One more Bill King story. A friend writes:
My all-time Bill King story was from last summer on a slow day while the team was in Kansas City. (Are there ever any “fast” days there?). The Royals brought out an obscure relief pitcher named Burgos. Bill King’s comment was “Well, he may be the only Burgos in baseball…the only Burgos I recall was Raphael Frübeck de Burgos, a Spanish conductor who used to appear frequently with orchestras around the country.”
Not likely to hear a comment like that from Ken Korach, as much as we like him.
Sometimes I used to wonder if Bill was making that stuff up!
Say, one story I haven’t heard repeated since Bill’s passing was the time King, doing a Warriors game, grew so incensed at a ref, he called the guy a “mother f—er” on the air. It was always referred to as the “Mother’s Day” broadcast.
Incidentally, I’m pretty sure the target of King’s ire was Richie Powers, a squat little ref who King more than once said, on the air, suffered from a Napoleon complex.
I did read a reference to what I assumed was that incident, but in the course of turning King’s obit into hagiography, the stories said King “swore at” the ref on the air. The ref was identified as Ed Rush.
I can’t be sure who it was, but Ed also seemed to have his own “special” dictator. I KNOW Dick Bavetta fancies himself a modern day Sam Drucker.