next three are from the SSPC set.

This final pic is Miss Fee and myself at Amicci's in Baltimore's Little Italy during a trip about ten years ago. RIP Miss Fee 💔

10 Posts, 10 Cards, 10 Books, 10 Songs (#7)

I'm a sucker for old Johnny Unitas items and I found this on eBay. It's pretty fragile so I scanned it for posterity (I'll put it safely away now) and for this post. The Unitas pics are probably from the same photo session that produced the MacGregor Staff photo and related pics that I posted this past November.

As indicated by the cover, JU is the featured athlete and gets a two page spread in addition to a second photo.

Sonny Jurgenson waxes poetic on eating right, etc. It's hard to tell by the scans but this thing folds out so that the text and Jurgenson's photo are each one page.

Bart Starr did NOT explain the 'Lombardi Sweep' play that they ran down everyone's throats back in the day. Of course, I always think of the late, great Ray Scott doing Packer games on CBS. If you want to hear him at his best go to 1:05 of the clip below and give a listen to how a pro calls a TD.

"Starr.........he's throwing for Dale...................[crowd gets crazy].......Touchdown." Ray Scott was just the best.

A nice bonus is the appearance of one of my favorite players, Tommy McDonald, in the brochure. And he helps date the thing since he was a one season Cowboy (1964).

Mike Ditka looks very young in his photo, yes?

My favorite network broadcast show ever will always be Homicide: Life On The Streets. It portrayed the city of Baltimore through the eyes of it's Police Homicide Division. It ran for seven seasons, the first four or five of which are about as good as network TV could ever hope to be. It starred and was enriched by among others, Daniel Baldwin, Richard Belzer, Clark Johnson, Yaphet Kotto, Melissa Leo and especially Andre Braugher.

The show was inspired by this book: Homicide (A Year On The Killing Streets). The author had spent a year with the homicide cops of the Baltimore City Police and wrote a really great book as a result. I seem to remember getting it from a bookstore as soon as I discovered the show. Excellent look at the workings of a big city homicide squad, warts and all. No whitewashing anything.

To continue my Charm City theme, here is the remarkable Nina Simone and her cover of Randy Newman's Baltimore:

Bonus material...David Gray doing the same song live in Baltimore. I've probably seen Gray more than any other performing artist. He's the only musical act that, when I say "So-and-So's coming to Houston, wanna see him/her, again?" doesn't get a moment's hesitation from my wife. And he's coming back again in March. I'm looking forward to it.

Johnny Unitas 'Golden Arm' Matchbooks

Johnny Unitas' Golden Arm Restaurant was a Baltimore hot spot in its heyday. I vaguely recall my one visit back in 1970 (I think). Mostly I remember being disappointed that Johnny U himself was not there to greet me, his biggest fan, at the door with a hearty handshake. Probably just as well since I would have likely fallen over flat on my face had it happened. In 1988 Johnny U sold the place he had founded with teammate Bobby Boyd.  And then, a victim of suburban grocery store expansion, it closed in 1994.

From time to time I seek out a menu from the place. But I never have much luck given that I am not going to bid very high on something that'll end up stuck among my Colts publications. And that's fine. One day one of the menus will fall through the eBay cracks and land in my lap.

What I have had luck with was finding a cocktail glass from the bar (since lost to a deadly fall from a closet shelf) and a couple of matchbook covers.

These two standard size covers both came as full books of matches way back when. But the covers fit better in a binder page so that's how they ended up.

The gold one is pretty fancy as befitting a joint with "Elegant Dining in a Relaxed Atmosphere". 😉

But I like this next one more.

It's got that great posed 'action' shot of Unitas on the white 'Close Cover' panel.

This next one is relatively new. I found it in one of my 'John Unitas' searches and with it I learned that there was a 'Golden Arm' at the Orlando Sheraton near the airport there.

2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the restaurant's opening. There is a Facebook page dedicated to it. These pics came from that page. Since I've left Facebook in my rearview mirror I figure there isn't much they can do if I repost the photos here.

Here's a menu. I found a few archived reviews. They had good things to say about some of the seafood dishes. I recall having a burger but that may just be my imagination. I don't see one on the menu.

This next one is my favorite. Dig the plaid sports jacket that Frank Robinson is wearing. Men's fashion in the 70s was NOT a thing of beauty.

Weekend in Baltimore

Just back from a visit to my hometown of Baltimore over the past weekend. I saw the Orioles win two and drop one to the Tigers. Except for the Sunday loss the trip was pretty much as good as it could possibly be. I hung with family and old friends, had some crab cakes (crab prices are out of sight!), some Italian food in Little Italy and generally enjoyed myself.

I took a ton of pics but I won't burden everyone with many of them. Just a couple of highlights.

Camden Yards of course is spectacular.

I got my first in-person look at the bronze statutes of Orioles stars.

And I hadn't seen the retired numbers outside the north gates before either.

My Texas-themed O's shirt was a conversation starter on Saturday. A couple of Baltimore's Finest found it amusing and we had a long baseball chat on Saturday morning as I walked back to the hotel from breakfast.

Saturday was also Maryland-themed Bird bobblehead nite.

These are the Crab Chippers I tried. Crab meat, some sort of cheese sauce, scallions and Old Bay seasoning over kettle chips. They were recommended and they were pretty good, especially with my Natty Boh.

It wasn't all baseball. I poked around the (now even more touristy) Harborplace...

Had a crabcake sandwich or two....

..and visited the Maryland Sports Legends Museum across from the ballpark....

It was a fun trip. I hope it's not another ten years before I make it back to my hometown.