Daily Archives: February 22, 2006

Gene Elston — the best Stros announcer, ever

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One of the biggest public relations blunders in Stros history was then-owner John McMullen’s decision in 1986 to fire Gene Elston, the first radio play-by-play announcer hired when the Stros club began as a Major League Baseball franchise in 1962.

Elston was the epitome of what a baseball announcer should be. His low-key, analytical, articulate and well-prepared approach resonated with Stros baseball fans, and McMullen’s ill-advised decision to fire the hugely popular Elston helped to cement McMullen’s fate as the second-most hated owner of a professional sports team in Houston (second only to the Oilers’ Bud Adams).

Elston was the antithesis of what is common among play-by-play announcers nowadays, who often substitute cheerleading for their employer over substance.

Inasmuch as Elston’s style was to go unnoticed, he is not well-known outside of Houston. But thankfully, that’s about to change as the 83 year-old Elston has been selected to receive the 2006 Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence from the National Baseball Hall of Fame (MLB.com article here). Elston will be honored during Hall of Fame induction weekend in late July in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Chronicle sportswriter John McClain — who has never even met Elston — contributes this fine column on how just listening to Elston strongly influenced his career, and provides the following insight into what made Elston’s style so compelling:

For those of you who weren’t fortunate enough to grow up with Gene Elston, here’s what you missed: He was the consummate professional who was admired and respected by just about everyone.

He wasn’t a homer. He could be critical without being mean. We knew we were getting an accurate and honest account of the game.

Elston wasn’t a screamer. He didn’t have a trademark phrase.

His style didn’t intrude on the action on the field. Truthfully, you hardly knew he was there, and yet he described the action in a way that made you feel as if you were sitting right next to him.

And he did it night after night for 25 years. From 1962 through 1986, there was nobody better than Elston.

And no matter how many more years the Astros do business, he’ll always be the best.

Baylor — the Notre Dame of Protestants?

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notredame2.jpgBayloy Bear.gifAccording to this Baptist Standard op-ed, Baylor University in Waco has a model for what type of university it should aspire to be, but I don’t think the model is the one that Martin Luther had in mind — the University of Notre Dame:

Since former university President Robert Sloan led the school to adopt its Baylor 2012 long-range plan and open its Institute for Faith & Learning, supporters have pointed to Notre Dame as an example of a religiously affiliated school that successfully integrates faith and learning.
They maintain Notre Dame generally has accomplished what Baylor wants to achieveórecognized status as a top-tier university without surrendering to secularism. . . .
Baylor could come become the kind of national university that the best and brightest Protestant students will dream of attending, said Doug Henry, director of Baylorís Institute for Faith & Learning.
ìBaylor can have the same sort of image for Protestants that Notre Dame has for Catholics” . . . Henry said. ìIt can become the most intellectually interesting place to be, and a place where serious, smart Protestant and Baptist students will want to come. . . . Iíd say weíre about 30 years behind Notre Dame in terms of endowment, facilities, faculty and national prestige.î

Make that more like 75 years behind in terms of the football team, though.

Good news and bad news for Milberg Weiss

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Milberg Weiss12.jpgThis NY Times article reports that Mel Weiss and Bill Lerach received good news and bad news earlier in the week regarding the longstanding criminal investigation against the two men and the Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman law firm over allegations of paying kickbacks in connection with class action lawsuits that the firm handled over the past decade.
The good news is that federal prosecutors have apparently informed Weiss and Lerach’s individual counsel that they will not seek an indictment against the two men.
The bad news is that the prosecutors still may go Arthur Andersen on the Milberg Weiss firm.
According to the Times article, two top Milberg Weiss partners — David Bershad and Steven Schulman — appear to be the main targets of the investigation. The heat on Milberg Weiss and its current and former partners was turned up last year when prosecutors indicted 78 year-old Seymour Lazar, a retired Southern California Palm Springs lawyer who was a plaintiff in at least 50 Milberg Weiss securities cases, with fraud and conspiracy. Prosecutors alleged that Lazar was involved in an alleged scheme with Milberg Weiss in which the firm secretly funneled him about $2.5 million for being the class representative in class action lawsuits that the firm handled. Lazar and Milberg Weiss contend that the payments were legal referral fees and deny that there was any effort to conceal them.
As noted in my previous posts on this matter, despite the irony that Weiss and Lerach are embroiled in a criminal investigation that is strikingly similar to the prosecution of agency costs that Weiss and Lerach profit from in connection with a good number of their class action securities fraud cases, I have great reservations about the government criminalizing the plaintiff’s lawyers’ conduct in these cases. Larry Ribstein shares those concerns, and notes with his usual keen insight:

To the extent that a goal of the case is to curtail securities class actions, this is not the way to do it. . . . Lerach and company are just products of the system that has been created by current law. Real reform requires changing the game, not just the players. How about this solution: getting rid of the ìfraud on the marketî theory?

Meanwhile, Bruce Carton has more on the ubiquitous Lerach in this second excerpt from Joseph C. Goulden’s new book, The Money Lawyers (previous excerpt here), which includes Lerach’s description of how his first meeting with Weiss transformed him from a boring Pittsburgh defense lawyer into an exciting plaintiff’s lawyer:

“Mel sat there like the complete master of the universe. He was barking orders right and left, saying which lawyer would do what, laying out the scenario for what would happen in court the next day. He was in complete charge, and all of us sat there saying, ‘Yes, Mel, you’re right, whatever you want. . . .’ Man, I was impressed. Mel was the smartest lawyer I had ever seen. I was used to dealing with the uptight, stuffy defense lawyers. Now I was definitely on the other side of the spectrum.”