My Pal, the Mud Hens Fan
Lloyd Thaxton passed away a few days ago, after a full and rewarding life. When you read the name, maybe your first thought was, "Who did he play for?" Knowing the topic usually discussed here, perhaps he was a teammate of DiMaggio, Berra and Rizzuto on Casey Stengel's Yankee teams. Actually, this is wise and witty man hosted TV's top daily syndicated dance show of the '60s, and then went onto a stellar crew as a TV producer.
We first met several years ago, when he was promoting STUFF HAPPENS, the excellent motivation book he co-wrote with John Alston. But he immediately treated me as if I were a lifelong friend. Always happy to share the insights forged through a six-decade career in T-V, sharing stages with rock and soul's most important names and a loyal group of teenagers who he brought "into the action" on his show, he was fascinated by a variety of subjects. Sure, baseball turned out to be one of them. A few years back, he told me, "I grew up in Toledo, Ohio and my favorite team (only team) was the Toledo Mud Hens. Because there was no TV, that was the only team I could actually see play. However, compared to the Mud Hens, the New York Yankees were the unseen gods."
Disappointed by what he recalled as the Bronx Bombers' stuck-up attitude when they played an exhibition game in his hometown, Thaxton switched his allegiance to the Chicago Cubs -- having gone to college at Northwestern Univeristy in the Windy City helped firm his ties.
His blog encompassed a wide range of subjects -- far more than baseball, dancing to the hits, or celebrating the time our generation bonded in front of a TV. Lloyd was as up on the current world as anyone, looking forward to his next project rather than celebration his past glories (and there were many). His genius included the talent to poke a hole in anything pretentious and show us how to never take anything too seriously, except for family.
Take moment while you're out surfin' the net, click on Lloyd's log, and soak in the wisdom of someone I was honored to call a friend.
http://lloydthaxton.blogspot.com
We first met several years ago, when he was promoting STUFF HAPPENS, the excellent motivation book he co-wrote with John Alston. But he immediately treated me as if I were a lifelong friend. Always happy to share the insights forged through a six-decade career in T-V, sharing stages with rock and soul's most important names and a loyal group of teenagers who he brought "into the action" on his show, he was fascinated by a variety of subjects. Sure, baseball turned out to be one of them. A few years back, he told me, "I grew up in Toledo, Ohio and my favorite team (only team) was the Toledo Mud Hens. Because there was no TV, that was the only team I could actually see play. However, compared to the Mud Hens, the New York Yankees were the unseen gods."
Disappointed by what he recalled as the Bronx Bombers' stuck-up attitude when they played an exhibition game in his hometown, Thaxton switched his allegiance to the Chicago Cubs -- having gone to college at Northwestern Univeristy in the Windy City helped firm his ties.
His blog encompassed a wide range of subjects -- far more than baseball, dancing to the hits, or celebrating the time our generation bonded in front of a TV. Lloyd was as up on the current world as anyone, looking forward to his next project rather than celebration his past glories (and there were many). His genius included the talent to poke a hole in anything pretentious and show us how to never take anything too seriously, except for family.Take moment while you're out surfin' the net, click on Lloyd's log, and soak in the wisdom of someone I was honored to call a friend.
http://lloydthaxton.blogspot.com
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