Sunday Fun: Soccer Buffs on Patio

7/7/2020

Sunday Soccer: Edmundo, minus guitar. Three unidentified fans. Laptop plugging greatest soccer book ever written. (Youtube of show, below.)

You’ve heard of Men in Blazers?
Get ready for (what I like to call) Men in Shorts, talking footy from a suburban patio on a Sunday morning.

My St. Louis pal Tom Schwarz is part of an eclectic group of soccer buffs who emit the weekly show, captured as it happens and sent out through the mysteries of Youtube and Facebook.

The merrie bande called me Sunday, July 5, and we talked about survival during the bungled pandemic, viewing “Hamilton” on the tube, live sports in empty stadiums. I am heard from Minute 30, as long as they can carry me.

The show is “live” on Facebook, so I am told, but later put together for Youtube. They occasionally get a real soccer person, like Taylor Twellman of St. Louis, ace scorer now ace broadcaster, on Jan. 20, 2019.

Cast members include:
Edmundo (Gail Edmunds, plus guitar).
Ted Williams, not the frozen one, women’s soccer authority and show producer.
Josh McGehee, Bradley Univ., 2018, labelled “our resident soccer expert” (every show needs one.)
Russell Blyth, St. Louis Univ., Dept. of Mathematics, “native of New Zealand” (you can hear it), reads the scores of Sunday matches in “traditional BBC fashion,” lover of tango and Liverpool fan.
Patio Host Tom Schwarz, seller of plants, world traveler, family guy, outside gunner in basketball, and master salesman who once hawked 175 copies of my Stan Musial biography in soccer pub in one night.

The lads are gearing up their act for the arrival of a St. Louis club in Major League Soccer in the 2022 season, an honor for one of America’s best nurturing cities for the sport.

Meantime: socially distanced. (My old photo vanishes by pushing the video arrow, I hope.)

Roy Edelsack

7/7/2020 11:44:28 am

Obligatory (and a Shea Stadium staple in 1986):

The Curly Shuffle
Jump 'N the Saddle Band

When me and my friends go out on the town
We can't sit still and we can't sit down
We don't like to fight and we don't like to scuffle
But we dance all night doing the Curly shuffle
(Hey Moe hey Moe) hey Moe hey Moe
(Well nyuck nyuck nyuck nyuck) well nyuck nyuck nyuck nyuck
(La da dee la da dee) la da dee la da dee
(Woo woo woo woo) woo woo woo woo
Well we never miss a chance we get up and dance and do the Curly shuffle
Well me and my friends love Curly and Moe
We love Curly's brother Shemp and his fat clone Joe
It's such a delight to boogie and hustle
Dancing all night doing the Curly shuffle
(Hey Moe hey Moe) hey Moe hey Moe
(Well nyuck nyuck nyuck nyuck) well nyuck nyuck nyuck nyuck
(We dee dee dee we dee dee dee) we dee dee dee we dee dee dee dee
(Oh,…

George Vecsey

7/7/2020 08:54:43 pm

I guess the three lads appeal all over the place. I believe Jay Horwitz, long-time PR guy, is a 3 Stooges fan. They were big in 1986? It blurs.
GV

Roy Edelsack

7/8/2020 12:07:30 pm

WHAT`S THE METS` PROBLEM? ASK CURLY

CHICAGO TRIBUNE-July 7, 1987
Most people think the Mets are in their current desperate state because

(a) their pitching staff self-destructed, (b) half the team would like to get traded or (c) Darryl Strawberry lost his alarm clock.

But here`s the real reason: It`s the Three Stooges.

See, they used to show the video to the world-famous song, ''The Curly Shuffle,'' virtually every night at Shea Stadium. They used to win virtually every night they did that, too.

But this year they got into a copyright battle and weren`t able to show a single ''Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk'' all season until finally settling the dispute last week.

However, they`re allowed to show this critical video only 50 times over the next three years, so they`ve got to pick their spots. The spot they picked for the first showing was the bottom of the ninth last Tuesday, their game with the Cardinals tied at 2-2, and an 8 1/2-game deficit staring them in the face if they lost.

They didn`t. They scored in the ninth to win 3-2. The evidence, therefore, was overwhelming. It had to be those Stooges.

''We haven`t had it (the video) all year, and we haven`t played very well,'' said Davey Johnson. ''I don`t know why it took us so long to get it back. That`s probably been our problem.''

Oops! This just in. Moe and Larry called in with the flu, Curly says he`s tired of playing with backstabbers, and Keith Hernandez is trying to call a Stooges-only meeting to clear the air.

Alan Rubin link

7/7/2020 12:56:04 pm

Just great. Impromptu is often more realistic than the best of planning.

If I had continued playing clarinet after high school, you might have had a goalkeeper's perspective in the chat.

Ted Williams link

7/9/2020 09:42:45 am

George,
it is such a pleasure to have you join us for our weekend broadcasts. This new FB Live to YouTube version is just the latest on an AM local sports radio roller coaster that has been truly memorable. We value your participation with our Merry band of "men in shorts." Talk again soon.

Ted Williams
St. Louis

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QUOTES
“They may hate the cultural context they now find themselves teaching in, but they love their work. The Achilles’ heel of schoolteachers, one all too easily exploited by politicians, is that they love their students.”
(One of the best reads in the NYT these days is Margaret Renkl, in Nashville. In her latest post, Renkl describes the dedicated core of “born teachers” – the majority, she submits.)
***
(From Madeleine Albright in one of her final interviews in February):
“Putin is small and pale,” I wrote, “so cold as to be almost reptilian.” He claimed to understand why the Berlin Wall had to fall but had not expected the whole Soviet Union to collapse. “Putin is embarrassed by what happened to his country and determined to restore its greatness.” – Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, recalling her first meeting with the relatively unknown Vladimir Putin in 2000. – The New York Times, Feb. 23, 2022.

Sunday Fun: Soccer Buffs on Patio

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