RIP Joe Niekro

I was going on your report. I missed the sarcasm. Should have seen it, even if wasn't Johnson but "Dewey Defeats Truman."

I just did a search on the Tribune Web site for Niekro and came back with no results.

 

From LA Times-Wash Post wire:


bc-niekro-correction
Editors: In SPORTS-BUDGET-LAT-WP transmitted earlier,
We identified Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro as having died. He did not. His brother, Joe Niekro, also a big-league pitcher and a key contributor to contending Houston Astros teams of a generation ago, died Friday. We apologize to all concerned for the mistake.
Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service

 

"... and a key contributor to contending Houston Astros teams of a generation ago ..."

Jesus, that makes me feel old.

 

JNiekro, Joquin Andujar, JR Richard, Larry Diercker, Joe Sambito, a young Floyd Bannister, Cesar Cedeno, Jose Cruz, a young Jeff Leonard, Enos Cabell, several more.
Them was the 70s-80s Astros I loved so much.
Rest in Peace, Joe.

 

Born in Martins Ferry, just off Lou "The Toe" Groza Highway
"Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio":

In the Shreve High football stadium,
I think of Polacks nursing long beers in Tiltonsville,
And gray faces of Negroes in the blast furnace at Benwood,
And the ruptured night watchman of Wheeling Steel,
Dreaming of heroes.

All the proud fathers are ashamed to go home.
Their women cluck like starved pullets,
Dying for love.

Therefore,
Their sons grow suicidally beautiful
At the beginning of October,
And gallop terribly against each other's bodies.